Executive Director
Halil Demir
Halil Demir has dedicated his life to giving voice to the unheard, delivering hope to the distressed, and imploring for peace in some of the world’s most challenging places.
Demir’s authenticity is grounded in his own life story. Born in a remote village in Southeastern Turkey, he experienced poverty firsthand. He taught himself to read at an early age, and his thirst for knowledge led him to Switzerland, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Sociology. He then went to the United States, where he obtained master’s degrees in Nonprofit Management and History, and he participated in Harvard University's Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management Executive Education Program. Along the way, Demir became fluent in six languages. As he worked to support his family, he also became an impassioned advocate for social justice, tolerance, decency, and human rights.
Demir fundamentally understood that a collective effort to directly and strategically deliver resources, education, and services to distressed and often overlooked communities could be transformative.
In 2001, he founded the Zakat Foundation of America. Inspired by the Muslim practices of zakat (yearly obligatory almsgiving) and sadaqah (charity) and by Islam’s principles of stewardship and service to humanity, he positioned Zakat Foundation of America to be a ladder in humanitarian aid. Today, Zakat Foundation of America operates in 50 countries, fostering charitable giving to alleviate the immediate needs of poor communities and to establish long-term development projects that ensure individual and community growth. It uses sustainable methods and models in the spirit of cooperative internationalism that is essential in an increasingly unstable world.
His work as a humanitarian has led him to more than 35 countries, interacting with other exemplary leaders in the field. It has drawn him to the front lines, where he connects with children, women, and men – the orphaned and widowed, refugees, the displaced, and the disenfranchised – who hunger not only for basic needs but for hope, justice, and peace. He understands that hope and empowerment are powerful forces against radicalism.
As Zakat Foundation of America’s Executive Director, Demir oversees the foundation’s dynamic portfolio of grant support and programming in the United States and abroad, including refugee support, mental health services, education, disaster relief, and food assistance. Among many accomplishments, ZFA has a proven track record for successfully navigating the complexities of politics and diverse cultural norms in the Middle East and the globe.
Demir has been at the forefront of humanitarian advocacy and aid, overseeing the establishment of schools, including Zahra University, completely staffed by and serving refugees on the Turkish-Syrian border who are displaced by war and violence. It has provided a dynamic teaching and learning environment for academics in exile. He has spearheaded the establishment of orphanages, vocational training programs, health clinics, and mental health centers around the world, serving some of the neediest and most neglected communities. Zakat Foundation of America has constructed water wells, orphan care and education centers, mosques, community centers, greenhouses, and solar energy projects in (North and Sub-Saharan) Africa, (South and Southeast) Asia, the Middle East, and the United States. It has delivered hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency humanitarian aid to survivors of wars and natural disasters.
Demir has chronicled some of these humanitarian aid stories and his reflections on the bureaucratic and societal gauntlet in becoming an international, Muslim-founded and run humanitarian charity in a post-9/11 America and world in 9 Myths About Muslim Charities: Stories from the Zakat Foundation of America.
Demir not only manages Zakat Foundation of America but also serves as a board member for other social justice and social service organizations, including the YMCA. He has appeared on many international and national television programs and Newspaper, including CNN, NBC, FOX TV, Newsweek, NPR, TRT, PTI of Pakistan, Wall Street Journal and many others.
His work has been recognized and awarded by more than twenty national and International organizations.
