I talk about donations to encourage others to do so. A couple of times I have discussed what a sucker I was to give people money. I prefer to donate anonymously but sometimes you just have to give the money to the person. Recently a colleague died suddenly at a young age, someone started an online fund-raiser for his family, and most of the donations including mine weren’t anonymous, I assume others like me wanted to let his family know that we all cared.
I tend to be one of the anonymous donations on GoFundMe pages. That said, I will pose for a group photo for volunteer gigs in hopes of getting others involved.
40/40/20 Sometimes I will let the person know, sometimes post to the thread. And now and again I just stand mute. No hard and fast rule, I just play it case by case.
It inspired this thread, but it is not a direct example of the OP (except insofar as the video shows someone donating, and then the guy posts his video online for all to see). But that’s the way I think. Things make me think of other things, and there you are.
I have no idea if the video is real, or if it’s staged. Doesn’t matter for the purposes of this thread. I will say this though: Once I was waiting to make a left turn off of Venice when I lived in L.A. A homeless guy (with a sign) was at the median, and he asked me for money. I told him I didn’t have any (I actually didn’t have any), and he said, ‘Oh. Can I help you out?’ and reached for some money he had. I told him I can use plastic until payday, but thanks anyway.
I don’t tell anyone else. What matters is that I know.
This is the same as playing a game fair and square as opposed to cheating. I know I won fair and square - that is what matters.
FWIW.
Regards,
Shodan
Some are anonymous, some are semi-anonymous, most are not either one. If it’s to be used for tax deductions, there needs to be some sort of paper trail. The semi-anonymous thing we do is to provide weekend and holiday lunches for elementary children at our local school. We have 23 this year. The parents and children have no idea who we are, but of course the school officials must, and do. Another is donating micro loans through Kiva, and we choose to remain anonymous to the recipients.
It’s hard to come up with a truly anonymous situation, as donations normally go by credit card or check. There is a local program for the homeless, who sell a newspaper called “Street Roots” on street corners. All the money goes to them and it’s cash, so I guess that’s anonymous.
I’ve heard from fundraising professionals that the best motivator to get others to give is to let them know you have given. Much more effective than simply asking for donations. Thus, when I was trying to raise money from a group for scholarships, I sent out an email to the group stating that I just gave $X.
Otherwise, I don’t tell anyone.
I’ve gotten into the habit over the years of always making donations anonymously. The main reason, albeit a selfish one, is that I hate being labeled as a “mark” for future donations by numerous charities. Seems once you make a single donation you are suddenly inundated with junk mail and phone calls endlessly.
I tell as many people as possible. How else would they know I am a good person?
Keep it to myself, and ask the recipient to keep me anonymous. For me it just feels better that way.
When I donate through work (the federal government Combined Federal Campaign), I let them tell the companies that I donated, mainly so I can get “thank you gifts” (the San Francisco Symphony sent me a CD one year, and I also got a T-shirt from Achilles International), but usually I don’t tell anybody else…er, until now.
If it comes up in a conversation about charitable giving, I’ll tell people who I donate to, but otherwise I don’t generally go around talking about it…I don’t make it a point to necessarily keep it secret though.
I do make certain to tell the government about it in great detail once a year, usually in February or March
It depends on who, when, why, and so forth.
Sometimes I mention it, rather more often I don’t.
We’ve had threads about panhandling and a couple times I’ve mentioned giving to a street person, but more often I don’t. But in those kinds of threads I’ve wanted to explain why I made an exception.
I think charity doesn’t promote itself.
I do sometimes wish I was rich, I’d like to endow a full nursing scholarship, named for my mom. It’s how she got through nursing school.
Usually I don’t tell anyone. However, if a person I’m close to loses a pet, I make a donation to the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Science in memory of the pet, and direct the U of I to let the person know I’ve done so.
If it weren’t for the need to track this for my taxes, I’d make cash donations. I hate getting a bazillion solicitations, not only from the charity I donated to but often from similar ones they apparently sold my name to. If I ever find myself in the position to give serious money to a charity, I’d make it clear that if I got any solicitations from them or that could be tracked to them, I’d never give them another dollar.
I swear, there are some organizations to which I’ve given relatively small amounts (usually in one of those “in lieu of flowers, the family of the deceased asks that donations be given to xyz” situations) where the number of return address labels, refrigerator magnets, glossy brochures, etc. that I’ve received had to have cost them more than the money I gave.
I usually don’t mention it for cash donations unless it is in someone’s name for a funeral or something. I have donated anonymously many times to help cover funeral expenses of young people or others whose families needs the help. The funeral home knows, but I always say to put it down as anonymous. I do talk about blood donations, but that is to encourage others who can to donate. I might casually mention taking 3 bags of clothes to a thrift store but that is for the praise for getting rid of stuff, not for my amazing charitable deeds :D.
Recently someone offered to anonymously match contributions for my church’s building fund dollar for dollar up to 75K! Now, THAT is SOME anonymous contribution. Usually, for that kind of money, people want their name on something! (so far we have raised 50 K with one week to go!)
Yes; on-line giving is convenient but there isn’t an easy way to opt out of future mailings which are pretty much guaranteed. And I know my info has been shared/sold because now I get umpteen mailings from similar places.
I always use a fake phone number and the house phone isn’t in my name, but somehow I have still gotten a couple of calls. I avoid the phone like the plague so that is particularly annoying.
I tell people about donating blood, because I figure it might encourage them to do the same.
I will tell where I donate if it come up in conversation. I will not initiate that conversation nor divulge how much I donate. Charitable giving is a very personal matter to me.
I donate to local charities with a focus on maximum impact on feeding and housing those in need near me. These are my choices and far from the only useful way to contribute to the world.
To answer the question more succinctly? No. I do not tell when I donate.
It always comes up when someone visits our home, as we have a large pile of foodstuffs in the dining area that is just the tip of the iceberg (the bulk of the lunch food is in the basement). People always ask what it’s about and we explain what we are doing. This is food that we can’t put in the basement, as it would be susceptible to rodents (mac/cheese, oatmeal packets, etc.). We always get an odd look from maintenance people who have to enter the basement and then see the cases of Chef Boyardee, soup and chili, and then have to explain that no, we’re not hoarders, and blahblahblah.
I see nothing wrong with encouraging others to be charitable, so have no compunction about telling them what we do. There’s too much lip service in this country and not enough action.