[Etheryte]

A lot of people use philanthropy as a means to ego boost and raise their public image. This is a phenomenon as old as time, to the point where even the bible has tales about it. The (modern?) countermovement to that is to keep your donations secret, often to the point where it's one of the strings attached to the money, that you can't publicly disclose who made the donation. This is a way to support a cause just for the sake of supporting it. I read the above statement as them usually following this ethos, but making an exception this time around since they believe being public about it will bring more visibility to the cause.

[graemep]

> to the point where even the bible has tales about it.

The Bible tells you not to talk about your donations!

> This is a way to support a cause just for the sake of supporting it.

For many causes the money matters, but the publicity does not. In this case Zig gains from it being better funded makes people more likely to have the confidence in its future to adopt it, and from the PR benefit (e.g. getting one more mention here).

On the other hand for something like a charity that helps the poor, we all know of the need already. Publicity does not help much - in fact I would be more likely to give to a small charity that does not get big donations than to one I know is getting big donations.

[ninjin]

> The Bible tells you not to talk about your donations!

Not a Christian, but since no one else dug up the quote:

"Thus, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you." -- Matthew 6:2-4 (RSV)

But then you have:

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." -- Matthew 5:14-16 (RSV)

So I guess according to scripture "it depends". I do believe Judaism and other religions have similar teachings for that matter.

[perfmode]

I personally wouldn’t interpret “light” or “good works” to mean charitable contributions.

I’d equate light to consciousness and good works to the radiance of consciousness.

[JoshTriplett]

There are two main reasons to make a lot of noise about philanthropy: to draw attention to the cause or to draw attention to themselves. You can often tell the difference, based on whether someone's primarily talking about how the cause is important, or whether they seem to be primarily aggrandizing themselves for supporting it.

That said, while the former is more obviously laudable, the latter does serve the purpose of raising the status of being charitable, which can lead to more people being charitable.

[Kydlaw]

>> often to the point where it's one of the strings attached to the money, that you can't publicly disclose who made the donation.

TIL. Philanthropy is not big where I live so I don't know the ins and outs of it.

[lieks]

It's not modern. Jesus recommends it in one of his sermons. It's just unfortunately rare, like most good things about christianity tend to be.

[FireBeyond]

Empire of Pain goes into this with the Sackler family, where everything was not just about the money, but having their name on things.

Which backfired when their "connection" to Purdue Pharma (which they went to great lengths to not make a big noise about) became more well-known.

And then you have others who do it, so often that it is referred to as reputation-washing.