Purpose This study aims to identify optimal institutional configurations among nine alternatives combining three organizational forms (banks, cooperatives, venture capital) with three operational orientations (commercial, social, integrated) for waqf-based microfinance addressing energy poverty in Indonesia, where 7 million families lack adequate energy access despite abundant renewable resources. Design/methodology/approach Analytical network process (ANP) evaluates nine institutional models through structured interviews with 14 experts academics, practitioners and policymakers across Java, Sumatra and Eastern Indonesia. Robustness was validated via Monte Carlo simulation (10,000 iterations) and jackknife resampling. Findings The Integrated Waqf Micro Bank consistently outperforms all alternatives (priority weight 0.1573, 95% CI: 0.1420–0.1680), maintaining superiority in 94% of perturbation scenarios. Practitioners weight welfare impact (0.4739) significantly higher than experts (0.3501, p = 0.004). Java-based experts favour commercial orientations more strongly than Eastern Indonesia respondents (p = 0.031). Practical implications Three interventions are prioritized: an Energy Waqf Technical Assistance Facility within the Indonesian Waqf Board, five-year regulatory sandbox licenses and blended capital guarantees covering 30%–40% portfolio risk. Administrators should pursue institutional partnerships over independent development and adopt phased revenue models aligned with community income patterns. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first quantitative stakeholder-informed analysis of waqf-based energy poverty financing, reconciling theological perpetuity obligations with commercial sustainability through dynamic corpus preservation. Integrated hybrid models are shown to serve rather than contradict Maqasid Shariah in infrastructure financing contexts.
Sari et al. (Wed,) studied this question.