If you are going to make a charity group anyway though, you might as well announce the name of the donor. The social pressures to donate will be higher if you announce the name of the donor, and as explained earlier the donor will not be punished by egalitarian instinct because the donor did not choose to have their name published in the public report—in fact the donor will get a higher status.
Could be overcome by making the donations non-anonymous within the group, and anonymized only for the outside world.
That could work! That way, you can tell outsiders “We are 20 people who raise a total of $10,000, will you help us?” It creates the feeling that everyone is donating, and doesn’t sound like boasting.
However, following the principles outlined above, within the group you wouldn’t want any anonymity at all (unless there is some hidden benefit to anonymity over plausibly-deniable publicity which you are seeing that I am not).
the donor will not be punished by egalitarian instinct because the donor did not choose to have their name published in the public report
I think this would work fine. I would probably put an emphasis in the report on the group first—start by speaking about common effort and how much the group did together; provide individual names and numbers at the bottom of the page, or as a sidebar on the right side of the page.
If you are going to make a charity group anyway though, you might as well announce the name of the donor. The social pressures to donate will be higher if you announce the name of the donor, and as explained earlier the donor will not be punished by egalitarian instinct because the donor did not choose to have their name published in the public report—in fact the donor will get a higher status.
That could work! That way, you can tell outsiders “We are 20 people who raise a total of $10,000, will you help us?” It creates the feeling that everyone is donating, and doesn’t sound like boasting.
However, following the principles outlined above, within the group you wouldn’t want any anonymity at all (unless there is some hidden benefit to anonymity over plausibly-deniable publicity which you are seeing that I am not).
I think this would work fine. I would probably put an emphasis in the report on the group first—start by speaking about common effort and how much the group did together; provide individual names and numbers at the bottom of the page, or as a sidebar on the right side of the page.