Donor

A donor in general is a person, organization or government who donates something voluntarily. The term is usually used to represent a form of pure altruism but sometimes used when the payment for a service is recognized by all parties as representing less than the value of the donation and that the motivation is altruistic. In business law, a donor is someone who is giving the gift, and a donee the person receiving the gift.

More broadly, the term is used to refer to any entity that serves as the source of something transferred to a different entity, including in scientific fields the source of matter or energy passed from one object to another.

In medical science

Often the word is used as a shorter term for:

• Blood donor
• Electron donor — (by analogy) a technical term in chemistry and semiconductor physics (see also the next entry)
• Donor (semiconductors)
• Organ donor
• Sperm donor
• Egg donor

In society and international relations

• Benefactor (law)
• Donor government or donor organisation in official development assistance
• Grant (law)
• Patronage

In art

• Donor portrait, portrait of the person who paid for a painting, typically in a church

In literature

In fairy tales, a donor is a stock character that tests the hero (and sometimes other characters as well) and provides magical assistance to the hero when he succeeds.

See also