System and method for email-based donations
First Claim
1. A method for electronic fundraising utilizing simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) and an exchange of SMTP emails, the method comprising:
- storing, by a database, information that includes an identifier of a donor, payment information of the donor, an email address of the donor, and a plurality of donation indicators, each donation indicator including;
an identifier of a non-profit organization; and
a predetermined donation amount;
generating, by at least one processor, an SMTP donation solicitation email message, the SMTP donation solicitation email message including;
the email address of the donor,a plurality of visible SMTP mailto links, each visible SMTP mailto link includes;
a visible indicia of the predetermined donation amount corresponding to one of the donation indicators, andassociated non-visible unique identifying information including an SMTP email address of the electronic fundraising system and an associated one of said plurality of donation indicators, andwhereby each visible SMTP mailto link, upon selection, generates a unique SMTP donation email message from the email address of the donor that includes only the non-visible unique identifying information from the associated donation indicatortransmitting, by an email server, utilizing SMTP the SMTP donation solicitation email message;
receiving, by the email server, a unique SMTP donation email message, wherein the received SMTP donation email message is responsive to the SMTP donation solicitation email message, wherein the received SMTP donation email message is addressed to the SMTP email address of the electronic fundraising system and includes the SMTP email address of the sender of the received SMTP donation email message and the associated donation indicator; and
determining by the processor whether the SMTP email address of the sender of the SMTP donation email message matches the email address of the donor, and if so,transmitting by the SMTP email server, at least one electronic messages to a payment processing system, wherein the at least one electronic messages includes at least the payment information of the donor and confirms that a transfer of the predetermined donation amount from the donor to the non-profit organization should be performed.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An electronic commerce (e-commerce) system may send advertisement emails to customers that are registered with the e-commerce system. The advertisement emails may include mailto hyperlinks. Each mailto hyperlink describes an email message that may be generated when that hyperlink is selected. When a mailto hyperlink is selected, the generated email message may include one or more parameters related to a donation that be made by the customer to a non-profit organization. For example, the generated email message may include a customer identifier, and/or one or more parameters that indicate the non-profit to which a donation should be made, and an amount to be donated. The generated email message may then be transmitted to the e-commerce system. The e-commerce system may receive the message and, based on the parameters in the received message, communicate with a payment processing system to perform the donation indicated in the message.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method for electronic fundraising utilizing simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) and an exchange of SMTP emails, the method comprising:
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storing, by a database, information that includes an identifier of a donor, payment information of the donor, an email address of the donor, and a plurality of donation indicators, each donation indicator including; an identifier of a non-profit organization; and a predetermined donation amount; generating, by at least one processor, an SMTP donation solicitation email message, the SMTP donation solicitation email message including; the email address of the donor, a plurality of visible SMTP mailto links, each visible SMTP mailto link includes; a visible indicia of the predetermined donation amount corresponding to one of the donation indicators, and associated non-visible unique identifying information including an SMTP email address of the electronic fundraising system and an associated one of said plurality of donation indicators, and whereby each visible SMTP mailto link, upon selection, generates a unique SMTP donation email message from the email address of the donor that includes only the non-visible unique identifying information from the associated donation indicator transmitting, by an email server, utilizing SMTP the SMTP donation solicitation email message; receiving, by the email server, a unique SMTP donation email message, wherein the received SMTP donation email message is responsive to the SMTP donation solicitation email message, wherein the received SMTP donation email message is addressed to the SMTP email address of the electronic fundraising system and includes the SMTP email address of the sender of the received SMTP donation email message and the associated donation indicator; and determining by the processor whether the SMTP email address of the sender of the SMTP donation email message matches the email address of the donor, and if so, transmitting by the SMTP email server, at least one electronic messages to a payment processing system, wherein the at least one electronic messages includes at least the payment information of the donor and confirms that a transfer of the predetermined donation amount from the donor to the non-profit organization should be performed. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. An electronic fundraising system utilizing simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) and an exchange of SMTP emails comprising:
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a database configured to store information that includes an identifier of a donor, payment information of the donor, an email address of the donor, and a plurality of donation indicators, each donation indicator including; an identifier of a non-profit organization; and a predetermined donation amount; at least one processor configured to generate an SMTP donation solicitation email message, the donation solicitation message including; the email address of the donor, a plurality of visible SMTP mailto links, each visible SMTP mailto link includes; a visible indicia of the predetermined donation amount corresponding to one of the donation indicators, and associated non-visible unique identifying information including an SMTP email address of the electronic fundraising system and an associated one of said plurality of donation indicators, and whereby each visible SMTP mailto link, upon selection, generates a unique SMTP donation email message from the email address of the donor that includes only the non-visible unique identifying information from the associated donation indicator an email server configured to transmit utilizing SMTP the SMTP donation solicitation email message, and to receive a unique SMTP donation email message-responsive to the SMTP donation solicitation email message, wherein the SMTP donation email message is addressed to the SMTP email address of the electronic fundraising system and includes the SMTP email address of the sender of the received SMTP donation email message and the associated donation indicator; and the processor, further configured to determine whether the SMTP email address of the sender of the SMTP donation email message matches the email address of the donor, and if so, the email server further configured to transmit at least one message to a payment processing system, wherein the at least one messages includes at least the payment information of the donor and confirms that a transfer of the predetermined donation amount from the donor to the non-profit organization should be performed. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having processor-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by at least one processor in an electronic fundraising system, will cause the at least one processor to perform a method utilizing simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) and an exchange of SMTP emails, the method comprising:
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storing information that includes an identifier of a donor, payment information of the donor, an email address of the donor, and a plurality of donation indicators, each donation indicator including; a non-profit organization; and a predetermined donation amount; generating an SMTP donation solicitation email message, the SMTP donation solicitation email message including; the email address of the donor, a plurality of visible SMTP mailto links, each visible SMTP mailto link includes; a visible indicia of the predetermined donation amount corresponding to one of the donation indicators, and associated non-visible unique identifying information including an SMTP email address of the electronic fundraising system and an associated one of said plurality of donation indicators, and whereby each visible SMTP mailto link, upon selection, generates a unique SMTP donation email message from the email address of the donor that includes only the non-visible unique identifying information from the associated donation indicator transmitting, via an SMTP email server utilizing SMTP, the SMTP donation solicitation email message; receiving, via the SMTP email server, a the unique SMTP donation email message, wherein the received SMTP donation email message is responsive to the SMTP donation solicitation email message, wherein the SMTP donation email message is addressed to the email address of the electronic fundraising system and includes the SMTP email address of the sender of the received SMTP donation email message and the donation indicator; and determining by the processor whether the SMTP email address of the sender of the SMTP donation email message matches the email address of the donor, and if so, transmitting at least one electronic message to a payment processing system, wherein the at least one message includes the payment information of the donor and confirms that a transfer of the donation from the donor to the non-profit organization should be performed. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification