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Ask HN: How do you donate online anonymously?

20 points by hiaux0 ↗ HN
Is it as simple as creating an "anonymous" paypal account?

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I just made an online donation via my personal paypal and made sure to not check

"Send address to recipient"

but later in the confirmation mail from paypal, the receipt listed

"Donation to ... <organization>"

"Sent by ... <my-email-adress-here>".

Now, I am confused, wether the donation was actually anonymous.

32 comments

[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 70.0 ms ] thread
xwvvvvwx
cryptocurrencies
bradleyjg
Every transaction is recorded forever. What's anonymous about that?
ttsda
Anonymity is about names, not about records.
bradleyjg
You've just shifted the problem to "how to I buy bitcoin anonymously" because all the easy and obvious ways involve disclosing your name.
hiaux0
That means, that if the organziation hasn't setup an crypto address (is this the correct term?), I cannot donate?
RaceWon
You could always spend a few bucks and get a Visa Gift Card.
hiaux0
That's a simple and easy solution. I will try it out the next time, thank you!
ashwinr14
No, use crypto->fiat or vice versa.
lexicality
Paypal will always send your full name and email address to the recipient. Your donation wasn't anonymous.
Rjevski
How anonymous do you want to be? Are you trying to hide from the recipient only, or also from their payment processors, or the government?

Each of these requirements has different solutions.

therealidiot
Not OP but if I wanted to donate without revealing identity to the recipient, what are my options?
Rjevski
Depending on the recipient's fraud checks you can simply use your credit card but use a fake name & address; if they don't decline the transaction then that's all you have to do.
e12e
Do note that another term for absolute anonymous donations is "funding terrorism". So good luck hiding your donations entirely.

I suspect a sibling comment is correct - buy a visa/etc giftcard (perhaps with cash) and use that to donate online if the recipient accepts online payments - or send the card details via email, or the card via snail mail?

dorianm
Or more commonly "money laundering"
hiaux0
That's a valid perspective, thanks for mentioning.

> buy a visa/etc giftcard

I like that suggestion the best as well.

mclemme
Use a cryptocurrency that has default private transactions, Monero comes to mind: https://getmonero.org/

Alternatively you could donate "offline" and just send them an envelope with a note and some cash in it.

hiaux0
Ty! Monero was mentioned twice here.
cyphar
I think, long term, the best solution is something like GNU Taler[1] which is anonymous (for consumers) e-Cash system. It doesn't require cryptocurrencies or anything, it can work with VISA or PayPal just as easily.

And it's auditable, so that governments can still tax businesses (which avoids the fear that governments have around large-scale, automated and fully-anonymous payments).

[1]: https://taler.net/en/index.html

hiaux0
> it can work with VISA or PayPal

Sounds promising, thank you, I will try them on my next donation

O1111OOO
> https://taler.net/en/index.html

Firefox reports today (11nov18, 10:55am, PST):

> taler.net uses an invalid security certificate.

> The certificate expired on November 11, 2018, 2:13:27 PM GMT. The current time is November 11, 2018, 6:55 PM.

> This site uses HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) to specify that Firefox may only connect to it securely.

cyphar
It works for me, seems like they fixed it. They use LetsEncrypt so must've messed up the auto-updating of the certificate. In my defence, I've done this before as well.
CalRobert
So far as I'm aware, the person behind https://pineapplefund.org/ is still unknown. Perhaps that's a good place to start.

If you're using fiat (USD, EUR, RMB, etc.) I would assume the only anonymous method is cash, or an instrument purchased with cash (money order, prepaid gift card, etc), mailed from a public mailbox with no return address, but of course that raises its own problems of ensuring delivery.

For fiat, I doubt any electronic method offers any real protection against subpoena, etc.

hiaux0
Thank you for mentioning this website, I will def. have a look later.
JackC
it's not for everyone, but we use a Donor Advised Fund for anonymous giving:

https://www.schwabcharitable.org/public/charitable/home

You donate the money to a nonprofit run by Schwab, and then later you can tell them to donate it to any tax-deductible nonprofit, one time or on a schedule, and to either include your name with the gift or not.

We like it for (a) commitment (it's easier to set a goal to give X% of your income if you can just fire off one check every month) (b) simpler taxes (c) anonymity (d) fun (it feels fancy, I guess).

Fees and convenience are both kind of a wash -- it's cheaper than credit card fees, and it's nice having one place to manage donations, but the interface is pretty clunky.

Downsides are the high (for us) initial buyin, hassle of initial paperwork, and being limited to tax-deductible recipients. I definitely think someone could build a better interface around the idea of online banking for donations.

hiaux0
Thanks for laying out the pros and cons for you. On their landing page, it seemed like they only support "their" charities?

They run an extensive donation service, but looks a bit too extensive for me.

Thank you nonetheless!

cimmanom
I assume they have some sorts of minimum deposits and outlays?
itamarst
There are other implementations of the same idea: Fidelity and Vanguard each have one.

In general they all allow donations to any 501(c)3.

nitrohorse
You could create a Privacy.com masked debit card with a fake name and billing address.
hiaux0
Interesting concept, unfortunately they only operate in the US.
ydnaclementine
You can give it to me and I promise not to tell anyone

I absolutely swear I'll use it for a good cause (aka student loans)