Giving money anonymously can be a tricky thing. In fact, before the internet it used to be darn near impossible:

1) Personal checks were out of the question for obvious reasons.

2) Credit cards were equally useless: Once I actually tried opening a credit card with a fake business name — I thought that I could at least purchase gifts or gift-cards for people and they wouldn’t see who it was who had purchased them. But then it turned out that all my personal info (address and phone number) was still included along with the fake business name. Yikes!

3) Mailing cash through the Post Office? That was the old-fashioned stand-by, but it was fraught. What return address do you use? And how do you know if they ever got it? Sending cash in the mail was risky and unsatisfying at best. I’ve done it, but I don’t recommend it!

Happily, in the last month I have discovered two great ways to give money anonymously:

Option 1 is PayPal. It’s easy as pie to open an anonymous account. The recipient sees your (fake) name and nothing else. And your recipient receives the money instantly, which is nice. The drawback is that your recipient needs to have a PayPal account in order to receive it, and you need to know what their address is, which can be a problem. Also, PayPal skims 6% or so off the top, which is pretty annoying!

Option 2 is this utterly awesome website called Giving Anonymously. It is so simple: All you have to do is send the money to them by credit card, and then they write a check and mail it to your recipient, totally free of charge. They even have a way to get a thank-you phone message to you, all without ever busting your cover!

So, my plan for today, as soon as this post is published, is to fill out the form at Giving Anonymously. I’m going to direct the check to Mr. G. at his place of work.  I don’t know his home address or his e-mail, so hopefully they can still deliver it with just a work address and phone number. I’m sure it will all work out perfectly. There is even a place on the form to write a message, so I can put the web address in that spot.

I’m hopeful that with a little luck he’ll be logged in here sometime next week, reading his praises.

Thank you so much for following along, everyone. I’ve got to tell you, this site is about 5000 times more fun and exciting with you guys sharing the fun. I am so grateful to you all!

EDITED TO ADD: It’s done!  Money sent!  Woo-hoo!

Stay tuned!