Often when working on small projects within a church, a single donor is putting forward nearly the entire sum of money for its completion. However, since the donor is often involved with the management of the project itself, the donor almost always wishes to remain anonymous out of humility. The desire of anonymity is not without its virtues, but is not ideal for various reasons. Here we will lay out why a veil of anonymity hinders the good of projects.
It denies public thanksgiving to the donor for the gift.
All people everywhere can agree that publicly thanking someone gives more more honor to the thanked than only privately doing so. When thanks is given for a good deed, the honor of thanks is merited. Giving to the church is a good deed, therefore public thanks merits the honor given.
It denies the virtuous donor the humiliation of being publicly thanked.
By proof of the frequency donors wishing for anonymity, it is quite rare in the Anglophone world for remarkable gifts to the Church to be made in vain seek of praise by the world. --- Very few seem to be giving in order to be seen as per the prohibitions of Matthew 6:3-4. --- More often, the donor is often humiliated even by the idea of being thanked, the public acknowledgement that their good gift merits praise. Further virtue ought to be encouraged by insisting donors be publicly thanked, even if against their will. The donor, being seen by the public as made bashful by the thanks for their gift will only encourage the virtue of others stirred by their example of humility. Donors ought to have the virtue to be able to be publicly thanked.
It denies the encouragement of virtue in others by example.
By no means ought people give to the church solely for vain reasons, but the vanity and memory of men is short lived. In less than 50 years, such a short amount of time, the donor will likely be dead and there will remain no memory of the donor's vain giving. The project however will remain for many more years if properly built. Antique churches around the world have the all but forgotten names of donors still shown on their walls, often in the leaded panes of stained glass. Despite all living memory of the donor being lost, the faithful are still encouraged by past examples of generosity toward the present care of the church.
It prevents the faithful from praying for the donor to God by name.
Even in the case of a vain giver, as long as the gift does not otherwise bring scandal, it is good for the donor to be prayed for by name. If the giver is vain and their gift empty before God, all the more ought the faithful pray for their salvation. Giving to the church even with imperfect motives has some merit and is to be encouraged. They might be saved by means of the prayers of others. God can weigh the heart of the vain giver on His own terms.
It prevents the faithful for giving thanks to God for the occasion of ex voto offerings.
The Christian faith is not private or exclusively personal and the faith of all belongs to the Church. Often the donor is not giving for no occasion at all. So when God gives gifts to His children, the faithful often are motivated to give thanks to God and His saints by ex voto offerings. Anonymity whether by the request of the donor or by bureaucratic default severely hinders the faithful from rejoicing in God's favor to the donor. For as it is written:
"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." (Matthew 5:15)
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