After attaining professional success and wealth, Anas Osman, a technology entrepreneur and executive, turned to philanthropy. He wanted to help other Muslim Americans embrace the opportunities in the United States.

So he and some friends from Chicago, who had also achieved financial success, came up with an idea that was decidedly unconventional. They didn’t want to build an app for charity or introduce a new metric for giving. Instead, Mr. Osman and his friends, all Muslim Americans, created a model that more closely resembled a 19th-century benevolent society.

Their organization, the Pillars Fund, would hark back to what similar groups did for Irish, Italian and Chinese immigrants: support organizations working in an ethnic community while trying to counter negative perceptions.

The organization started in 2010 as a donor-advised fund, an investment vehicle created to manage donations on behalf of charities. It was set up at the Chicago Community Trust, a community foundation in their hometown, Mr. Osman said. In the first year, it received a matching grant from a group founded by George Russell, whose company created the Russell stock indexes.