The donation in your name thing was big in the late 80's and early 90's. People thought they were "helping" or whatever by doing it. I am not sure how many followed through with it though as you could print those little cards up with a printer. There were even some card companies that created blank ones that let you buy them then put the name of the person and charity in on your own. Someone made some money on that scam, just like the pet rock and later, the pet USB rock.
At least with crypto, the recipient can see they were gifted something and if they don't care for it, they can easily unload it (unless you gift them some obscure crypto).
Ah now that you've mentioned it! It does ring a little something. Everything just seems so scammy before blockchains :P hahah!
Sadly, so many people call things using the block chain a scam but then blindly donate to 'charities' that barely give 2 to 5 percent to actually help people.
It is.. you may enjoy this little post here for that matter! : https://steemit.com/post-irony/@kevinwong/banking-on-honesty-transparency-responsibility
'Just ask Bob' lol. Upvoted. That was funny.