Since Muhammadiyah was found, waqf is the most important instrument for empowering the economy of Indonesian people. Currently, it has been indicating as the biggest Waqf Nazir in the world. This awqaf are largely for education institutions, hospitals, news & information, masjids, orphanages, empty lands, markets, financial institutions and cash waqf. The paper aims to propose a design for Muhammadiyah productive waqf which actually could generate optimum benefit. In general, Economic problem optimizing design is mainly discussed from the conventional perspective. Muhammadiyah, as Da’wa organization-based institutions, have inherent characteristics that differ from other endowment institution. This is the main reason to study the problem of optimizing the benefit of waqf from an Islamic perspective which could alleviate the poverty. The research method in this study is qualitative. Examples are taken from Muhammadiyah waqf institutions in Yogyakarta-Indonesia. To gather information, in-depth interviews were conducted and observations were made. The results appear to show that instead of having introduced financial institution, hospital and educational institution, on general, the Muhammadiyah waqf asset are still managed mainly based on traditional model such as mosques and empty-lands which were have obstacles in optimizing their benefits. This may due to Muhammadiyah waqf institutions having unique characteristics, since they are highly dependent on Muhammadiyah volunteer and less professional nadzir (internal factors); and lack of public understanding on productive waqf, as well as government support (external factors). Both are causing Muhammadiyah waqf institutions have to be more “creative” in order to survive in an unconducive environment.