donorname

Donorname is a term used in donation management to designate the name associated with a donor in a gift record. It is a data field used by nonprofit databases, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and fundraising platforms to identify and address donors. Donorname is typically stored alongside other donor attributes such as donor ID, contact information, giving history, and acknowledgment preferences.

In practice, donorname may represent a donor’s legal name, a preferred display name, or a corporate entity name for organizational gifts. Some systems separate legal name from display name to support formal receipts and public recognition. Standards for capitalization, spacing, and diacritics vary, necessitating data cleaning and normalization for consistent reporting.

Privacy and governance concerns shape how donorname is used. Access is usually restricted to authorized staff, and disclosures are guided by consent, privacy laws, and donor acknowledgment policies. When a donor requests anonymity, the donorname field may be left blank or replaced with a placeholder such as Anonymous in public reports.

Outside nonprofit fundraising, similar concepts appear in research and biobanking contexts, where donor names may be protected or replaced by codes to preserve confidentiality, in compliance with ethics approvals and data protection standards.

See also: donor, donations, donor management system, privacy and data protection.