anonymous donations

[valia]

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? 

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi valia,

Welcome to the community!

I can definitely see why it would be appealing to a donor to keep donations anonymous, but this is not currently an available feature. I hope that will not keep you from continuing to good things by donating!

Olivia 

[Vegan]

I had the same question. Thanks!

This is what is discouraging me from donating: not only do I get letters begging me to donate more more more, but I know some organizations actually sell or give your personal info (name/address, ?) to other non-profits.  I made a donation to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières and then was deluged with many donation requests for other causes.

Until I can find a way to donate without the burden of the harrassing mail, I just won't.  One thing that mostly worked was to use a condition on the donation form, such as:

===    ===    ===

By accepting this donation, the ___ organization is agreeing to refrain from sending ___ ,The Donor, ANY postal mail whatsoever, including and not limited to: donation reminders, newsletters, surveys and recepits. The donor's name and address will not be traded, sold, or shared with any other organization. If these terms are broken, the donor can and WILL demand the full donation amount immediately returned.

===    ===    ===

I don't wish the companies to incur any additional costs and this definitely includes to postage and printing costs of materials to me and like individuals who will actually be discouraged from donating with use of pestering. With more people utilizing paperless billing and fewer pieces of paper mail, I hope organizations would allow for such an opt-out in their donation forms.

PayPal will soon fill in this niche when they realize they could do more for the world community and encourage people to use their system more often by allowing Anonymous Donations.

[bobn]

Yes, the lack of this easily implmented function will prevent me from making donations using this account.

No, your answer is not adequate.  No your answer does not help.

Providing the requested function will help.

[PayPal_Olivia]

Vegan - That is a great idea. I can see how a charity might want to employ this type of agreement to encourage would-be donors who wish to opt out of further contact. I recommend contacting the charity of your choice to ask if they can add such a contract between them and their donor to their site.

bobn - I do appreciate that feedback. I will definitely pass your request along.

Olivia

[arnieom]

I agree we should have ability to donate anonymously. 🙂

[Emerson2k]

I had the same inquiry as well.

I was considering using PayPal to make an anonymous charitable donation or support smaller websites in need of funding (the electronic and virtual equivolent of giving spare change to the homeless for example) but was inquiring as to what personal information the recipient would receive, such as name, address, DOB, email, etc.

Sadly, if there is no option to hide all of this information it will be unlikely I would use PayPal in the foreseeable future.

[mjmk01]

I was thinking I'd create a PayPal Personal account with a psuedonym and a gmail account with the same name as well and then provide Paypal with my real address, etc.

Other than name and email, the other things don't seem to show up when someone receives a payment.

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi mjmk01, and welcome to the forums!

Making a donation is a fabulous thing to do, and I definitely understand the desire to remain anonymous. I would strongly recommend against using any false information at all, even if it is just the name. It's a condition of the User Agreement that all information provided to PayPal be accurate. Incorrect information can cause problems not only with that specific account, but also with any other accounts you possess. I would hate for unintended consequences to arise from you trying to do something nice!

Olivia

[mjmk01]

Thanks for writing, Olivia.

Just to be totally clear, even if everything else is correct -- my address, telephone number, bank account, etc. I CANNOT use a psuedonym or I might jeopordize my account (s)?

I looked into opening another business account, where you are able to assign a DBA as your name, would this route work? Except that it would seem to me your address, phone number, etc. would then show on the receipt.

Oh, this would solve so many problems if I could do a personal account without worrying about it **bleep**ing things up!

Thanks again.

>>Hi mjmk01, and welcome to the forums!

>>Making a donation is a fabulous thing to do, and I definitely understand the desire to remain anonymous. I would strongly recommend against using any false information at all, even if it is just the name. It's a condition of the User Agreement that all information provided to PayPal be accurate. Incorrect information can cause problems not only with that specific account, but also with any other accounts you possess. I would hate for unintended consequences to arise from you trying to do something nice!

Olivia