AU2002319001A1 - A system and method of fund-raising - Google Patents

Description

A SYSTEM AND METHOD OF FUND-RAISING

FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to fundraising in particular but not limited to a system and method of fundraising for an educational organisation by a loyalty purchase arrangement or scheme administered through a community based portal website for subscribing members.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The problem of raising funds by non-profit organisations such as school based parents organisations is well known.

Parents or families provide a natural resource in children which are sent into educational institutions to be processed or refined.

Educational Institutions prepare our children for employment. Our children then work for business accordingly, business or commerce has the most to gain from an educated workforce.

Reports such as "America's Children & The Information Super Highway" a May 1996 publication of The Children's Partnership stated,

"Business pays a price for the lack of information literacy among workers. The cost to business is estimated at $25 to $30 billion annually in poor quality and low productivity; training and retraining adds significantly more cost".

As business demands high IT literacy, education institutions have to gear or tool up to meet this requirement. Expenses such as the development of new curricular and staff training compete for existing funds. Hardware, software, network access and upgrades are additional costs borne by the community.

Whilst governments and family contributions have increased in real terms there is a dramatic shortage of funding, contributing to a decline in education standards. Although IT itself may eventually assist in this process the current reaction is to promote a "user pays" solution. The present inventors believe in an end user pays philosophy, believe that the wrong end user has been identified and targeted. Although business, is the major benefactor of education, it does not contribute significantly to its costs.

Furthermore, taxing or placing levies on businesses is not successful or palatable.

In many instances, although businesses would like a relationship with Parent Groups and recognise the market potential, they are daunted by the prospect of having to go out and deal with thousands of associations whose executives change and wherein policy directions change on a yearly basis. Members of parent associations including the inventor are aware of the problems of the IT divide. Whilst most commentators recognise the problems of the IT Divide and the general lack of educational funding very few have identified the cause or offered a solution.

OBJECT OF INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the present invention to seek to ameliorate some of the problems and limitations of prior art methods of funding organisations or to at least provide the public with a useful choice.

STATEMENT OF INVENTION

According to one but not necessarily the only aspect, the invention resides in a system for raising funds including

A web server hosting a community based Internet portal of subscribing providers of goods and/or services, the portal contactable through a user system by subscribers and purchasers, the web server processor interfacing with a web browser adapted to browse information and data on the portal, a database and means for data entry retrieval and processing on the database, computerised fund accounting means adapted to account for on-line and offline transactions between subscribers, between purchasers, and between subscribers and purchasers, wherein in operation, goods and/or services are provided by subscribers to purchasers under a loyalty arrangement or scheme and wherein provider and purchaser data can be entered, retrieved and processed on the database by the data entry, retrieval and processing means, and on-line and off-line sales transactions under the loyalty arrangement can be accounted for by the accounting means and wherein loyalty benefits and provider subscription fees or a part thereof can be processed, accounted for and allocated for distribution to the benefit of the members of the community.

Preferably the user system is a computer system with an interactive display means for communication by the Internet.

Preferably the interactive display means includes a visual display unit with an interactive device, typically a key pad, touch pad, mouse and/or joystick device.

Preferably information and data on the website is presented and accessed by all users on-line via the web browser.

Preferably there is a directory component which enables users to be located by their name, physical address, locality, post code or by the type of goods and services provided.

Preferably there is a user identification component which includes security protocols that qualify and restrict the access of the user.

Preferably the user identification component comprises a fire wall, an access manager and a software router to qualify the access of the user to different sites on the portal according to the security clearance or access level of the user.

Preferably user access is via a user name and/or password recognised or rejected by the Access Manager.

Typically, the community is an educational community such as a Parent and Friends Association. Preferably the system is managed on behalf of members of the community by a fund manager. Preferably the fund manager is an Internet service provider (ISP) which provides Internet access services to the subscriber providers and members of the community, and manages the Internet portal on behalf of the organisation or community.

Preferably, the sales transactions comprise micro payments which are made to a trust fund operated by the fund manager.

Typically the subscribing providers are service and goods providers for example, fuel suppliers, medical insurance suppliers, general insurance suppliers, banking service suppliers, telecommunications suppliers, suppliers of power services and suppliers of other types of services.

In some cases, the fund manager is also able to outsource certain activities such as computer network services, portal facilities, customer care services, billing services, credit and debit card services, Internet appliances and member financial services.

Preferably the portal provides links to the web sites of the subscribing providers, the members as well as to the other web sites useful to the community.

Preferably the portal can be used as a disseminator of educational information via an Intranet of suitable links selected by the community.

Preferably, the fund manager delivers a sustainable business built on loyalty from members including a bonus or incentive reward service with the ability to introduce new and improved services on a continual basis.

Preferably the fund manager will retain a sale's commission for each subscribing provider on a monthly basis to be distributed to the benefit of the community.

Typically the portal services will be community orientated for audience groups including subscribing providers, purchasers, families, children, educators and members of the community.

Preferably the community portal attracts educational bodies who will license access to their online curricular and online learning material to the benefit of governmental, non-governmental and isolated educational communities with the support of Principal Associations together with the relevant Parent Bodies.

Preferably the system of fundraising for organisations herein described is provided as an operational and management template to be duplicated from 5 community to community which allows for the transfer of fundraising and information systems from year to year and region to region, wherein the system is able to harness volunteer support and to add adequate buying power through alliances with subscriber provider partners under a market loyalty arrangement with market penetration and reduced advertising/marketing cost. 10 Preferably, the templates will include templates for payment gateways to facilitate the transactions and distribution of funds to the not-for-profit communities.

Preferably, the fund raising system herein described is founded on a business structure which provides for investment partners to buy into a Joint Vehicle Venture (JW) which operates the system on behalf of a foundation which is licensed to use [5 the system by the fund manager.

Preferably, the foundation always holds a minimum of 51 percent of the shares in the JW.

In another aspect, the invention resides in a method of funding organisations as herein described including the steps of: >o providing a subscription based Internet portal system for hosting links to web sites of subscribing providers of goods and/or services; the portal including means for data entry, processing and computerized fund accounting means; entry of providers and purchaser data, collection of subscription fees or a part thereof from the subscriber providers, managing the sales transactions of purchasers >5 having an interest in the well being of the organisation under a loyalty agreement; processing and accounting of loyalty benefits and provider subscription fees or a part thereof for the allocation and distribution to the benefit of the organisation. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 shows a scheme to explain in better detail the background of the invention;

Figure 2 shows a preferred business structure of the invention, and Figure 3 shows a preferred template for use with the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Example 1

Referring to Figure 1 , there is shown a scheme of the background of the invention in relation to the educational community according to Example 1. The stated objects in the constitution of the present example include the provision of equitable Internet access and the provision of a sustainable revenue flow for the enhancement of education.

The founders of the scheme along with most active members of parent associations are aware of the problems of both social and IT divides. Much has been written about the problems of the IT Divide and the general lack of educational funding on a worldwide basis. In none of the inventor's research to date have they read where any of the commentators worldwide have identified the cause or offered a solution to the problem.

The inventors believe that not only do they understand the cause of the IT divide and problems of educational funding, they also believe that the present system is a viable solution.

For the education system to be sustainable all components must be considered. In any ecology where there is decay, there is no equilibrium, either more of one component is being taken out or added in. All elements of the environment must contribute for sustainability. Parents of Families 10 provide a natural resource, in 6 year old children. These are sent into educational institutions 12 to be processed or refined. In earlier times before education (and currently in third world sweatshops) children were put straight to work at an early age. With the advancement of time there was a need for more literate workers to carry out more advanced processes resulting in organised education to provide these skills. Educational Institutions 12 process or refine or prepare our children for employment. Children then go off to work for business 14 or commerce 14. Commerce buys their time at whole sale rates and resells it at retail rates. Accordingly, business or commerce has most to gain from an educated workforce. The higher the educational level of the workforce, the

5 greater the return commerce makes on the workforce. An example of this is illustrated by labour rates. In the market place an unskilled worker is employed and costs business some $20 per hour. The maximum return you could expect on that worker is say $40 per hour or 100% return. In the case of a professional consultant for example, an accountancy graduate, the graduate is employed at a cost of $40 per o hour but the accountancy firm charges that service at say, $240 per hour which is effectively a 600 percent return. Obviously business 14 is the major benefactor of Education.

Accordingly, as business demands higher IT literacy, educational Institutions have to gear or tool up to meet this requirement. Expenses such as the development

5 of new curricular and staff training compete for existing funds. Hardware, software and network access, are additional costs that are also seemingly spiraling out of reach.

The funding issue is across all levels of education from pre-school to tertiary levels. Education departments in many cases have never had specific IT budgets

;o and have funded IT spending out of existing areas such as numeracy and literacy. The strain this has placed on the system is approaching bursting point as IT spending spirals to achieve required student to computer workstation ratios and the ongoing maintenance and upgrading of technology. Whilst government contributions have increased in real terms there is a dramatic shortage of funding, contributing to decline

!5 in education standards. IT itself may eventually assist in this process and the current reaction is to promote "user pays" as a solution.

The inventors firmly believe that the "end user pays" philosophy is required, but argue that the wrong end user has been recognised and targeted. Business, as the major benefactor of education does not contribute significantly, yet the cost of lo retooling education to provide IT literacy for business is destroying the system. Taxing or placing levies on businesses is not successful or palatable. The hard facts of business do not allow for benevolence of the level required. If a business wanted to contribute, they have a problem giving to the government and would not know if a direct gift would be correctly directed.

The present concept thus provides an aggregation of demand and a marketing strategy that provides significant brand recognition, loyalty and decreased advertising/marketing costs for participating businesses. The concept unleashes a significant market to commerce through a single point of access rather than thousands of splinter associations.

In many instances businesses would like a relationship with the Parent Groups and recognise the market potential but are daunted by the prospect of having to go out and deal with in Australia's case some thousands of parent associations whose executives and policies change on a yearly basis.

The system was conceived to meld home, i.e. families at the peak of their consumerism with school (arguably one of the few remaining focal points in a community) and commerce. The inventors recognise that there was an enormous volunteer force that whilst systemised, had no system of fundraising or aggregation in place.

The system was developed as an operating system based on flexible templates that would allow aggregation, continuity and portability to individual schools along with the management, control and sourcing of partners, content and goods and services via a payment gateway. Whilst individual Parent associations do not have the time, resources or skills, they do work tirelessly and have an emotional tie to their children's future.

The system which is owned by the children through peak parent bodies allows families to purchase at a discount from their own business, provide a sales channel that allows commerce to pass on reduced advertising costs and economies of scale to education. The system is a win-win situation, which will stimulate the funding of education and the provision of equitable IT services to the home. The system allows parent groups to provide for the marketing of goods and services with the resultant savings on marketing and advertising being redirected to home and school. Parent associations are not looking for handouts. They will willingly work for their funds. The system provides the means for them to work smart.

The above scheme provides the mechanism through which businesses can afford to contribute to achieve equilibrium in the educational environment.

Figure 2 shows a scheme of a preferred business structure of the invention.

A foundation 20, known as Fund-Ed Foundation Limited was developed as a company limited by guarantee to operate as a not for profit organisation. Fund-Ed has tax exempt status and should be applicable for tax deductible gifting. Under the Fund-Ed constitution the objects of Fund-Ed are to raise funds for education and bridge the IT divide. The Foundation is responsible for the distribution of Funds to school based Parent Bodies on a pro-rata basis. The members of the foundation (basically the owners in trust for the children) are the peak parent bodies and founders. The main role for the Foundation is to ensure the integrity of the operation of a commercial enterprise known as Fund-Ed Joint Venture Vehicle (JW) 22 that raises funds for distribution and as a guide on acceptable content to be provided through the portals and Internet.

The Fund-Ed JW 22 is owned by the Fund-Ed Foundation 20 who in turn can sell down shareholding to a min of 51% as a means to raise operating capital.

Essentially the Foundation board members are representatives of the Parent Bodies and educational groups who in the most instances do not have the commercial skill sets required to run such diversified business. The Fund-Ed JW was created to bring these skills in through employment, investors, suppliers and alliance partners.

The Fund-Ed JW will facilitate the development of the portals, templates and communication services. The transaction gateway will operate through the JW and alliance partners 24-36, will be sourced and managed through the JW. As a preferred example, the Fund-Ed Foundation will own a minimum of 51% of the JW a minimum of 51% of the profits will return to the Fund-Ed Foundation for distribution.

In order to raise capital to operate the Foundation and the JW the Foundation will sell down up to 49% of its shareholding of the JW. An 8% share has been taken up by another entity 40 known as the Fund-Ed Driving Company Pty Ltd for consideration of the Intellectual Property that the Fund-Ed Foundation and the Fund- Ed Joint Venture Vehicle will have rights to.

Individual investors 42-50 will also take up shares and contribute to the direction and development of the Fund-Ed Foundation and the JW.

One of the investors preferably an accountant service 44 are also retained as the accountants of the Foundation and the JW. 36.5 percent of the Foundations holdings in the JW are available for capital raising.

The Fund-Ed JW main role is as a Facilitator with the intention to bring together best of breed solutions to meet needs. In consideration of the rapid changes and advancements in technologies it was decided that outsourcing would allow the flexibility to stay at the forefront.

The only concession planned in this respect is ownership/leasing of the servers of the outsourced suppliers, 52-62 to ensure the protection and privacy of our member families.

The alliance partner program is a key in the Fund-Ed proposal.

As well as the basic Internet and portal services that Fund-Ed will offer, it will negotiate with alliance partners 24-36 to re-brand or co-brand goods and services to be marketed by our member parent bodies. The key here is respectable alliance partners with solid distribution networks in place. These alliance partners will also require a moral conscience and vision to participate. The scheme will target goods and services that are used on a daily basis and that will have a major impact on reducing family budgets. Items that may be included but not limited to are listed. The long term goal of the alliance program is to be able to provide free online access to educational resources for all Australians whilst raising funds for education.

Figure 3 shows a preferred template of the invention. In relation to the Fund- Ed operating system descriptions will centre on parent groups and education but in reality the system and templates are applicable to any community of interest that rely on volunteer efforts for fundraising.

(1) Community Members:

In this instance we are referring to the school community, families and businesses associated with the school who are consumers of goods and services and have communication needs. It is the community members who will benefit either financially or in services through subscribing to Fund-Ed offerings.

(2) Fund-Ed Membership System

The Fund-Ed membership system aggregates the community demands and facilitates the delivery of goods and services from suppliers and alliance partners. Membership can be recognised through a loyalty or privilege style transaction card that builds brand awareness. Some of the services that may be offered include portal services, internet access, internet appliances, communication services, debit card and financial services, alliance program services (fuel, medical insurance, power etc.) The Fund-Ed membership system is the face and access point to the Fund-Ed system.

(3) Fund-Ed Management System

The Fund-Ed management system is the operating system which may include transaction gateway services that allows the functionality of the strategic alliance program.

The management system is based around a series of templates that may be manuals, software, hardware, instructional or managerial templates that are available to all school based parent bodies, schools, teachers, homes or businesses. The templates whilst duplicated also need to be flexible to cater for the unique needs of the end user or community. A prime example of this being the community and school portals. A community or school in central Australia may have vastly different needs or relevance of information or services than that in a coastal city. Accordingly fundraising templates will need to flexibly cater for community resources. The management system must also cater for segregation as well as aggregation to cater for the specific needs of communities, government department or business.

The management system is also responsible for facilitation of supplier contracts and services as well as alliance partner agreements. The system must facilitate the collection and distribution of revenue to individual school-based parent bodies through the Fund-Ed Foundation. (4) Services

The proposed Fund-Ed offerings are either necessary for our children's education or used by families on a daily basis. The services provided through the strategic alliance partners will provide members with discounts. Individual fundraising committees do not have the time or opportunity to aggregate their needs to achieve economies of scale.

Services such as debit and or cash card systems are also being promoted to teach children saving skills as well as providing a safer environment. Such systems also allow parental selection of where children can purchase and would exclude drug and alcohol purchases. A range of services being offered will facilitate parental control of content. A wide range of offerings will cater for most budgets.

(5) & (8) Corporate/Government Communications Services

Due to the nature of home Internet usage patterns commonly 4pm till late for families and 8am till 5pm for governments and corporates we see the ability to more completely utilise the network reducing costs for all parties. The ethics and security of Fund-Ed are good protectors for government and business data.

(6) School Based Groups

School based parent groups work tirelessly to assist with both funding and in class assistance. Whilst the operation of the parent groups is systematic via a constitution, there is no system to their fundraising efforts. They are too busy doing it with the little time they have to produce templates/manuals on how to do it to pass them on from year to year. In Australia there is for example some 9600 plus organisations that have a minimum of 5 to 6 active members that assist in fundraising. This provides a resource of some 50-60 000 members on the ground that know what to do and who they are dealing with. (7) School and Educators

Schools will benefit greatly not only from increased funds but revived parent groups that are relieved from the burden of fundraising. The community templates will link the school to home and to commerce and provide essential links to virtual classrooms and libraries.

Teachers will benefit by access to web tools and templates that will assist in developing online materials, tutorials and group work. These templates will help facilitate IT uptake by educators.

(9) Revenue from External Groups Suppliers, alliance partners and commerce in general are the main benefactors of education. The Fund-Ed system provides a one-stop access to an aggregated market that cost effectively allows industry to participate and pass funds back to education.

Businesses that align with Fund-Ed will benefit from unprecedented loyalty and reduced advertising and marketing costs. These costs will be redistributed to families as discounts and schools through a return to the school's parent groups. The alliance partners will experience increased sales volumes.

The present invention is a unique business opportunity, which can deliver a sustainable revenue stream to organisations and communities, typically schools, benefits to the members and a return to the commercial operation of a joint venture vehicle (JW).

In a preferred embodiment the system is the combination of a not-for-profit foundation and a commercially operating JW providing a novel system that will bring together as members the parents of school children who are at the peak of their consumerism with the emotional desire to provide improved education for their children. The system will use the Internet as the enabler to tap into this group offering a range of products and services.

The invention's mission is twofold: to deliver to parent bodies (at the school level), a sustainable revenue stream to allow for the improvement of education services; and bridge the digital/social divide and allow families to take advantage of new opportunities available through online services and an online community.

The invention seeks to deliver a sustainable business built on loyalty from members and the ability to introduce new and improved services on a continual basis. This will deliver substantial savings to families, significant returns to the business investment partners and the Foundation for distribution to individual school based parent associations.

The fund manager is in a unique position with key parent and educational bodies being members of the foundation and therefore having a direct stake in ensuring that the mutual group is a success. The fund manager will leverage the abilities of parent associations and other key groups such as the Principals associations and Teacher's Union to provide the sales and marketing drive to deliver the services to the mutual members.

The fund manager will return a sale's commission for each member each month back to the Foundation for distribution to the school's Parent body.

The system intends to use the state Queensland, Australia as a pilot for the program and then will very quickly expand to offer services nationally across Australia. Through the system's unique sales and marketing strategies the fund manager will be able to offer services throughout Australia in metropolitan and regional areas without the need to recruit or train large numbers of staff members nor embark on expensive mass media marketing campaigns.

Independent market research has clearly identified the system's impeding and imperative aspects that parents consider essential in accessing the Internet. The system's strategy not only addresses these needs it offers services that make Internet access an added bonus rather than "another expense". All revenue projections for the system's services have assumed a conservative take up. With current level of revenues projected, the system will be able to remain extremely competitive and with the growth of an alliance program of subscribing provides will be able to reduce the member subscription whilst providing an excellent return to partners and investors. The ultimate goal is to provide free access services to a school Intranet for all children to bridge the IT divide.

To ensure that the system attracts the widest possible membership a range of services shall be offered. These shall revolve around a community orientated portal service. Local communities and schools can customize and develop their own community portal within the system.

The system portal has four audiences/users, families, children, educators and community members. The purpose of the portal is to create communities of interest, centered on a local school and drawing in the activities of the wider community.

The portal is to provide a "safe" environment for children and an environment in which the parents can decide on the levels of access and content appropriate for their children. The content management and services will cater for a wide spectrum of age groups, form pre-schoolers through to young adults, parents and community members.

The portal is to provide a framework for the development of both geographic and demographically based community portals wherein the local community can adapt templates to develop their own content and facilities and provide information and services relevant to their local environment.

In summary the services provided to members include: a world portal with gateway to the world wide net, www; a world portal bundled with Internet access services; a world portal, plus Internet access, plus a choice of Internet appliances ranging from TV set-top box to advanced PC bundle; and a world portal plus Internet appliances without the Internet access services.

In addition the portal services will form the foundation for a wider affiliates program which will expand to offer members a wide range of benefits starting with a debit cash card and an online transaction card offering micro payment and payment gateway facilities. The alliance program will introduce long distance telephone services, insurance, medical insurance, fuel, power, mortgage and shopping services. Initialization of these will provide members with direct discounts on the products or services as well as provide discounts off their online services bundle plus additional revenue back to the school's parent body.

Other services proposed by the JW include: corporate broadband Intranet for education departments leveraged off the bandwidth utilization of the family members (complementary usage patterns optimize network); wholesale services to regional ISPs; and franchise services to regional ISPs.

The system will seek the endorsement of Education departments which will also license access to their online curricular and online learning material. The Foundation has been established with the members being the peak parent bodies of Government, non-government and isolated schools, Principals associations and the Australian Scholarship group along with the Founders.

The Joint Venture Vehicle (JW), which will be the operating company for the Foundation and the JW partners and other investors, has been established. The current core management team is in place and the key suppliers have been selected on the basis of being able to deliver a service to market quickly and provide a service, which has a service, performance and pricing advantage over any current offering in the marketplace.

The principle concept of the invention is to provide operational and management templates to be duplicated from school community to school community. This allows the transfer of fundraising and information systems from year to year and region to region. Harnessing these volunteer armies and adding aggregated buying power provides alliance partners with unprecedented market loyalty, penetration and reduced advertising/marketing costs. The system fosters participation from industry not "just handouts" to schools.

The system by aggregation allows a meld of home, school and commerce whilst ensuring the privacy of our member families is retained. The system will not only provide portal templates it will provide templates for payment gateways to facilitate the transactions and distributions to Parent Associations.

The business system provides for investment partners to buy into the joint venture vehicle. The Foundation will always hold a minimum of 51% of the shares in the JW. The Foundation via the Driving Company shall license the systems and intellectual property to the Foundation and the JW. ADVANTAGES

The invention's advantages include:

A win, win, win situation for children and families, parent bodies, investors, business partners, and educational institutions; foundation owned by the peak parent bodies and other key groups in trust for our children; in kind sales and marketing unmatched by any industry competitors; range of services; outside of government; sustainable loyalty program; ability to introduce expanded products and services; alliance program; ability to remain price competitive with all other ISPs; and member loyalty.

VARIATIONS It will of course be realised that while the foregoing has been given by way of illustrative example of this invention, all such and other modifications and variations thereto as would be apparent to persons skilled in the art are deemed to fall within the broad scope and ambit of this invention as is herein set forth. Throughout the description and claims this specification the word "comprise" and variations of that word such as "comprises" and "comprising", are not intended to exclude other additives, components, integers or steps.

Claims (25)

1. A system for raising funds including a web server hosting a community based Internet portal of subscribing providers of goods and/or services, the portal contactable through a user system by subscribers and purchasers, the web server processor interfacing with a web browser adapted to browse information and data on the portal, a database and means for data entry retrieval and processing on the database, computerised fund accounting means adapted to account for on-line and off-line transactions between subscribers, between purchasers, and between subscribers and purchasers, wherein in operation, goods and/or services are provided by subscribers to purchasers under a loyalty arrangement or scheme and wherein provider and purchaser data can be entered, retrieved and processed on the database by the data entry, retrieval and processing means, and on-line and off-line sales transactions under the loyalty arrangement can be accounted for by the accounting means and wherein loyalty benefits and provider subscription fees or a part thereof can be processed, accounted for and allocated for distribution to the benefit of the members of the community.

2. A system for raising funds as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the user system is a computer system with an interactive display means for communication by the

Internet.

3. A system for raising funds as claimed in claim 2 wherein, the interactive display means includes a visual display unit with an interactive device, typically a key pad, touch pad, mouse and/or joystick device.

4. A system for raising funds as claimed in any one of the above claims wherein, information and data on the website is presented and accessed by all users online via the web browser.

5. A system for raising funds as claimed in any one of the above claims wherein, there is a directory component which enables users to be located by their name, physical address, locality, post code or by the type of goods and services provided.

6. A system for raising funds as claimed in any one of the above cliams wherein, there is a user identification component which includes security protocols that qualify and restrict the access of the user.

7. A system for raising funds as claimed in claim 6 wherein, the user identification component comprises a fire wall, an access manager and a software router to qualify the access of the user to different sites on the portal according to the security clearance or access level of the user.

8. A system for raising funds as claimed in claim 7 wherein, user access is via a user name and/or password recognised or rejected by the access manager.

9. A system for raising funds as claimed in any one of the above claims wherein, the community is an educational community such as a Parent and Friends Association.

10. A system for raising funds as claimed in claim 9 wherein, the system is managed on behalf of members of the community by a fund manager.

11. A system for raising funds as claimed in claim 10 wherein, the sales transactions comprise micro payments which are made to a trust fund operated by the fund manager.

12. A system for raising funds as claimed in claim 11 wherein, the fund manager is an Internet service provider which provides Internet access services to the subscriber providers and members of the community, and manages the Internet portal on behalf of the organisation or community.

13. A system for raising funds as claimed in claim 12 wherein, the fund manager is able to outsource certain activities such as computer network services, portal facilities, customer care services, billing services, credit and debit card services, Internet appliances and member financial services.

14. A system for raising funds as claimed in claim 10 wherein, the fund manager delivers a sustainable business built on loyalty from members including a bonus or incentive reward service with the ability to introduce new and improved services on a continual basis.

15. A system for raising funds as claimed in any one of the above claims wherein, subscribing providers are service and goods providers typically, fuel suppliers, medical insurance suppliers, general insurance suppliers, banking service suppliers, telecommunications suppliers, suppliers of power services and suppliers of other types of services.

16. A system for raising funds as claimed in any one of the above claims wherein, the portal provides links to the web sites of subscribing providers, members as well as to other web sites useful to the community.

17. A system for raising funds as claimed in any one of the above claims wherein, the portal can be used as a disseminator of educational information via an Intranet of suitable links selected by the community.

18. A system for raising funds as claimed in any one of the above claims wherein, the fund manager will retain a sale's commission for each subscribing provider on a monthly basis to be distributed to the benefit of the community.

19. A system for raising funds as claimed in any one of the above claims wherein, the portal services will be community orientated for audience groups including subscribing providers, purchasers, families, children, educators and members of the community.

20. A system for raising funds as claimed in any one of the above claims wherein, the community portal attracts educational bodies who will license access to their online curricular and online learning material to the benefit of governmental, non-governmental and isolated educational communities with the support of Principal Associations together with the relevant Parent Bodies.

21. A system for raising funds as claimed in any one of the above claims wherein, the system is provided as an operational and management template to be duplicated from community to community that allows for the transfer of fundraising and information systems from year to year and region to region, and wherein the system is able to harness volunteer support and to add adequate buying power through alliances with subscriber provider partners under a market loyalty arrangement with market penetration and reduced advertising or marketing cost.

22. A system for raising funds as claimed in claim 21 wherein, the templates includes templates for payment gateways to facilitate the transactions and distribution of funds to the not-for-profit communities.

23. A system for raising funds as claimed in any one of the above claims wherein, the fund raising system is founded on a business structure which provides for investment partners to buy into a Joint Venture Vehicle which operates the system on behalf of a foundation which is licensed to use the system by the fund manager.

24. A system for raising funds as claimed in claim 23 wherein, the foundation always holds a minimum of 51 percent of the shares in the Joint Venture Vehicle.

25. A method of fundraising utilising the system of any one of claims 1 to 24 including the steps of providing a subscription based Internet portal system for hosting links to web sites of subscribing providers of goods and/or services; the portal including means for data entry, processing and computerized fund accounting means; entry of providers and purchaser data, collection of subscription fees or a part thereof from the subscriber providers, managing the sales transactions of purchasers having an interest in the well being of the organisation under a loyalty agreement; processing and accounting of loyalty benefits and provider subscription fees or a part thereof for the allocation and distribution to the benefit of the organisation.