Anonymous Gifts

When I give to a charity or cause, I prefer to do it low-key and behind the scenes. I don't like people to know, I don't share how much or when or what causes I give to with my friends or family, and I support what I support because I want to at that moment, and for no deeper meaning.

I get irritated when charities then use their ways and means to continue to ply me for money. I gave what I gave when I gave it... leave me alone. If you leave me alone, you are much more likely to get me to donate again in the future.

Most, however, hammer me to the point where I ask them to remove my name from their rolls and to never contact me again. Which they rarely do.

I have given to a host of causes in the past: AIDS, breast cancer, the homeless, food at holiday times, liver research, cancer research, ALS, arthritis. I've given my stuff to shelters and Good Will and churches.

But, and here's the catch, I do it all anonymously and simply because I feel like it that day and for no other reason. Yes, I have liver disease and arthritis, so those two causes tend to get slightly more money from me than others, but it still happens spur of the moment and because I feel like it, not because I have the diseases. Sometimes a friend is feeling strongly about a cause and, if they catch me on the right day or in the right frame of mind, $50 or $100 goes their way. If they catch me at a time I don't feel like giving, then they get nothing, friend or not.

One of my favorite causes is to donate money or food to shelters or food banks during the Thanksgiving to Christmas holiday season. These places use the money directly to buy, prepare, and serve food for those who don't have any, so I feel safe in giving them my dollars. In Irvine, I even helped push work-place food drives and donated money to one cause, but then it started hounding me and asking for more, more, more, so I cut them off and stopped doing it (it didn't help that my company didn't help out with the food drives much, no matter how many posters and what type of competitions I tried to get going).

Susan J. Komen is another one that simply wouldn't leave me alone. I donated to your cause, now stop emailing, mailing, and calling me! I've been away for closing on three years now, and I still get an email from it at least 4 times a year, even though I have unsubscribed. I think that's rude... no money for you any more.

I have found a new food bank in Maine that seems, so far, willing to keep my desire to be anonymous intact. So I donated another $100 this year. Supposedly, that will help feed 488 people on Christmas. That makes me feel good. My wife and I will find somewhere here in Canada to donate to, as well. Hopefully each place will continue to ignore me for the rest of the year, sending only the gentle reminder at Thanksgiving that the holiday season is here. If they do, then they get more money.

And, for me at least, it is that simple.