Creating a new category of Muslim giving for maternal & newborn survival.
The world’s first Zakat-approved Muslim collaborative dedicated to maternal & newborn health
Every Ramadan, billions of dollars move through zakat and sadaqah. Maternal and newborn health, however, had never become a recognizable category of Muslim giving. Dr. Alaa Murabit saw an opportunity to change that: not by building another charity, but by creating the architecture through which Muslim philanthropies could finance maternal and newborn survival together.
The idea had been with her for years, shaped by a long history of working alongside faith leaders on health. The Gates Foundation became the place where she could institutionalize and test it at scale: she presented the concept to the Foundation's co-chairs in December 2022, before a platform or team existed. Dr. Murabit created For Mama — now Every Pregnancy — designing it as a coalition shaped with Muslim communities to move faith-aligned capital toward maternal and newborn survival.
A category philanthropy & development had overlooked.
Every two minutes, a mother is lost to preventable causes. Dr. Murabit had seen it up close — as a physician in Libya, in the Rohingya camps of Cox's Bazar, in northern Nigeria, Yemen, and Sudan, and as UN High-Level Commissioner on Health Employment and Economic Growth. Many Muslim-majority countries — particularly those affected by conflict and fragility — carry exceptionally high maternal mortality burdens that traditional philanthropy consistently overlooked. Yet across the billions given every Ramadan, maternal and newborn health was largely absent as a recognizable category of Muslim giving.
Build the giving category, not another charity.
For Mama was designed as shared infrastructure for Muslim philanthropy: a Zakat-approved coalition that made maternal and newborn health a recognizable cause for Muslim giving, pooled the reach of existing organizations, leveraged matching capital to mobilize more giving, and turned an annual Ramadan campaign into durable financing for maternal and newborn survival.
An idea years in the making.
Dr. Murabit developed the idea that became For Mama before joining the Gates Foundation, shaped over years of work at the intersection of maternal health, faith, philanthropy and community-led organizing. In 2022, she brought the concept into the Foundation and developed the strategy, organizational model, Zakat-approval pathway, partner architecture and financing mechanism. After months of development, she presented the proposal to the Foundation’s co-chairs in December 2022 — before any platform or team existed — and secured the institutional backing and catalytic financing needed to build it at scale.
Those principles were present from the beginning: Muslim-led, Zakat-approved, additive to existing organizations rather than competitive with them, and designed to turn episodic giving into lasting financing for maternal and newborn health.
For Mama takes shape.
Dr. Murabit hired Isra Chaker as a consultant to serve as Campaign Lead, operationalize the campaign and support community consultations. In June 2023, Muslim philanthropic actors gathered in Seattle, where Dr. Murabit presented the mission, goals and theory of change, and partners helped shape its implementation. For Mama launched publicly with an awareness campaign in September 2023.
The first public For Mama Ramadan campaign.
Dr. Murabit continued to lead For Mama through 2024, advancing its strategy, coalition and financing model as the platform moved from its initial launch into its first major Ramadan campaign and beyond. The campaign brought together 21 Muslim and faith-inspired organizations across North America and the U.K., reached 100 million+ people, engaged supporters in 130+ countries, and raised $13M+ against a $9M target. The coalition also held its second partner convening, and Dr. Murabit secured the financing and match mechanism for the 2025 campaign before the initiative’s transition to independence.
“I am so glad you persisted and tried this.”
Designing for independence.
Dr. Murabit continued to lead For Mama through January 2025, including its transition from a Gates Foundation initiative into the fiscally sponsored institution that became Every Pregnancy. Before departing the Foundation, she set the transition strategy, secured its financing and 2025 match fund, and appointed Isra Chaker as CEO to lead the organization.
The 2025 campaign — designed and financed before Dr. Murabit's departure — raised $21M+, reaching 500,000+ mothers and babies with critical health services.
She designed the institution to outlast her. For Mama was the movement; Every Pregnancy was the institution built to carry it forward. The Sacred Capital ↗ framework behind it continues to shape Dr. Murabit's work.
Independent growth.
Under independent leadership, the Every Pregnancy coalition enters its third Ramadan campaign with 50+ faith-aligned partners and mobilizes more than $91 million, with more than 192,000 donors participating worldwide. By the end of the campaign, the coalition has grown to 65+ organizations, scaling the model and infrastructure first built through For Mama.
The barrier to strategically mobilizing and directing faith-aligned capital at scale is never generosity. It is architecture.
From the archive.
Original materials from For Mama’s development and transition into Every Pregnancy.
"Dr. Alaa Murabit conceptualized a pioneering Muslim philanthropic collaborative fund… creating For Mama."Read the page →
"What began as an idea and vision by @alaamurabit while at the @gatesfoundation…"Read the announcement →
Describing how she became involved in For Mama, Campaign Lead Isra Chaker recalled:
"I was in conversation with Dr. Alaa Murabit…"The IRUSA interview →
"The 'For Mama' campaign is the first time Muslim organizations have united to raise awareness in our community about the importance of mothers' and babies' health."
Her own post announcing For Mama during its September 2023 public awareness launch.
View original post →
"A movement is born."
The original For Mama campaign site, preserved by the Internet Archive.
View archived site →
"Dr. Alaa Murabit… created and launched For Mama in 2022 (now Every Pregnancy)."
Case study in Reproductive Health at a Turning Point, a Gates Foundation–supported publication by Global Perspectives, Berlin.
View publication →For researchers, journalists, or partners seeking additional archival materials relating to the creation of For Mama and Every Pregnancy, please get in touch.
15 years of work on faith, power and capital.
Long before For Mama, Dr. Murabit's work examined how faith shapes legitimacy, trust and collective action.
On working through mosques, religious authorities and local organizations to change norms from within communities.
Read →On religious authority as a source of power — and why development actors cannot treat faith as peripheral to social change.
Read →On faith, organized religion and the distribution of power — drawing directly from the experience of building the Voice of Libyan Women.
Read →Every Pregnancy exists because the capital was always there. Now the architecture is too.