What are the logistics behind giving a donation in someone's name?

December 12, 2016 11:12 AM

For Christmas, my family has decided instead of gifts to make donations to worthwhile charities. In that spirit I plan on finding charities that reflect in some way the uniqueness of each of my family members and making a small ($50) donation in their name. What does it mean to give something in someone's name? For online donation forms where there isn't a specific space to make a donation in someone's name, would it be best to actually fill it out with their name and with my payment information? I plan on writing a note letting them know why I selected the charity, but is there something else like a receipt I should include to confirm the gift? Any suggestion on ways to make this more special?
posted by blackjack514 to Human Relations (8 answers total)

I am the treasurer of a smallish charity, and am always happy to write "X donated in your name!" cards/letters upon request. It's most convenient if such requests come as e-mails that reference the donor and the donation amount (bonus points if I receive said e-mail directly after an online donation was submitted), or bundled with a check/cash.
posted by teremala at 11:29 AM on December 12, 2016

Best answer: if there's no way to designate "in honor of X" or "please send an in honor of card to X" on the online donation form, call or email the donation contact and say that you want to do a gift donation. Someone will facilitate sending the card to your gift recipient.

Filling in the form with the giftee's name and your information will screw up the organization's database, leading to your gift recipient being treated as a donor to be solicited (which may or may not bother you or them) and can cause problems with processing the credit card. So I would not recommend it.

The tax receipt is yours, not your recipient's, so a note from you saying you did it is all that really matters, but the organizations will happily send a note.
posted by crush-onastick at 11:41 AM on December 12, 2016

We regularly get letters (with donations) from donors at my non-profit saying, "Donation in honor/memory of X, please send a note to X saying so (or to X's family in case of memorial) and send tax acknowledgement to me."

The person who is in charge of sending letters has a template just for "So-and-so made a donation in your name" letters.
posted by cooker girl at 11:52 AM on December 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

If your reason for doing this is as a response to Trump (my family is doing the same thing, for that reason), you could use one of the printable cards from Give the Future. I planning to print these on nice card stock for holiday giving.
posted by rainbowbrite at 12:17 PM on December 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

If you can, clarify that the giftee's address is for thank you cards only, all future fundraising requests should go to you the giftor, and that the giftee should not get any further requests for money, that would be a nice gesture.
posted by aimedwander at 12:42 PM on December 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

Something to know: Generally when charities send those gift notices to the honoree, they do NOT include the amount of the donation. Some (like Heifer International) might mention the impact of the gift ("This gift in your honor helps us supply a goat to a family in Africa" kind of thing), so they could sleuth and see what Heifer charges for a goat, but it's not on the form letter. So if you want them to know how much, you have to tell them yourself.
posted by beagle at 12:52 PM on December 12, 2016

Bear in mind that all the charities you donate to will start hounding you add you to their donor list. So if the charities are more aligned with the "honoree's" than your own ideals, it might be worth donating with their contact details (with their permission!).
posted by ClarissaWAM at 1:01 PM on December 12, 2016

I am doing the donation thing this year even though others in my family are not. I am lazy and announced it on FB. If I had better manners I would send them each a note about why I want to support said charity. Instead I posted about a cat sanctuary in Aleppo and the man who is trying to keep the cats, two dogs, widows, and orphans fed while getting bombed daily. Syria disturbs me deeply so that is where my gift money is going this year.
posted by cairnoflore at 8:53 PM on December 12, 2016