Mysterious gifts to charities: typically American?
It was almost by chance that I came across an article about incognito donations to charities in different areas in the United States. I first read this article on “Mystery Donor surprises Colorado Springs nonprofits with cash“.
It’s about an anonymous donor who sent for the second year gift boxes filled with cash to local charities, and $50 gift cards for volunteers themselves.
I did a search online and I came across several similar articles over past years: whether it’s $100 bills left in Salvation Army kettlesin Minnesota ($90000 since 2011), gold coins thrown in Salvation Army kettles in Gettysburg, Pa (but these donors have since revealed their identity), billssigned “Benny” and left at an art festival in Oregon (for $50,000 in several years) or cash donations to a rehabilitation center for children withdisabilities, these isolated facts seem to recur in the United States.
But I have never heard of similar facts in France. And when I did a search online (and I encourage you to do the same) I found nothing by typing “anonymous donor” or any other term approaching.
For sure these anonymous gifts, when they exist, are news items. Their number does not allow countless charities to work, neither in France nor in the United States. And the donations in France are not lacking.
Indeed, according to this study, donations to charities in France increase every year (+ 1.73% in 2015), 58% of French have made a donation in 2015, and fiscal incentives are quite efficient: “The reduction of tax, between 66% and 75% of the sums paid, is one of the sources of motivation for the donors.” And “the donation related to ISF (tax for the richest people) is expected to reach 250 million euros this year. An increase of 80% in six years.” In other words, French give a lot but they also enjoy taking advantage of tax measures.
In the United States too, there are tax incentives for donations. But in the case of “mystery donors,” the donor, by definition, does not take advantage of these measures. This observation leaves me puzzled. There is something romantic there.According to the article I quoted above “the donor feels at the same time feelings of autonomy, pride and sense that the taxpayer is struggling to feel”.
Why then only (a small handful of) Americans, rather than French people, practice anonymous donations? Three possible explanations come to my mind:
– Americans talk more about it? Unlikely
There is for sure something like a fairy tale in these news items that American media seem to appreciate particularly. These staging have some literal sense which contrasts with French skepticism and the quasi-permanent quest for irony. I think, however, that if similar facts existed in France, media would relate them willingly as well.
– Americans are somehow “old children” who love having “fun” and romantic staging? Perhaps in part
But this explanation hits the first point: if American media relate these facts, it is primarily because Americans love these fairy tales. And those who want to make donations can find particularly rewarding and fun to put on the clothes of Robin Hood.
– Are there more moral obligations in the USA? A sharper sense of gratitude and redistribution, especially among believers (and we know that Americans are more religious than French)? Probably
I have already underlined in other posts the importance of “gratitude” in the United States. I am always amazed to come across this word in the most unexpected articles, (one of the last ones mentioning gratitude was on a website about … marketing!). Americans are globally more believers and less dependent on the Government than we, French people, and think more to give back part of what they have received…
As for the small story, my husband with his typically French irony told me “I think these Americans try to buy a place in paradise”. What else could I add?!
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