Donor

A donor in general is a person, organization or government which donates something voluntarily. The term is usually used to represent a form of pure altruism, but is 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 (law), 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.

The Online Etymology Dictionary traces the English-language word "donor" back to the mid-15th century, with origins in Anglo-French, Old French, Latin and Proto-Indo-European.^[1]

In science

Often the word is used as a shorter term for:

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