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22  AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY FOUNDATION v. BONTA 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

nations are confidentially reported to California’s Charita-
ble Trusts Section.12 

In fact, research shows that the vast majority of donors
prefer to publicize their charitable contributions.  See Dren-
nan, Where Generosity and Pride Abide: Charitable Nam-
ing Rights, 80 U. Cin. L. Rev. 45, 50 (2011) (“Research re-
veals  that  anonymous  largesse  from  the  wealthy  has
become rare”); Posner, Altruism, Status, and Trust in the 
Law  of  Gifts  and  Gratuitous  Promises,  1997  Wis.  L.  Rev. 
567, 574, n. 17 (“[C]haritable gifts are rarely made anony-
mously”).  One  study  found  that  anonymous  gifting  ac-
counted  for  less  than  1%  of  all  donations  to  Yale  Law 
School, Harvard Law School, and Carnegie Mellon Univer-
sity.  Glazer & Konrad, A Signaling Explanation for Char-
ity, 86 Am. Econ. Rev. 1019, 1021 (1996).  Symptomatic of
this trend is the explosion in charitable naming rights since
the mid-1990s.  Drennan, 80 U. Cin. L. Rev., at 50, 55.  As 
one author has recounted, “every nook and cranny of [pub-
lic]  buildings”  is  now  “tagged  by  some  wealthy,  generous
and  obviously  not  publicity-shy  donor.”    Isherwood,  The 
Graffiti  of  the  Philanthropic  Class,  N. Y.  Times,  Dec.  2, 
2007. 

Of course, it is always possible that an organization is in-
herently  controversial  or  for  an  apparently  innocuous  or-
ganization to explode into controversy.  The answer, how-
ever, is to ensure that confidentiality measures are sound 
or, in the case of public disclosures, to require a procedure
for  governments  to  address  requests  for  exemptions  in  a
timely manner.  It is not to hamper all government law en-
forcement efforts by forbidding confidential disclosures en 
masse. 

—————— 

12 See California Dept. of Justice, Office of Atty. Gen., Charity Regis-
tration Reports (June 15, 2021), https://oag.ca.gov/charities/reports#crr;
Santa  Barbara  County  Horticultural  Society 
(June  15,  2021),
https://www.sbchs.org.