Give anonymously - how it works

What to expect: 

• There are good reasons to want to donate anonymously.

• Very few organizations have experience or technical solutions for this.

• Those for whom their own (trust) foundation is too complex can now also use a digital foundation.

• The receiving organization may also have good reasons to reject anonymous donations.

Donating anonymously - everything you need to know

An important clarification beforehand: donating anonymously is not reprehensible in itself. There are good reasons for it. With this post, we explain how this works best, what pitfalls there are, and also in which cases one should refrain from anonymity or even the donation itself.

Reasons for an anonymous donation

There are a number of good reasons not to identify yourself as a donor, whether to the target organization or to the public, or both.

An example: You want to donate to an educational institution that you became aware of through one of your children. You do not want your child to be treated differently because the parents donated.

Another example: You want to fund an organization that advocates for the rights of sexual minorities or other political causes that are taboo in your environment. You want to avoid having to justify yourself for this or having people close to you treated differently.

One final example: You want to fund a specific cause with a major donation and have also built relationships with several organizations for this purpose. They know that you are donating, but you ask them not to store your name and address because you want to prevent this data from being passed on to third parties.

Pitfalls - what can go wrong?

A donation is a private transaction, so there is initially no reason to assume that it must become public. Nevertheless, in practice, receiving organizations are often not prepared to actively protect privacy. In most cases, they simply have no experience with it. Usually, they store names and addresses to send out the donation receipt.

Some organizations have also committed to publishing larger donations. In doing so, they take into account the expectation of high transparency, which can go hand in hand with the tax advantage and thus a higher public interest.

In the age of social media, even seemingly or currently harmless personal information can be used to attack people and groups online.

Finally, non-profit organizations do not have to protect their IT systems in the same way that financial service providers do, for example. It is therefore easier for names and addresses and, if applicable, even bank details to be shared unintentionally. For particularly vulnerable individuals and their families, this risk is substantial.

What seems rather dystopian in Germany is already reality elsewhere: governments can change, radicalize, and also legally prosecute the financial supporters of their political opponents.

How does it work - donating anonymously?

In the simplest variant, you simply ask for confidential handling. For the reasons described above, however, this is often not enough.

Very few organizations offer technical solutions such as cryptocurrencies for this challenge.

It is best to place another organization between the donors and the receiving organization, for example a foundation. Setting one up yourself, however, involves a lot of effort and is only appropriate in the rarest of cases. An existing GmbH or other legal form is only suitable if it is itself a non-profit organization and has the passing on of funds in its articles of association. A trust foundation with a foundation administration is another option and does not require large minimum amounts, but is associated with fees and annual tax administration effort.

Where can I make such a donation?

New is the possibility to use a digital foundation, for example on bcause. There, you can pay money into a trust foundation within a few minutes without a long-term contractual obligation and allocate it for anonymous further donation.

On bcause, you have your visibility in your own hands.

👉 Learn more about how you can control your visibility on bcause

When anonymous donation is not the right choice

In principle, you must also consider the perspective of the receiving organization. Some organizations want to know in any case who funded them, for example to be able to rule out political influence.

About the author: Felix is the CEO at bcause and writes about how people are engaging more strongly and better financially today. The board spokesperson of gut.org previously helped shape the world of foundations as Secretary General of the Association of German Foundations and the social entrepreneurship movement as Europe Director of Ashoka.