Digital systems like mobile phones and networked computers make it ever easier to ask for money and to give it – possibly even too easy, as the Scrooge-like feeling I recounted having at the opening of this book reveals. It should make it easier to track donations, as every online transaction is recorded, whereas we lose track of the coins and bills that we drop in a basket or hand to someone on the street. Ironically, because so many of our online donations are made on proprietary systems such as GoFundMe, the public doesn’t have access to this data.

Online giving has also helped blur the lines between giving to nonprofits, for-profits, individuals, or politics as each of these options looks basically the same on a crowdfunding platform. This may be another reason that the tax code, which has played such a big role for nonprofits seems to be less and less important to givers.

From donating online to donating cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, the last decade has seen an ever-expanding dependency on digital tools for giving time and money. One mapping conversation participant noted, ‘I do give money to people on the streets sometimes. But I rarely carry cash anymore.’ This point was brought home to me on a subway ride not long ago. As happens on subways everywhere, a person came pushing through the doors between cars as the train was moving. As he walked through the crowded car asking for money, he repeated himself, ‘Need a dollar, please. Help me out. I’ve got Venmo. Need a dollar, please. I take cash and Venmo. ‘

For some people, the digital underpinnings of giving are just assumed. It’s stranger for them to use cash (for anything) than to be impressed with the ability to give via text message or inside of a gaming platform such as Twitch. For others, online tools are the exception, not the rule. But anytime – and every time – there is a digital technology involved, we face the question of what happens with the digital data.

Read the full article about giving in the digital age by Lucy Bernholz at Alliance Magazine.