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 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 acknowledgement letter and note that we respect the donor's wish to remain anonymous. We also let the donor know we would be happy to acknowledge
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