Silent Donor was created because there did not exist an easy, accessible way to send an anonymous donation. There was also no easy way for charities/nonprofits to accept them.
First and foremost, many people want to give back anonymously because it makes them feel good. They don’t seek any recognition for giving back and believe the act of donating is good enough in and of itself. Other donors give back for other reasons. Our experienced staff has worked both in public corporations and 501(c)(3) organizations for years and most “anonymous” donations are currently set up something like this: a person or company reaches out to the organization to set up a donation, and then the organization’s personnel agrees to publish the donation as ‘anonymous’ (even though they know exactly who gave the gift). Or maybe you checked a box that said, “I would like to remain anonymous.” Then, as pointed out in a Forbes article on the topic: “all it takes is one slip-up, whether it’s an overheard cell-phone conversation or an e-mail message sent to the wrong person, and you’ve lost the [anonymity] you’re trying to protect.” We wanted to create an easy way to send an anonymous donation, and also a way to empower nonprofits and charities to be able to easily accept anonymous donations from privacy-minded donors. The current process was not only unreliable and inefficient, but it also opened up the donors and receiving organizations to a lot of unwanted attention and liability.
Simply put, a lot of people want to send anonymous donations and the reasons why differ from person to person and company to company. To make matters worse, we are living in an era defined by “cancel culture” and constant social media saturation. If word gets out to someone who opposes your point of view that you (or your company) donated money to X cause, suddenly you or your company are thrust in to the forefront of public discussion. See some real-world examples of this playing out with disastrous effects in these other posts here, and here.
We looked at the current landscape and saw four big problems:
- First, donors who want to give back privately because they simply don’t want any recognition currently have very limited resources through which they are able to send an actual anonymous donation.
- Second, by not allowing for effective anonymous donations, the people/companies that donate to certain ‘controversial’ causes can be penalized for giving. These ‘penalties’ range from unwanted public unveiling, possible backlash from media, boycotts, lost partnerships, kidnapping attempts, social shunning – all of which can negatively affect the economic, political, and social capital (even personal security) of the donor.
- Third, this current landscape also robs worthy organizations of the donations they need to help a given (‘controversial’) cause because some donors may be afraid of what others will do/say in response if people find out!
- Fourth, once you donate, donors are constantly solicited via email, text, phone calls, or physical mail until the end of time, which is a universal pain point among donors.
We found these four big problems with no current solution. We believe we are filling a truly needed void in the industry – one that provides an unfaltering stance on protecting the identity of donors and just provides peace of mind in an era characterized by data breaches, obtrusive big-tech policies, and general online unease. Our donation form lets donors maintain control over where their donations end up. We accept donations via credit/debit card, bank transfer, or Bitcoin to provide a diverse array of options to donors. We are living in an era where people want to take back their privacy. At the end of the day, Silent Donor is empowering all people/entities to give back – privately.
That’s why we came up with Silent Donor. Use our services today and see how easy it is to send an anonymous donation!
