Philanthropy management apparatus, system, and methods of use and doing business

• US 8,712,877 B2
• Filed: 01/17/2007
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Newdea, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Newdea, Inc.
• Inventors: Stremler, Troy, Clark, Stephen P., Emrich, Jeffrey M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Goyea, Olusegun
• Application Number:
  US11/624,193
• Publication Number:
  US 20080288374A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,659 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/7, 705/26, 705/39, 705/40, 705/14, 705/30, 705/34, 705/27, 705/11, 705/36.R, 705/44, 705/7.14, 705/80, 705/32, 705/2, 235/375, 235/380, 235/379, 235/376, 709/223, 709/224
• US Class Current: 705/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0279 Fundraising management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/10 Tax strategies
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

A philanthropic donation management system and methods of use and doing business. The system includes a computing server in communication with a communications network, such as the Internet, a LAN, or a WAN. The computing server maintains information about charitable projects and provides remote users and others with management tools for inputting information about charitable projects, pre-approving or otherwise assessing them, and accessing and managing charitable project information, portfolios, user team member information and access. The system can provide a business based on, for example, providing system, access, charitable fund management, and charitable donation transaction fees.

Claims

1. A charitable donation management system of the type accessible by a plurality of remote users through a communications network, the charitable donation management system comprising in combination:

A. at least one server computing system in communication with said communications network;

B. one or more charitable project databases mounted on the server computing system, the one or more charitable project databases including;

the identity of a plurality of pre-approved charitable projects;

financial information about said plurality of pre-approved charitable projects wherein financial information about said plurality of pre-approved charitable projects comprises at least one of;

funding request period, total budget for at least one project, matching grant information for at least one project, a total annual expenses for at least one project, or expense breakdown for at least one project;

project objective information about said plurality of pre-approved charitable projects; and

updated status information relating to said plurality of pre-approved charitable projects;

C. a charitable project data server system mounted on the server computing system in communication with the one or more charitable project databases and the communications network; and

D. wherein the communication network is configured to communicate the financial information, the project objective information, and the updated status information to a remote user, and further wherein the communications network receives a donation after communicating the updated status information.

2. The charitable project donation management system of claim 1 wherein the communications network includes the Internet.

3. The charitable project donation management system of claim 1 wherein the communications network includes a local area network.

4. The charitable project donation management system of claim 1 wherein the communications network includes a wide area network.

5. The charitable project donation management system of claim 1 wherein the charitable project data server system is browser based.

6. The charitable project donation management system of claim 2 wherein the server computing system comprises a web-server.

7. The charitable project donation management system of claim 2 wherein the one or more charitable project databases include remote user team information.

8. The charitable project donation management system of claim 3 wherein the one or more charitable project databases include pre-approved remote user login information.

9. The charitable project donation management system of claim 1 wherein the one or more charitable project databases include fee information.

10. The charitable project donation management system of claim 9 wherein the fee information includes information about at least one of:

a fee charged periodically;

a fee charged on a transactional basis;

a fee charged based on amount of time spent using the charitable project management system;

a fee charged for conducting a charitable project assessment;

or a fee charged for conducting a charitable organization assessment.

11. The charitable project donation management system of claim 1 wherein the one or more charitable project databases includes project goals for at least one project.

12. The charitable project donation management system of claim 1 wherein the one or more charitable project databases includes a website URL for at least one project.

13. The charitable project donation management system of claim 1 wherein project objective information about said plurality of pre-approved charitable projects comprises at least one of:

economic development information for at least one project;

infrastructure development information for at least one project;

social development information for at least one project;

or spiritual development information for at least one project.

14. The charitable project donation management system of claim 1 wherein the one or more charitable project databases mounted on the server computing system further comprise, for at least one project, approval information.