> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.wegive.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Why a Supporter Shows as Anonymous in Recent Activity

> WeGive Help Center article: Why a Supporter Shows as Anonymous in Recent Activity

## Overview

Sometimes a supporter's name shows as **Anonymous** (with no avatar) in a fundraiser or checkout's **Recent Activity** feed, or on a **Top Donors** leaderboard — even on a gift where that specific donor did not check the "give anonymously" box and did not check out as a guest.

This is expected behavior, not a display bug. The name/avatar masking is a property of the **supporter as a whole**, not of the individual gift you happen to be looking at.

## Why this happens

A supporter's name and avatar are masked everywhere their activity is shown if **either** of these is true:

* The supporter has chosen to keep their overall giving amount private in their donor-portal privacy settings, **or**
* **Any single gift, anywhere in that supporter's full giving history, was given anonymously.**

That second condition is the one that catches people off guard. It doesn't matter whether the specific transaction you're reviewing was anonymous — if that supporter gave anonymously even once, on any other gift, their name and avatar are masked across every Recent Activity feed and every Top Donors leaderboard, everywhere, going forward.

## What to check

If a supporter's name is unexpectedly masked:

1. **Don't stop at the one transaction.** Look at that supporter's full giving history, not just the gift you're currently reviewing — the anonymous gift causing the masking may be a completely different, older transaction.
2. **Check their privacy settings.** A supporter can also mask their own giving amount from their donor-portal privacy preferences, independent of any single gift's anonymous flag.
3. **This is correct, expected behavior**, not an error to fix. If a supporter wants their name to display normally going forward, the anonymous flag needs to be corrected on whichever historical transaction is causing the masking — or the supporter needs to continue appearing masked as long as that record exists.

There's currently no indicator in the dashboard that tells you which specific transaction is causing a given supporter's name to be masked — you'll need to review their transaction list directly to find it.


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