![Give or Give Back And Tell, or Don’t](https://img.etimg.com/thumb/msid-103071609,width-300,height-225,imgsize-6600,resizemode-75/give-or-give-back-and-tell-or-dont.jpg)
There are several good reasons for benefactors to remain undisclosed. The cause may be more important than a donor. Or it could be something difficult for the donor to associate with and, thereby, avoid public scrutiny or to fend off unwanted solicitation. Public giving that does not divulge works both for the cause and for fundraising.
But philanthropy benefits from openness by setting standards for society. Studies have found anonymous donations to be less generous, although most givers feel they have done more than they ought to. The aim is to widen the pool to a much larger cohort of small givers who may not benefit from their association with causes much beyond the self-satisfaction they derive.
A giving society curtails the role of government, with knock-on effects on productive capital. On the flip side, if achievement is the subject of celebration, the act of giving forward deserves to be socially recognised. Nandan Nilekani's recent donation to IIT-B should nudge other HNIs to 'give back' to their alma maters. It is another matter that Nilekani had also made an anonymous contribution to the same institution earlier.
Yet, anonymous donors are the second-biggest category, after a clutch of the world's richest individuals who have pledged almost their entire wealth to philanthropy. Secret charity remains a powerful social construct shaped by religious offerings to which populations have been exposed.
Celebrity-driven causes, however, require more focused philanthropy to help solve some of mankind's most critical challenges. These endowments need to scale up to the nature of the issue they seek to tackle. In the end, giving - or giving back - is good for both recipient and donor.
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