• Seraph@fedia.io
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    1 day ago

    It’s not a donation if they get to dictate what the organization does - it’s a bribe.

    • IMongoose@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      There was a librarian who saved his whole life and when he passed donated I think 1 million dollars to his old university. That university then spent the money on a new score board for the football field. I bet if he saw that he would have wished he put some stipulations on his donation.

      • mysticpickle@lemmy.ca
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        11 hours ago

        https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/15/494134464/-1-million-of-frugal-librarians-bequest-to-n-h-school-goes-to-football-scoreboar

        The only association between the librarian and the football program that was mentioned by the university was the observation that Morin had spent the past 15 months of his life in an assisted living center — and that there, “he started watching football games on television, mastering the rules and names of the players and teams.”

        Yeah that sounds like a load of bull from the administrators to justify an extravagant purchase 🙄

      • hedgehogging_the_bed@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        That was such a weird story! On one hand, he has been a big supporter of the football program at the school and the scoreboard didn’t seem totally unreasonable. But as a former university librarian, the salary is generally under $60k for non-mangers, so saving that $1 million was an amazing feat of savings and the scoreboard seemed like a weird choice by the school.

      • Hazmatastic@lemm.ee
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        22 hours ago

        I have a similar line of thinking. I’m a musician, so if I was filthy rich I might want to donate money to a school’s music department. If the school is one fiscal entity, I would have to put that as a stipulation to ensure they gave the money to that department, not divert it to something overfunded or just padding the board’s pocket as bonuses for “a job well done”

    • Hannes@feddit.org
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      1 day ago

      So someone donates money to their city’s library with the specific purpose that they can expand their building to have more space that’s a bribe?

      • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        It’s the giving a public institution money only if they do a certain thing that can be compared to a bribe, the morality of said “thing” being irrelevant.

        I think it boils down to who has the power: if they start a collection for money to expand their building to have more space and you chose to participate then it’s not you dictating what they do with the money, as all you did was see a cause that you found worthy and contribute to it - the power was entirelly in their hands since they could’ve chosen to collect for a different purpose and you were just a passive agent - whilst if you give them money with the proviso that you get to dictate how it gets used, then the power is in your hands not theirs: the former is more akin to charity and the latter to bribing.

        That said, “bribe” is indeed an imperfect metaphor.

    • jabathekek@sopuli.xyz
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      1 day ago

      The question is; does this give the anonymous donor that ability? Being anonymous implies not.

      • Great Blue Heron@lemmy.ca
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        1 day ago

        I’m fairly certain it is only anonymous “on paper”. Behind closed doors, they know where it came from and what is expected in return.