PERSONAL FINANCE: Altruistic Charity
How & Why Do You Give Back?
What would change if no one knew you did?
Some of the wealthiest people I know are incredibly generous.
Just not always in the way you might expect.
Their giving often comes with something attached — recognition, access, influence, or a seat at the table.
And, it made me start asking a question I couldn’t ignore:
If no one knew you gave… would you still do it?
I’ve written before about having wealthy friends. Some are open about their finances and the causes they support. They’ll talk about donations, events, and boards they sit on.
And I’ve found myself wondering — how much of that giving is purely altruistic, and how much of it serves another purpose or personal benefit?
Status. Access. Positioning.
To be clear, none of that makes it wrong. But it does make it different.
An example of public charity
A good example is my friend Bob. If you read my story about judging people considered poor, you read about my friend Bob.
Bob poured a lot of time and money into his daughter’s private high school. He joined the board of directors — which, as he pointed out, required a $20,000 donation to participate. That was on top of annual giving, auction items, and ongoing involvement.
He showed up. He contributed for the benefit of the school — and his daughter’s education.
His charity was very focused. Very visible. And tied closely to his personal world.
I’ve never heard him talk about giving outside of that, or more to the school now that his daughter graduated.
That’s what started to shift something for me.
Not in judging him — but in questioning myself.
Why do we give the way we do?
And if the recognition disappeared… would the behavior stay the same?
Another way to donate
I started thinking about giving differently.
Less about where my name might show up or who might know what we’ve done, and more about whether it needed to show up at all.
There’s something interesting that happens when you remove the visibility.
No acknowledgment. No credit.
No one knows it was you.
It almost becomes a private game:
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How much good can you do without anyone ever knowing?
My New Addiction
Did you know that donating $25,000 can create an endowed $1000 per year scholarship at a university? That’s my experience with two universities in my home state.
And, if you add $1000 to pre-fund the initial $1000 award, it can be awarded the next school year before the endowment has time to earn enough money to payout the first year’s scholarship.
These scholarship accounts then grow and the amount available for scholarships each year increases with it.
At some point in the future, the scholarship will be sufficient for full tuition. That’s awesome.
In the last twelve months, my wife and I funded seven scholarships. Five at my university and another two at a historically black university where 70% of the students are Pell Grant eligible.
We didn’t announce it.
We didn’t post about it.
We didn’t attach our names to it publicly. We named one set of scholarships in honor of a professor I had at college and the other set in honor of a childhood friend who died in high school. The schools know our names, but the students and any public announcements know the scholarship names.
And what surprised me wasn’t the act itself — it was how different it felt.
Cleaner. Quieter. More personal.
After the endowment to create the first two, I was excited! It felt so good to know that we were helping kids who are struggling financially to pay for college. My wife and I both worked and had loans to get through school No parent payments to us, so we know the struggle. It was time to pay it forward and I hope those students can do that someday as well.
There are two types of giving.
One creates visibility. Named buildings, endowments, etc.
The other creates quiet impact.
Anonymous giving removes all external reward.
No praise. No leverage. No social return.
What’s left is just the act itself.
And that, I’ve found, is a very different and fulfilling experience.
I’ve written before about having some wealthy friends. Some will speak about their finances and share information about their donations.
I wonder if their charity is truly altruistic or serving their self-interests.
So the question I keep coming back to is simple:
If no one knew you gave… would you still do it?
The purest form of generosity might be the kind no one can trace back to you.
Just knowing you helped and someone is slightly better off; that gives me a rush that makes me smile — even as I’m writing this now.
Keep reading and learning, thank you for joining my journey,
Jean-Paul
About Me
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© 2026 Jean-Paul NomDePlume
