Method and apparatus for increasing charitable donations by providing instantaneous donor recognition

• US 8,032,463 B2
• Filed: 01/16/2008
• Issued: 10/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: CollegeNET Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CollegeNET Incorporated
• Inventors: Wolfson, James H. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Elisca; Pierre E
• Application Number:
  US12/015,206
• Publication Number:
  US 20080262966A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,357 Days
• Field of Search: 705/50, 705/64, 705/67
• US Class Current: 705/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; 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 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3674 involving authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0279 Fundraising management

Abstract

Charitable donations are increased by automatically providing immediate on-line recognition of on-line donors. A list of donors is maintained on a Web page acknowledging the on-line contributions. Donor names on the list can be links to additional information about the donation or the donor. Information about donor and donation is entered by the donor, who can specify what information is to be published on the Web and what information is to remain unpublished. The donor list can be arranged in order of donation size, and donors can compete for position on the list. The donor information can indicate membership in a group, and donations can also be totaled by group to encourage donation competition between groups.

Claims

1. A system for providing recognition for donors donating to non-profit organizations, the system comprising:

a network server to communicate with a plurality of computer users over a computer network, said network server including a computer processor coupled to a computer memory and a network interface; and

a computer program encoded within the memory, said computer program comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the network server to perform the steps of;

transmitting over the computer network an electronic form to a first computer user to use to make a donation to the non-profit organization;

receiving over the computer network form data entered by the first computer user into the electronic form, wherein the form data include an amount of the donation and payment information;

obtaining over the computer network an authorization for payment from a payment funding server of a financial institution associated with the donor;

in response to obtaining the payment authorization from the financial institution, automatically adding data identifying the first computer user to a publicly available donor list published on the computer network;

receiving over the computer network form data entered by the first computer user into the electronic form, wherein the form data include additional information about the first computer user; and

presenting to a second computer user viewing the donor list over the computer network the additional information about the first computer user in response to second computer user selecting the first computer user from the donor list.

2. The system of claim 1 in which the received form data include personal information and an indication of what parts of the personal information will be made publicly accessible to the plurality computer users over the computer network.

3. The system of claim 1 in which the received form data include a credit card number or a bank account number.

4. The system of claim 1 in which the donor list is arranged by size of donation and further comprising displaying the size of donation required to obtain a position on the list.

5. The system of claim 1 in which the step of automatically adding the first computer user to a publicly available donor list published on the computer network is performed by the network server.

6. The system of claim 1 in which the step of automatically adding the first computer user to a publicly available donor list published on the computer network is performed by a server of the non-profit organization.

7. The system of claim 1 in which the step of automatically adding the first computer user to a publicly available donor list published on the computer network immediately upon obtaining the payment authorization from the financial institution.

8. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium for providing recognition for donors donating to non-profit organizations, the computer-readable medium comprising:

a computer program encoded within the non-transitory computer-readable medium, said computer program comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer processor, cause a computer to perform the steps of;

transmitting over the computer network an electronic form to a computer user to use to make a donation to the non-profit organization;

receiving over the computer network form data entered by the computer user into the electronic form, wherein the form data include an amount of the donation and payment information;

obtaining over the computer network an authorization for payment from a payment funding server of a financial institution associated with the donor; and

in response to obtaining payment authorization from the financial institution, automatically adding data identifying the computer user to a publicly available donor list published on the computer network;

receiving over the computer network form data entered by the first computer user into the electronic form, wherein the form data include additional information about the first computer user; and

presenting to a second computer user viewing the donor list over the computer network the additional information about the first computer user in response to second computer user selecting the first computer user from the donor list.

9. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 8 in which the received form data include personal information and an indication of what parts of the personal information will be made publicly accessible to the plurality computer users over the computer network.

10. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 8 in which the received form data include a credit card number or a bank account number.

11. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 8 in which the donor list is arranged by size of donation and further comprising displaying the size of donation required to obtain a position on the list.

12. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 8 in which the step of automatically adding the donor list to a publicly available donor list published on the computer network is performed by a third-party donation servicer.

13. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 8 in which the step of automatically adding the donor list to a publicly available donor list published on the computer network is performed by the non-profit organization.

14. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 8 the step of automatically adding the first computer user to a publicly available donor list published on the computer network immediately upon obtaining the payment authorization from the financial institution.