An administration percentage becomes useful when it is connected to both an amount and an explanation. It describes a reported expense category, not a verdict on whether the organization is effective or wasteful. We have not relabeled separately reported governance or support costs as administration.
We compared reported expense categories to identify five high administration ratios and explain what the figures mean for a donor.
We excluded records with estimated core expense fields and those whose programme, administration and fundraising categories did not reconcile to total expenses. The calculation is administration expenses divided by total expenses, not revenue.
The publisher has confirmed the reported expense categories used here. We screened 100 qualifying records; this is a ranking within that group, not a claim about every Muslim charity worldwide.
How the expense ranking relates to the wider assessments
| Charity | Transparency score (%) | Program score (%) | Overhead score (%) | Completion score (%) | Halal score /10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Muslim Foster Care Association | 85% | 38% | 62% | 85% | 6.3 |
| Boston Islamic Seminary | 85% | 33% | 67% | 85% | 5.9 |
| An Noor Quran Academy | 85% | 27% | 73% | 85% | 6.4 |
| Faith Islamic Academy | 85% | 24% | 76% | 85% | 6.3 |
| Annur Islamic School | 85% | 23% | 77% | 85% | 5.7 |
Program, overhead, transparency and completion values are stored 0 to 100 assessment scores shown as percentages. They are not audited financial ratios, guarantees about how donations are spent or observed project-completion rates. All five have 85% transparency and 85% completion, so neither measure distinguishes them within this group. Their halal scores range from 5.7/10 to 6.4/10, while their funding, connection and legal checks all have recorded Pass outcomes.
That is an important distinction: a lower combined halal score is not automatically a documented impermissible-funding finding, and a Pass on those checks does not make a high administration share irrelevant. Annur has the highest ratio and the lowest halal score here, but the data does not establish that the expense ratio caused the score or that the charity failed a Shariah check.
5. Muslim Foster Care Association: 62.01%, FY2024
The FY2024 figures are $141,137 in administration expenses against $227,586 in total expenses.
Its listed work includes foster-family recruitment and training, placement services, and youth support. Specialist services have a different operating model from distributing donated goods.
At 62.01%, the recorded administration category accounts for about $62 of every $100 spent, leaving $86,449, or 37.99%, across the other expense categories. That is a large share and deserves an explanation. Recruitment, training and placement are central to the mission, but we cannot conclude from the label alone that all administration costs directly deliver those services, or that the care is poor.
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4. Boston Islamic Seminary: 67.38%, FY2024
The FY2024 figures are $457,219 in administration expenses against $678,553 in total expenses.
Listed projects include theological education, imam training and community education.
The 67.38% ratio leaves $221,334, or 32.62%, outside the administration category. For a donor, the significant question is how an educational institution divides teaching activity from institutional support. We do not have enough information here to explain why this split is so high. The reasonable conclusion is that the reported classification needs context, not that imam training has no value.
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3. An Noor Quran Academy: 72.74%, FY2021
The FY2021 figures are $524,813 in administration expenses against $721,504 in total expenses.
Its listed projects include a weekend school, Quran memorization and Arabic classes.
Its 72.74% administration share leaves $196,691, or 27.26%, across the remaining expense categories. In an organization whose listed purpose is classroom and Quran teaching, that makes the expense allocation particularly relevant to a donor. The FY2021 date matters: this is a historical ratio, not evidence that its current teaching budget has the same split.
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2. Faith Islamic Academy: 76.48%, FY2024
The FY2024 figures are $652,970 in administration expenses against $853,798 in total expenses.
Its listed work concerns Islamic schooling, Quran and Arabic studies, and character development.
At 76.48%, administration represents a little over three quarters of the recorded expense total, leaving $200,828, or 23.52%, for the other categories. That is the second-highest ratio in this screened group. It warrants asking what the category includes, but the figures do not establish how much classroom activity cost in practice or whether students received good teaching.
Stored entity and filing locator
1. Annur Islamic School: 76.82%, FY2025
The FY2025 figures are $608,238 in administration expenses against $791,741 in total expenses.
The remaining expense total is $183,503, or 23.18%. Its 76.82% administration share is the highest in the screened group, but only 0.34 percentage points above Faith Islamic Academy. That small gap should not be turned into a dramatic difference in value or quality. Both records show a high administration classification relative to total spending; neither, by itself, explains the reason.
Stored entity and filing locator
Read the breakdown, not only the percentage
The pattern worth noticing is the concentration of education organizations: four of the five entries concern schools or theological education. That makes expense classification a central issue in interpreting this list. We should not assume all four have the same explanation, but we also should not compare their support structures with a donated-goods distribution programme as if the work were identical.
Ask what the category includes, why it changed and what it supports. A high ratio can justify a request for explanation without establishing misconduct, poor service or misuse of donations.
Zakat+ Pro combines these percentages with the actual amounts and programme context. That matters because a high ratio is a reason for a clear explanation, not an automatic finding of waste, misconduct or poor educational quality.
