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The Donor Without a Name
by Ashley High Even as charities look for new contributors to fund them through this recession, many donors are becoming hard to find. Data from The Chronicle of Philanthropy and reports from fundraisers and advisors has increasingly shown that many more people are choosing to give anonymously.
During the past eleven months, 19% of gifts worth $1 million or more were given anonymously in comparison to the 3-5% of large gifts that were made anonymously in the past decade.
Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy has conducted many studies over the past twenty years and has found that the top two reasons donors give anonymously is to avoid solicitations from other charities and to keep the gift a secret from family and friends.
The recession has only added more reasons for donors to give secretly. For one, people do not want to stand out with flashy gifts. One woman said publicly announcing a large gift would be “unseemly and gauche” because so many people are suffering right now. Secondly, some people are only able to give to a few select charities. In order to avoid offending the charities they must drop, the donors keep their giving a secret. Finally, some donors do not want their giving publicized because they do not want to be flooded with requests for assistance. Back |
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