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Many times, people collect money during davening, including during the blessings of the Shema, and the custom is to give during that time. Is it permissible to give during this time?
The interruptions allowed during this time seem to be for kavod haadam, tzorchei tefillah and avoiding bizayon haTorah. Where does giving tzedakah stand?
The video I linked in the comments, like @sam said, is Rav Elyashiv zt'l answering this very question which was asked by the Tomchei Tzedakah Of Lakewood. He says (according to my translation as well as others who have listened) that you are not obligated to give Tzedakah during this time because you are currently in the process of a Mitzvah (Shema), a very important one at that, and therefore you must concentrate on doing that Mitzvah (reciting Shema) and not stop to give Tzedakah. He goes on to say that people should not be collecting during the time of Krias Shema and he says that they shouldn't be collecting during Birkos Krias Shema.
In Halichos Shlomo 7:4, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt"l notes:
מה שנתפשט שמסבבין לאסוף מעות לצדקה גם בזמן שאסור להפסיק, לא טוב הדבר, כי ע"י כך מבטלים את המתפללים מתפלתם ומכוונתם
Those that spread out and go around gathering money for a tzedoko also in a time when it is forbidden to interrupt is not a good thing because in so doing, they (lit. annul) disturb those davening from their prayers and their kavanah (intention).
In note dalet of the 'dvar halacha' section he elaborates by bringing the Mishnah Berurah 96:1 who quotes the Pri Megadim that the issue that Shulchan Aruch1 mentions (about not holding something - which includes money, during one's tefillah as it will leave the person distracted) is specifically during krias shema and pesukei d'zimra, and as such one shouldn't interrupt at this point.
Indeed Rav Chaim Kanievsky shlita in Derech Emunah, Matnas Aniyim, Perek 10 in the Tziyun HaHalacha 96 raises the point mention by @Shalom in the comments above:
ואפשר דאין חייבין ליתן להם דהעוסק במצוה פטור מן המצוה וכן באמצע התפילה
And it is possible that one is not obligated to give them since one who is occupied in a mitzvah is exempt from (another) mitzvah, and similarly (this applies when) in the middle of prayer.
1 It writes there:
כשהוא מתפלל לא יאחוז בידו תפילין ולא ספר מכתבי הקודש ולא קערה מלאה ולא סכין ומעות וככר מפני שלבו עליהם שלא יפלו ויטרד ותתבטל
When one is praying, one should not hold in one's hand tefillin, and not a book of holy writings, and not a full plate, and not a knife, or money, or a loaf [of bread] because one's heart is [focused] on them that they should not fall, and one will be distracted and will lose one's focus. (Sefaria translation)
Also note this idea in Gemara Brachos 23b - thanks @Kazi bácsi.
