**Donor** (noun) — The person who makes a gift or grants a power to another person, particularly the person who creates a power of attorney and appoints someone to act on their behalf.
A donor is someone who gives something to another person. In everyday language, we think of donors as people who give to charity, but in legal terms, a donor is anyone who makes a gift or grants a power to someone else.
In power of attorney documents, you are the donor. You're the person giving (or "donating") the power to someone else to act on your behalf. The person you appoint is called the donee. So if you create a power of attorney appointing your daughter to manage your finances, you're the donor and she's the donee.
The term donor also applies when you give gifts of money or property to others. If you transfer your house to your son, you're the donor and he's the donee. These lifetime gifts from donor to donee can have estate planning implications, especially if they're large or made shortly before death.
⏱ When you'll encounter this term
You'll see the term donor primarily in power of attorney documents. The document will often refer to "the donor" throughout, meaning you, the person who created the document. Understanding this helps you read through these documents and recognize when they're talking about you versus your appointed attorney.
As a donor under a power of attorney, you retain certain rights even after granting the power. You can revoke the power at any time (as long as you have mental capacity), and you can specify limitations on what your donee can and cannot do. The power exists to help you, not to remove your control.
For gift donors, it's important to understand that once you've completed a gift, it generally belongs entirely to the donee. You can't usually take it back unless there was fraud or undue influence involved. Large gifts made by donors shortly before death may be examined during estate administration to ensure they were proper and to assess whether they should be considered when calculating inheritance entitlements.
**Related terms:** [Donee](/dictionary/donee), [Power of Attorney](/dictionary/power-of-attorney), [Gift](/dictionary/gift)
---
Learn More
Related Dictionary Terms