Comment on Donors

SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

• Entheon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  It’s only anonymous to the public. I imagine the donor and the university are in frequent direct contact.

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  • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Are they, or is it just your imagination?

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    • Entheon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Have you never donated to a “charitable” cause before? You can usually talk to them and ask to not have your name released. There’s no legal requirement for name disclosure so it’s up to the institution’s policy.

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      • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Yes, I’ve donated plenty, and typically anonymously, since I’m not trying to use others to advance a personal agenda.

        Non-disclosure would be something quite different from anonymity.

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• Coldcell@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Is it hard to conceive of agreeing to something behind closed doors and donating anonymously to hide the tracks?

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  • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Is it hard to suggest that in a less condescending manner?

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• solsangraal@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  “i’ll give you 100 million dollars on the condition that $X of it be spent on ______” is how it’s exerting influence

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  • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    But if it’s actually anonymous, how is that communicated?

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    • Coldcell@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Letter, fax, pager, smoke signal, Morse code, tin cans with string, eye blinking code, using the first letter of each word in a New York times obituary, carrier pigeon, skywriting… hmm… wait couldn’t they just say it out loud to each other? In person?

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      • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Good to know you’re remaining as condescending as possible.

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    • solsangraal@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      lol there is one person in this whole thread who’s getting mad, but it’s not me

      and yes, as someone else said, it’s no big deal for someone to contact the business office of an institution and offer money on the condition of anonymity and other conditions. and the business people say okay, forms are filled out and signed, and money is transferred. they want to be anonymous because they don’t want all the other institutions calling them asking for money too. and/or they don’t want the world to know they’re the ones influencing the school’s spending

      no one wants donors to be able to influence whoever they’re donating to. but that’s how reality works

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      • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Yeah, Coldcell is having a real hissy fit.

        If the identity is known, it’s not anonymous, it’s undisclosed. That would be an entirely different thing.

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    • Cypher@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Are you really that braindead? An anonymous donation can mean the donor requested their name not be made public, it doesn’t necessarily stop the University from know where the money came from.

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      • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Then it’s not anonymous, it’s undisclosed. Do you not understand what “anonymous” means?

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    • Aceticon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      It sounds like the university called it “anonymous donor” for PR reasons whilst it is in fact “undisclosed donor”.

      Your point only makes sense if indeed the donor was genuinelly anonymous (I.e. even the University had no idea who they were) rather than merely described as anonymous by the University for the purpose of divulging it to the outside world.

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      • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        So my only mistake was not assuming that the university was lying.

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