Ultimately, there is no correct answer to whether or not you should attach your name to your donations – it’s entirely a personal choice. However, there are valid arguments for either option.

People who want their donations to bear their names often want the recognition that comes with giving, but sometimes there’s a deeper motive. By making your donation public knowledge, you’re setting an example for others – saying, in effect, that this is a worthy cause to which your peers can and ought to donate. To some people, giving anonymously can feel like they’re somehow ashamed of their donation or that they don’t want to own up to it. Public donors want to give the exact opposite impression.

People who do decide to give anonymously often believe they are being more genuinely altruistic by doing so. If they give privately, they get no recognition for giving, and some people think this makes their motives more pure. In addition, some people who want to give outside their own foundation or organization choose to donate to other causes anonymously, basically in order to avoid the question, “If your organization is so great, why are you giving to another one, instead of sending all you can spare to your own cause?” (The answer, of course, is that there are always multiple causes worthy of attention, and you can’t necessarily be involved on an administrative level in all of them.) Since you’re already doing good by giving in the first place, choosing whether to be anonymous or not is basically a win-win situation – just pick whatever option, in your opinion, makes a good thing even better.

Tags: anonymous giving, charity, donating, philanthropy