Short answer
Zakat pays for people, not projects. It must reach eligible people from the eight groups in Quran 9:60, mostly poor and needy Muslims and people in debt, as their own property. It can cover their food, rent, bills, debts, medical care and study costs, but not buildings, hospitals, wells or salaries.
Zakat is only paid when it is handed into the ownership (tamlik) of an eligible person, or spent at that person's request on their behalf. Money spent on things no one owns, such as a masjid, road, well or hospital building, does not count, and the zakat is still owed.
The four schools agree on this.
Explanation
The Quran names the people who receive zakat: the poor, the needy, those who collect it, those whose hearts are to be won over, captives, people in debt, those in the cause of Allah, and stranded travellers (9:60). Every group is made of people. The who can receive zakat checker explains each one.
The Hanafi school adds a condition: the recipient must come to own what you give. Once it is theirs, they may spend it on any lawful need. So zakat can pay for:
- Cash or food parcels for a poor family.
- Rent, gas or electricity arrears, paid to the landlord or company at the family's request.
- Clearing the debts of someone who cannot pay them.
- A poor patient's treatment (see zakat for medical treatment).
- A poor student's fees and books (see zakat for education).
- Tents, food and clothes handed to disaster victims.
Zakat cannot pay for:
- Building or running a masjid, school or hospital (see zakat and the masjid).
- Wells, roads or other public works as projects.
- Staff salaries, office costs and fundraising of a private charity.
- Shrouding and burying the dead.
- Animals or animal shelters.
The four schools agree that zakat goes to the eight groups and not to public works. When you give through an organisation, ask how it spends zakat and whether it keeps a separate fund (see paying zakat through a charity). Good projects that zakat cannot fund are a fine use of your voluntary sadaqah.
The evidence
Quran, Surah At-Tawba 9:60
۞ إِنَّمَا ٱلصَّدَقَٰتُ لِلْفُقَرَآءِ وَٱلْمَسَٰكِينِ وَٱلْعَٰمِلِينَ عَلَيْهَا وَٱلْمُؤَلَّفَةِ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَفِى ٱلرِّقَابِ وَٱلْغَٰرِمِينَ وَفِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ وَٱبْنِ ٱلسَّبِيلِ ۖ فَرِيضَةًۭ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌۭ ﴿٦٠﴾
Zakah expenditures are only for the poor and for the needy and for those employed to collect [zakah] and for bringing hearts together [for Islam] and for freeing captives [or slaves] and for those in debt and for the cause of Allah and for the [stranded] traveler - an obligation [imposed] by Allah. And Allah is Knowing and Wise.
The verse limits zakat to eight groups of people.
Sahih al-Bukhari 1395
Sahih... تؤخذ من أغنيائهم وترد على فقرائهم ...
"It is taken from their rich and given back to their poor."
Zakat moves from people with wealth to people in need.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Hidaya, Kitab al-Zakat, chapter on those to whom zakat may be given. A masjid may not be built and the dead may not be shrouded with zakat, because no one is made its owner.
- Radd al-Muhtar, Kitab al-Zakat, chapter on the recipients (bab al-masrif). Tamlik is a condition; paying a poor person's debt at his request counts.
Checked by our team. For a more accurate answer to your own situation, consult a scholar. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.