anonymous donations

valia
New Community Member

We would like to make our donations to charities anonymous so that we are not deluged with begging letters. We don't itemize for taxes, thus don't need receipts for our donations.

Is there away to hide our address information from organizations to which we donate using PayPal? Is there a way to control the information the Payee will see? 

 

 

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27 REPLIES 27

PayPal_Olivia
Moderator
Moderator

Hi mjmk01,

 

Using any false information at all (including pseudonyms) is a violation of the User Agreement. There's a certain amount of transparency that's required in order to comply with laws and ensure security, so PayPal requires correct names on file.

 

On a business account, your contact name would be on file but would not show to the people you transact with. Your business name would show instead. Do you have a business? The financials on file would have to be associated with the business name. A PayPal customer may have one Personal account and one Business or Premier account.

 

Olivia

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Pluto
Contributor
Contributor

You don't know how much I'd love to have this feature with PayPal... The reason I want to donate anonymously doesn't actually have anything to do with my personal information being revealed or worrying about being asked for future donations. I'm hoping to donate anonymously because I know this individual in person, and I don't want them to attribute this act to me. I just want to donate without being recognized at all... I guess I just don't want any praise for making my donation, and would rather quietly leave an impact. If I were to donate without being anonymous, then I feel like it would take out my real joy in donating in the first place, which is only to be able to do something for someone. Just the simple act, no recognition, but to be able to see the positive impact and not even think about... I don't even know how to describe this feeling other than, not to have others or myself think about how it was because of me that something happened, but simply that this good thing happened without a person to name for partially causing it to happen. It sounds a little hypocritical when you put it in words, but I mean that in the most genuine way possible. It's just hard to explain it... And the feeling of joy that I get after is something I'd treasure so much. Anonymous donations seem like they'd be something so simple, and yet PayPal doesn't support it... I was very surprised of this at first. But, I guess I can live without it...

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arnieom
Contributor
Contributor

Pluto, We concur, validate and salute your message.  We too have been taught to offer a present anonymously is of the highest spiritual and/or non-spiritual conscienceness.  Part of our daily practice in life.  We have further observed it is not the present that counts.  It is how the present is offered that is important.  From the heart. :-)Smiley Happy 

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PayPal_Olivia
Moderator
Moderator

Hi  Pluto, and welcome to the forum!

 

I definitely understand where you're coming from. The good that you feel from giving has nothing to do with the fact that others know you did something, and everything to do with the fact that it was done. The observability of the act makes you feel like the focus is taken off the goodwill and the meeting of a need, and instead put onto recognition, and you're looking to avoid that. I totally get it. You're correct that the way things are, there really isn't a way to do that when giving to an individual through PayPal. To comply with laws and protect the security of people's funds, transparency is required.

 

I've passed on the feedback. PayPal is always examining new ways to meet the needs of our customers while remaining compliant and safe. It's definitely my hope that it becomes feasible to make this requested feature possible!

 

Olivia

 

 

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Pluto
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you for reading, considering, and understanding my thoughts on this; I do hope PayPal finds some way to do this eventually. I did end up donating anyways in the end, although that was my last option.

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PayPal_Olivia
Moderator
Moderator

Hi Pluto,

 

I'm glad that you haven't let this prevent you from donating! Thanks for making a difference.

 

Olivia

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andrea0599
Contributor
Contributor

PayPal seriously needs to add this feature.  Or at least allow users to make donations witthout having our full name and address show to the recipieint.

 

I will absolutely not make donations until this is fixed.  If this were fixed, I'd make many more donatiions.

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sbloch
Contributor
Contributor

A slightly different take on the same thread:

 

I'd like to be able to accept donations ONLY anonymously.  I'd like to be UNABLE to find out the identity of any of my donors, and I would like PayPal to assure my donors of that before they donate.

 

Here's the use-case: I'm a college professor, and I've written a textbook which I'd like to put up on the web as donationware.  But I very much do NOT want to get a large "donation" (or a lot of small ones) from an identifiable student in my class, say a week before the final exam: this would put me in a very questionable ethical position.  In fact, I would rather not know which students in my class have donated at all and which haven't.

 

I can imagine using the same feature if I were running for political office (although one would have to check the compatibility of that with existing campaign-finance laws).

 

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PayPal_Olivia
Moderator
Moderator

sbloch -

 

Welcome to the forums! Thanks a great example of a good application for the service if it ever becomes feasible. It's awesome feedback. Thank you.

 

andrea0599 -

 

I'm sorry to hear that! I can agree that the addition of the feature would do more to encourage donation. I have already passed along the suggestion. Thanks for the feedback.

 

Olivia

 

 

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sbloch
Contributor
Contributor

I have a colleague who is currently distributing his textbook through Lulu rather than with a PayPal link for exactly that reason: he doesn't know who paid for the book and who didn't.

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