SYSTEMS AND METHODS TO PROCESS DONATIONS

• US 20120276868A1
• Filed: 04/30/2012
• Published: 11/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Boku Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Boku Incorporated
• Inventors: Martell, Javier Francisco
• Granted Patent: US 9,191,217 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/406
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3223 Realising banking transactions through M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0279 Fundraising management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1453 Methods or systems for payment or settlement of the charges for data transmission involving significant interaction with the data transmission network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1457 using an account
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1464 using a card, such as credit card, prepay card or SIM
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1467 involving prepayment
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/51 for resellers, retailers or service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/68 Payment of value-added services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8242 Transaction based
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/844 Message, e.g. SMS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/866 a predetermined or undetermined destination, e.g. notifying a prepaid accounting server of a successful delivery of a service
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0192 Sponsored, subsidised calls via advertising, e.g. calling cards with ads or connecting to special ads, free calling time by purchasing goods
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided to facilitate donations via mobile communications. In one aspect, a system includes a data storage facility and an interchange having a common format processor and a plurality of converters to interface with a plurality of different controllers of mobile communications. The converters are configured to communicate with the controllers in different formats and with the common format processor in a common format. For a payment to a merchant, the common format processor provides a user interface configured to present charity donation options in response to a phone number being specified in the user interface to identify a fund source. The common format processor uses one of the converters to communicate with a mobile phone at the phone number to confirm the payment to the merchant and a donation to a separate charity organization specified via the user interface.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

providing, via a computing device, a user interface to a user for a payment to a merchant, in response to the user visiting a website of the merchant to make a purchase, wherein the user interface is configured to receive a phone number of the user to identify a source of funds for the payment and configured to receive an optional identification of a charity organization;

receiving, by the computing device, a request via the user interface, the request including the phone number and the identification of the charity organization;

in response to the request, communicating, by the computing device, with a mobile phone at the phone number for a confirmation of the request;

in response to the confirmation, billing, by the computing device, a fund source associated with the phone number to collect funds for the payment to the merchant and a donation to the charity organization; and

notifying, by computing device, the merchant of a success in the billing of the funding source for the payment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface is configured to present a list of charity organizations to allow the user to select the charity organization from the list of charity organizations.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface is configured to receive a user specified amount for the donation.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an amount of the donation based on a difference between a price point selected from a set of predetermined discrete price points and an amount of the payment.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the set of predetermined discrete price points is determined by a set of premium message codes, each respective premium message code in the set of premium message codes corresponding to a predetermined price charged to a recipient of the respective premium message code transmitted via a premium message to a mobile phone of the recipient;

and the predetermined price is specified by a telecommunication carrier of the mobile phone of the recipient.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the user interface is configured to present the amount of the donation.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a price point based on an amount of the payment and a set of discrete prices associated with a predetermined set of premium message codes, each respective premium message code in the predetermined set of premium message codes corresponding to a predetermined price charged to a recipient of the respective premium message code transmitted via a premium message to a mobile phone of the recipient;

identifying a set of premium messages corresponding to the price point, each of the set of premium messages containing one of the predetermined set of premium message codes; and

calculating an amount of the donation based on a difference between the price point and the amount of the payment;

wherein the billing of the funding source comprises transmitting the set of premium messages to the mobile phone at the phone number.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein if no charity organization is identified in the user interface, a payment of a first amount is paid to the merchant for the purchase;

and if the charity organization is identified in the user interface, a portion of the first amount is provided to the charity organization for the donation.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein in response to the identification of the charity organization, a portion of the payment is redirected as the donation to the charity organization.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein in response to the identification of the charity organization, a portion of fees charged by the computing device for processing of the payment is donated to the charity organization.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing, by the computing device, the donation to the charity organization via transmitting at least one premium message to a phone number designated to collect charity contributions for the charity organization.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the at least one premium message transmitted from the computing device to the phone number designated to collect charity contributions for the charity organization is configured to indicate the phone number of the user included in the request received via the user interface.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the phone number designated to collect charity contributions for the charity organization is a short code.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing data tracking charity donation contributions from at least one of;

the user and the merchant.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the fund source is one selected from the group consisting of:

a bank account, a credit account, a debit account, a prepaid account, a checking account and a savings account.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicating with the mobile phone at the phone number for the confirmation of the request includes transmitting a text message to the mobile phone at the phone number to request a response for the confirmation;

and the text message identifies an amount of the donation.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the response for the confirmation is a message transmitted from the mobile phone at the phone number via a short message service.

18. A computer-readable storage media storing instructions which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

providing, via the computer, a user interface to a user for a payment to a merchant, in response to the user visiting a website of the merchant to make a purchase, wherein the user interface is configured to receive a phone number of the user to identify a source of funds for the payment and configured to receive an optional identification of a charity organization;

receiving, by the computer, a request via the user interface, the request including the phone number and the identification of the charity organization;

in response to the request, communicating, by the computer, with a mobile phone at the phone number for a confirmation of the request;

in response to the confirmation, billing, by the computer, a fund source associated with the phone number to collect funds for the payment to the merchant and a donation to the charity organization; and

notifying, by the computer, the merchant of a success in the billing of the funding source for the payment.

19. A computing apparatus, comprising:

a data storage facility configured to store charity preferences of users of phone numbers; and

an interchange coupled with the data storage facility, the interchange including a common format processor and a plurality of converters to interface with a plurality of controllers, the converters configured to communicate with the controllers in different formats, the converters to communicate with the common format processor in a common format;

wherein the common format processor is configured to provide a user interface to a user of a phone number for a payment to a merchant, the user interface configured to present charity donation options according to a charity preference of the user in response to the phone number being specified in the user interface; and

wherein in response to a request received in the user interface identifying a charity organization, the common format processor is configured to use one of the converters to communicate with a mobile phone at the phone number to confirm the payment to the merchant and a donation to the charity organization.

20. The computing apparatus of claim 19, wherein the common format processor is further configured to use the one of the plurality of converters to transmit premium messages to the mobile phone at the phone number to collect funds for the payment and the donation.