Significant charitable giving creates a public record at the receiving institution and often at the donor's foundation. The grant is named, the donor is named, the amount is named or strongly implied through naming rights, the building's plaque, or the institution's annual report. The principal who values their giving but not the publicity has, in many cases, accepted the publicity as a condition of the giving without considering the full picture of what is being published.

The published record is durable. A grant made twenty years ago is still in the institution's history. The naming is reported by the institution's communications team in ways that are then re-reported by third parties. The donor, who may have moved away from the cause or simply preferred the work to remain quiet, finds their name preserved in association with it indefinitely.

The work here is partly forward-looking (how future giving is structured, what publicity is accepted as a condition, what anonymity is requested and respected) and partly retrospective (what the present record shows, what can be addressed in the institution's communications, what cannot).

The first sensible step is to know what the record presently shows.