Santa’s keeping secrets

CHICAGO

The gold coins have arrived in much the same manner every year for the past four years: An anonymous donor dropped each one into a Salvation Army kettle somewhere in Fort Myers, Fla.

Each coin was tucked inside a small plastic case with a neatly handwritten note that said simply, “In memory of Mimi.”

Every holiday season, such acts of generosity raise intriguing questions about the mysterious unknown donors. These “secret Santas” provide gifts ranging from plates of cookies to substantial piles of cash, and they are not in it for the glory or even the tax write-off. Many go to great lengths to keep their identities cloaked.

“It’s a little magical, isn’t it?” says Mary Davidson, who oversees a small group of anonymous donors known publicly only as the “Dream Team” at the Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. The group grants wishes to adults who are seriously ill, much like the Make-A-Wish Foundation does for children.

Each Christmas, they also secretly send holiday gifts and dinner with all the trimmings to a needy patient and family.

Last year, a convenience store manager outside Little Rock, Ark., bought clothing, toys and a few small Christmas gifts for a struggling family.

The mother of the family, whose husband had lost his job, could not believe the unsolicited generosity.

“I’d felt a little pessimistic. I’m down on a lot of people when I know I shouldn’t be,” she says. “But then she did that, and I could see goodness again.”

She asked not to be identified, partly because she does not want the woman who provided the gifts to know that she figured out her identity.

There is, after all, a tacit understanding among secret Santas that privacy will be respected.

At the National Philanthropic Trust in suburban Philadelphia, donors are careful to conceal anything that might reveal them.

One client distributes donations using only the name “Santa’s Silent Elves.” Another asks that donation checks be coded only with numbers and mailed from a random location.

Others use several trust organizations to deliver smaller checks so recipients do not know that the entire donation came from the same person or family.

“I think of it as a higher form of philanthropy,” says Eileen Heisman, president and chief executive officer of the trust. She’s worked at other organizations where donors making public gifts have asked: “How big are the letters going to be on the plaque?” that recognizes their contribution.

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