The Importance of Keeping Donations Anonymous

Studies suggest that letting others know about our giving is likely to encourage them to give. We don't think well of people who boast about how wonderful they are and talking about how much we give can easily sound like doing just that. Jesus was not the only advocate of keeping donations anonymous. The 12th century Jewish thinker Maimonides drew up a celebrated ladder of charity in which he ranked different ways of giving arms. For Maimonides, it was important that the recipient not feel indebted to the donor or be publicly humiliated by the need to accept charity. In an age of global philanthropy, the risk of the recipient being burdened by a feeling of indebtedness to a particular donor is far