How should we thank an anonymous donor?

Summary:

Obviously, the donor's name isn't published anywhere. But other ways of saying 'thank you' may be appropriate.

Leland Kiang of
L'Arche DC wrote to CharityTalk (a service of http://www.charitychannel.com) on July 2, 2001:
We recently received a very generous matching gift from a man, whose
name and address we know, but who has asked to remain anonymous. My
director would still like to thank him and asked if we should send a
card that does not have his name on it. My initial thought was that an
anonymous donor would not want to be thanked. Any ideas? Should we
thank him and in the card mention that we'll keep his gift anonymous?

There were several suggestions about how to proceed:
IMO - anonymous donors don't want to be "publicly" thanked - i.e. names
listed in annual report, press releases, etc., but, I always personally
thank the donor with a private note. --
Lynn Shaftic-Averill, ED,
Episcopal Community Services of WNY
If the donor receives an official IRS receipt, he/she isn't completely
anonymous. We send an ack. letter and note that we respect the donor's wish
to remain anonymous. We also let the donor know we would be happy to ack.
him/her publicly if they desire to have us do so in the future. Eileen B. Orringer, Binghamton University Foundation
When ever we have an anonymous donor we communicate to that donor what
anonymous means. It is important that the donor realized that he/she will
not be listed in the annual report, acknowledged at key events, and that
only the VP and president will be aware of the gift. If the gift is large
enough, we reserve a naming opportunity for a period of time that would be
meaningful. We control the information and limit the thank you to the president and in
some cases the chairman of the board. In our database the real person is
not credited with the gift, but an anonymous donor is added. --
Craig T. Chindemi,
Fairfield University
You need to be sure of the donor's actual intentions. If he intended that
no one, including the administrators of your organization, find out who
made the gift, then it would be a mistake to acknowledge him. If, on the
other hand, his only stipulation was that his name not be released to the
public, I think a thank you explaining how his gift will be put to use to
help your organization and reiterating that his gift will remain anonymous
would be appropriate. Presumably there was a conduit for the gift such as
an attorney or a financial planner who could help you clarify the donor's
true intent. -- Valerie Gotaskie, Duquesne University
In the past I have found that anonymous donors don't want the general
public to know or even the staff, but that doesn't mean that your
director, or perhaps even your Chairman, could call him by phone to
personally thank him, and assure him of his anonymity. It is also
reasonable to ask if he would like to hear about the organisation
periodically. Certainly we found a high level phone call sorts all those issues out
and you find out what the individual means by anonymous. We also found
that they do expect to get thanked in some way. --
Alba Lewis MBA
The comments above depend, of course, on your org's particular procedure.
Our official receipt IS our acknowledgement letter, which we send to
anonymous donors, and in which we assure them that their requests for
anonymity will be honored in our publications and files. We post the
donation to an anonymous donor record, and maintain information on the
donation only in a paper file in the director's office for relationship
management. In some cases, the donor is normally a "public" donor, but
just wants this specific donation to this project kept anonymous. -- Loren D. Friesen
Newton (KS) Community & Healthcare Foundation