Method and System for Gamified Crowdfunding

• US 20160110776A1
• Filed: 10/16/2015
• Published: 04/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Givling, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Givling, Inc.
• Inventors: Pratt, Lizbeth Lenore
• Granted Patent: US 10,204,361 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0279 Fundraising management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3223 Architectural aspects of a gaming system, e.g. internal configuration, master/slave, wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3239 Tracking of individual players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3258 Cumulative reward schemes, e.g. jackpots
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3272 Games involving multiple players

Abstract

A system and method for gamified crowdfunding over the Internet in order to crowdfund worthy or charitable causes while offering incentives and rewards in the form of an entertaining game and the potential added benefit of a share of the proceeds. Proceeds from the gamified crowdfunding could be shared between the worthy cause and the high scoring donor-participants. A host identifies and selects, through a contest or other selection process, a cause or beneficiary to be featured. The host possesses or owns a server with a processor and memory in which to store a game of knowledge or skill and the game interface and that server is accessed by users via a network. Through the game, queries and answers are exchanged. Through a personal computing device, a user creates an account, pays funds to support a cause, and competes and interacts with the game and other users.

Claims

1. An improvement to a technical field of crowdsourcing comprising:

a combination of providing a game of skill to a plurality of funders each paying a nominal participation fee and aggregating the nominal fee paid by the funders to establish a fund,

wherein a percentage of the fund is paid to a game host,

wherein the majority of the fund is paid in equal shares to at least one beneficiary and at least one funder who is most successful in the game of skill.

2. The improvement of claim 1, wherein the beneficiary comprises an aggregated group of student loan debtors.

3. A gamified crowdfunding system comprising:

providing a series of challenges to be attempted by a plurality of players,

charging a nominal fee to each player attempting the challenges,

aggregating the nominal fee from each player to create a fund,

sharing the fund between a plurality of groups,

a first group comprising players most successful completing the challenges,

a second group comprising student loan debtors, and

a third group comprising game administrators.

4. A method comprising:

hosting a game of skill,

making the game accessible to devices communicating over a network,

accepting a plurality of players to participate in the game via devices,

charging players a nominal fee to participate in the game,

accumulating a fund from the fees paid by each player,

tabulating a player score wherein the player score is a product of skill in the game,

comparing the score for each player with the score of other players,

awarding a first fund portion to the player with a high score,

distributing a second fund portion to at least one beneficiary,

reserving a percentage of the fund to pay an administrator fee.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first fund portion and the second fund portion are equal.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one beneficiary is at least one student loan debtor having a student loan debt.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one beneficiary is an aggregated group of student loan debtors each having student loan debt.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the aggregated group of student loan debtors are placed into a queue.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising paying off the student loans in order of the queue.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein the nominal fee is less than $1.00 USD.

11. The method of claim 4, further comprising establishing a goal for the fund at least as high as $11,000,000.00 USD.

12. The method of claim 4, wherein instead of comparing the scores for each player with scores of other players and awarding the first fund portion to a single player, the method comprises:

assigning each player to at least one team with at least one other player,

accumulating the player scores on the team into a team score and repeating for each team,

comparing each team score with every other team score and declaring the team with a highest cumulative score to be a winning team,

ranking the player scores within each team,

awarding the first fund portion to the winning team,

awarding a larger proportion of the first fund portion paid to the winning team to the players of the winning team based on the rank of the player score within the team.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

dividing the game into a plurality of award periods which together encompass an entire funding period,

sectioning the nominal fee paid by each player into an award period share and a funding period share,

routing at least a portion of the award period share into an award period prize,

routing the funding period share into the fund for the game,

assigning each player to at least one award period team,

comparing team scores of each award period team,

ranking teams scores from lowest to highest and declaring the award period team with the highest score for the award period to be a winning award period team,

awarding the award period prize to the winning award period team,

awarding the first fund portion to the winning team with the highest cumulative team score for the entire funding period.

14. A method comprising:

A. hosting a game,

B. making the game accessible to devices communicating over a network,

C. accepting a plurality of players to participate in the game,

D. charging each player a fee to participate in the game,

E. randomly assigning each player to a first team in which the player is an active player assigned at least one other player as a teammate,

F. setting game success measurement standards through which the player earns a game score in an active round,

G. randomly assigning the game score as a passive teammate to at least one additional team where another player will be the active player,

H. aggregating the game score for each active player and passive teammate to form a team score,

I. repeating C through H in order to amass a set of competing teams,

J. accumulating the fee paid by each player to create a fund,

K. ending the game,

L. dividing the fund into three parts, a team fund, a hosting fund, and a beneficiary fund,

M. ranking competing teams according to the team score,

N. awarding the team fund to the winning competing team,

O. retaining the hosting fund,

P. donating the beneficiary fund to a beneficiary.

15. The method according to claim 14, further comprising:

Q. comparing the game score of each teammate with each other teammate to determine a high score within the team,

R. awarding a proportionate percentage of the team fund to each teammate based upon the game score where higher game scores earn a higher percentage of the team fund.

16. The method according to claim 14, wherein aspects of the method may be carried out simultaneously or in varying order.

17. A system for using an online game to attract and award funders seeking to crowdsource a beneficiary fund comprising:

an interactive game accessible via devices communicating over a network,

a plurality of funders each contributing a nominal fee to participate in the interactive game;

a plurality of funding teams comprised of the funders,

a set of challenges posed to each funder,

wherein each funder responds to the challenges and continues to respond to the challenges until a maximum number of failed attempts is accumulated,

wherein the funder earns an individual score as the funder responds to the challenges,

wherein the funder responding correctly to the most challenges earns a highest individual score,

wherein the individual score is randomly assigned to at least one funding team,

wherein a team score is aggregated from each individual score on the funding team,

wherein the funding team vies with other funding teams to earn a highest team score,

the funding team with the highest team score is declared a winning funding team and is awarded a portion of the beneficiary fund,

wherein each individual score is ranked with other individual scores on the winning funding team and is awarded a percentage of the portion of the beneficiary fund according to a best score rank,

a portion of the beneficiary fund is retained by a game administrator creating and scoring responses to the challenges,

a remainder of the beneficiary fund is distributed to a beneficiary.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the beneficiary is one or more student loan debtors.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the beneficiary is more than one student loan debtor grouped into a single aggregated queue.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the beneficiary is a charity.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the beneficiary is also the game administrator.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the set of challenges comprise a plurality of trivia questions.