Benefactors assist people and organizations financially or through donations of products and services. They can choose to donate anonymously or through a trust, and often focus on populations undervalued by government programs. Donors can also be named beneficiaries in wills to ensure their money continues to do good after death.
A benefactor is someone who assists people or organizations, often financially, although benefactors can help out in other ways as well. People who receive the benefactor’s goodwill are known as beneficiaries. This term comes from the Latin roots of “good” and “maker”, reflecting the widely held idea that people who engage in charity are doing good in their communities and in the world at large by helping people in need of assistance .
Financially, benefactors can provide loans, grants, and cash gifts to people and causes they support. This can be done during life and after death by will; many people name beneficiaries in their wills with the goal of ensuring their money continues to do good after their death. During life, many benefactors establish trusts with named beneficiaries, providing financial assistance through the trust and making arrangements that will allow control of the trust to transfer to the beneficiary after death.
Donors can also donate products and services. For example, someone might offer the use of a private plane for transportation to someone such as a sick person who needs to travel for treatment or members of the military who want to go home for vacation but can’t afford it. Likewise, benefactors can donate assets to disaster victims, including everything from toiletries to homes. Benefactors may also offer services such as assistance with tax preparation for people who cannot afford accounting services.
Those wishing to act as donors can choose from a wide variety of charitable causes and populations when deciding where and how to donate. Donors work outside the government’s safety net, and many focus their efforts on populations that may be undervalued by government programs. In some nations, this has sparked controversy, as some people have argued that charitable giving leads governments to conclude that they may have weak social services systems and rely on the good of wealthier citizens to protect and care for underprivileged members of society.
Benefactors can also choose between being named, being anonymous, and doing work through a trust or public organization which may include multiple benefactors working together. Some people prefer to donate anonymously because they don’t want to attract attention, and in some religious sects, people are strongly encouraged to engage in anonymous giving to put the recipient, rather than the donor, at the center of the good deed. Some people also argue that acting as an anonymous giver makes it harder for people who are reluctant to accept assistance to refuse it, because they don’t know where to direct their refusal.
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