I leave my “Blood. It’s in you to give” insulated bag in the fridge at work. Appetizing thought! 
A month ago, my family was selected and honored by the San Antonio Food Bank as their 2016 Family Volunteer of the Year. You can trust me that this went on my Facebook page, my LinkedIn page, my Twitter account, gets mentioned, etcetera.
We also organize school trips to the food bank (30 kids, 10 parents, 4 hours of work each), are the President Volunteer Service Award leaders for our daughters schools (we arrange volunteer activities for groups of up to 150 kids) and make sure they receive their PVSA awards at the end of the school year for their volunteer work - last year, the kids did over 4,000 hours of service, and we have done this for 5 years now.
So, what I’m trying to say is that if we were quiet about our volunteer efforts, the rest would not have happened. The kids, their awards, the group activities, the school dedicating 2015 as the Year of Service, etc.
And, trust me, this would not have happened without my wife, who deserves the credit and recognition.
This is why I do make mention of my charitable giving. I work in a field where people can make some pretty good money, and I set a donation target based on a percentage of income a couple of years ago. I don’t make a huge deal of it, but I do occasionally mention it to my co-workers to try to kind of nudge them in that direction as well.
I tend not to tell a lot of people, unless trying to solicit donations. If one is able, a little generosity uplifts everyone. Yet I don’t understand when the news reports actor X paid for someone’s coffee or tipped $50… Good for actor X, hopefully inspires someone, but news?
We tell the IRS, meaning we tell the charity our name in order to get a letter of confirmation to show the IRS if audited. For relatively big donations that is, adding to a significant % of income. If I toss a $20 into the jar at the stand at the town fair for my dog’s former shelter, no I don’t tell anyone besides whoever saw it. And we don’t discuss our bigger donations other than for tax purposes, except in discussion with our grown kids about what they want to think about giving, because they ask.
No I do not, not even the IRS!
I assume nobody cares, so I don’t tell them.
I mostly keep it to myself, it’s nobody else’s business where and how much I donate. I am quite sure I donate to some charities and causes that other people would find offensive because these days, there’s always someone who’s got to be offended by something!
Yep, this is why I mention it too. Not amounts, just things like, “Oh, that sign reminds me that since it’s almost the holidays I’d better make my donation to the NH food bank this week. I like how they do good work right here in New Hampshire,” “Hey, let’s pick out donation books while we’re at Michaels, they’re only a dollar,” or “Have you ever heard of Project Heifer? I donated a flock of chicks in my mother’s name for Mother’s Day, and I think I’ll donate both ducklings and chicks at Christmas since she loved ducks too. If you’re ever looking for a charity you should check out their website - they help women become self-sufficient in developing countries and they’ve got all sorts of things you can donate at various prices. Like those llamas you like :)”
And right now at work everyone is mentioning their donations because we’ve adopted 3 families that are tangentially tied to various disabilities groups that we’re part of, and we’re working off wish lists.
As a rule, no, I don’t mention my giving or volunteer efforts outside of my immediate family. I’d also rather any recognition go to someone else. YMMV, of course, but that is the way I like it.
Almost never beyond the immediate family. It’s possible I might have occasionally posted “OK - made my contribution” or some such in one of the help-a-Doper thread but I think normally I don’t even do that.
To me, it would just smack of shouting “See, I did a Good Thing. I’m such a WONDERFUL PERSON. Admire me!!!”.
Now, to be fair, I do tell the IRS when appropriate :D.
Even with those, though, the recipient knows, right? I mean, I’ve donated as anonymous but I thought that just meant the web page doesn’t display your name to other donors.
It depends. Normally not so much, but paradoxically, I can’t illustrate without a list of examples.
I might tell someone I have a relationship with if it’s germane to the conversation (“Yes, we donated to Planned Parenthood, but I wasn’t comfortable with the ‘do it in Pence’s name’ thing”), or I might say that we aim to donate at least x% of our income, or I might say something to a group of potential donors (“Here’s why we donate to sponsor a child’s education in Country X”). I definitely will let people know when I’m fundraising for a particular cause and how they can donate, which implies at least a donation of my time and effort if not money. Last week I mentioned in one online venue that making donations to groups we support was part of our post-election response, and that we made so many in such a short time that our credit card was frozen by the fraud department for suspicious activity, but I revealed this as a cautionary tale to someone about to do the same, suggesting that they call their card company before donating to alert them. For GoFundMe and online donations, I usually make it anonymous or instruct that they not use my name. For my schools’ alumni funds and local non-profits, I allow the use of my name but I don’t go out of my way to point it out to anyone. If I donate in honor of someone, I do ask that they be notified, though not always of the amount.
On the other hand, if you tell people about giving charity, it’s not considered a mitzvah, and though I don’t think the FSM is that much of a bean counter, there’s something to be said for doing things because it’s the right thing to do, not because other people’s approval makes me feel good.
I keep records for the taxman, but, otherwise, no. There was one charity that listed my name as a donor (without my permission), but, fortunately, not the amount.
In the same vein many organizations publish lists of donors, which you typically have to positively opt out of. My small undergraduate alma mater does this, brackets of donations and totals per class though not specific amount. And this is a fairly small community where most people still have some contact with classmates decades later. The guys I know involved in the fund raising say openly it’s partly to generate healthy competition, among individuals or classes (this year we surpassed the class two years ahead of us, the two classes quite disliked either other back then, yeah! ). I’ve been asked to top up my contribution into the next category (it was just below the limit) to inspire other classmates. Nothing wrong with this IMO if one agrees the cause is a good one. And you can opt out, or obviously you can not give and not pay any attention to the annual report.
On people not telling the IRS, I would view that differently if say somebody doesn’t report contributions 10%+ of their income. I don’t know why anyone would not report in that case, but anyway I’d view it differently than somebody who doesn’t report donations but benefits more from the standard deduction anyway, or whose contributions are a de minimis % of income.