A relatively new charity, with close Minnesota ties, is generating headlines for its worldwide impact.
The nonprofit Human Development Fund (HDF), incorporated in Pennsylvania, received its tax-exempt status from the IRS in February 2023. In just the first year of operation, HDF, now based in Michigan, raised more than $34 million in donations for its global charitable work.
In its diverse portfolio of programs, HDF reports operating in some 27 countries, serving millions of meals, among other charitable efforts. HDF’s signature effort is in Gaza relief.
HDF’s work has attracted celebrity endorsements, none more prominent than a trio of National Football League (NFL) stars, who included the charity in their “My Cause, My Cleats” campaign last season.
Of the three, perhaps the most controversial support for HDF came from Azeez Al-Shaair, a linebacker for the Houston Texans. During this past season’s playoffs, it was reported,
Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair sported eye black with the message ‘stop the genocide’ during Sunday’s NFL Playoff game against the New England Patriots, despite being penalized for it the previous week.
The NFL slapped Al-Shaair with an $11,593 fine for breaking the uniform and equipment rules by showcasing the message during the Wild Card win over the Pittsburgh Steelers last week.
The Minnesota connections to HDF were first reported last month in the Washington Free Beacon, under the headline,
NFL Stars Fundraise for Islamic Charity Tied to Minnesota’s Feeding Our Future Fraud Scandal
The Free Beacon reports,
NFL-backed Human Development Fund shares an address with shell company featured in fraud scandal, among other links
The Free Beacon is referring the HDF’s Minnesota office (report p. 40), located on American Boulevard in Bloomington. (HDF’s primary corporate office is located in Canton, MI, a Detroit suburb, west of Dearborn.)
HDF’s Bloomington address is an exact match to the multi-tenant building that once housed Afrique Hospitality Group, a company owned by now-convicted-felon Mukhtar Shariff, Defendant No. 21 in the Feeding Our Future case.
Shariff was convicted following a 2024 courtroom trial and was sentenced to serve 17 years in federal prison. During the trial, the Minnesota Reformer reported on some of the witnesses testifying on behalf of Mr. Shariff. Both witnesses are associated with the Dar Al Farooq mosque located in Bloomington, MN. The Reformer reported,
The mosque’s director, Khalid Omar, and imam, Abdirahman Kariye, testified that they saw long lines of cars there to pick up bags of groceries. Omar said he wasn’t sure exactly how many people got food, but said thousands per day was accurate.
The two gentlemen were vouching for the food distribution operation conducted at the mosque. The food site was registered to another Feeding Our Future defendant (No. 17), Mahad Ibrahim. According to court records Ibrahim’s Dar Al Farooq site claimed almost $5 million in meal reimbursements from taxpayers.
Unfortunately for Shariff, the jury sided against the defendant on that point. Ibrahim himself would later plead guilty to his role in the scheme.
As it turns out, Omar and Kariye are two of the top executives behind the new Human Development Fund. Kariye serves as HDF’s CEO and Omar serves as Director of Operations.
Joining Kariye on the five-member HDF board is Ahmed Nur Hudle, who also serves as the Executive Director for Success Academy, a public charter K-8 school located on the Dar Al Farooq campus in Bloomington. The Academy has certainly been a big success, taking in more than $35 million in taxpayer support since its founding a decade ago.
Kariye continues to serve as an imam with Dar Al Farooq. For tax purposes, the mosque is organized as the nonprofit corporation Al Jazari Institute, for which Omar serves as lead director.
I reported previously that Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison returned to the U.S. Dept. of Justice a $2,500 campaign donation Ellison had received from Omar. In this 2021 photo taken by Ellison (far left) at Dar Al Farooq, Omar can be seen crouching, 3rd from the right.
Among those organizations that Dar Al Farooq includes on its list of partner groups are HDF and Al Jazari, along with the political nonprofit Isaiah, the Islamic University of Minnesota in Fridley, and the Miftaah Institute in Warren, Michigan.
HDF has published annual reports and filed tax returns for 2023 and 2024 (2025 reports are not yet available). Through the end of 2024, HDF collected revenue of just over $34 million. Half of that amount was represented by in-kind donations (over $16 million in medical supplies) and nonfinancial assets. The other $17 million collected consisted of cash and financial assets.
In 2024, HDF sent out over $2,700,000 in overseas aid, with more than $2 million of that going to the Middle East.
HDF also did well by doing good, regranting well over $1 million to Dar Al Farooq partner organizations,
In addition, in 2024, HDF paid Kariye $137,000 in salary.
Unless specified above, no person or organization mentioned above has been accused of any wrongdoing.
