WO 2008/134448 PCT/US2008/061450 SUPPLYING, VERIFYING AND TRACKING CHARITABLE ACTIVITY DISBURSEMENTS CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 5 This application claims priority through, and hereby expressly incorporates by reference U:S. Provisional Patent Applicaton No. 60/926,120, fled April 24, 2007, entitled Supplying Verifying and Tracking Charitable Activity Disbursenientas This application also hereby expressly incorporates by reference U.S, Application No. I 0/290,556, iled November 8, 202. entiled Philanthropy Management System and 10 Methods of Use and Doing Business, which claims priority through and expressly incorporates by reference the common applicant's prior 'US, provisional Patent application, serial number 60/345 361. filed November 8; 2001 This application also hereby expressly incorporates by reference the common applicant's prior US Application No. 10,873;995, filed June 21. 2004, entitled Improved Philantiropy 15 Management System and Method of Doing Business. This application also hereby expressly incorporates by reference, the common applicants' prior U.S. Application No. 11/493,502 filed Jly 25 2006. entitled An Automated Community to Exchange Philanthropy Infonnation This application also hereby expressly incorporates by reference, the common applicant's prior US, ApplicationNo. 11/542,929, filed October 20 2, 2006, entitled Philanthropy Management and Metrics Systern This application also hereby expressly incorporates by reference, the common apphant's U.S. provisional patent application, serial number 61/047,648. filed April 24, 2008, entitled Improved Philanthropy Management System and Method of Do ing Business. 25 FIELD OF THE INVENTION Systems and methods described herein relate to pro viding access to and managing information about philanthropic donations, resources, projects and disbursements. 30 COPYRIGHT AUTHORIZATION A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is WO 2008/134448 PCT/US2008/061450 subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by ayone of the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent fie or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. BACKGROUND Philanthropy has been essential to advancement of society and betterment of the human condition for hundreds of years. Many of fie very finest educational, health care, and refigious institutions and activities have long been the direct result of philanthropic 10 donations and activities. The resulting institutions, services, and products not only often fufill substantial voids that have not been, and often cannot be, met by government but also expand the range of options and competitive alternatives to institutions, services, and products provided by the govermntn and other private activities and entities. The net result is not onily a more efficient location of resources in the market and society as 15 a whole; but also substantal increases in the quality of societal morals, education, huna interaction. spiritudl accompishmnt and life all across society. The etrort involved, however, in actually makin and manaing donations on behaf of phiianthropsts or philanthropic institutions owning or controlling the capital is often a sizable, costly andtimne consuming challenge, particularly for those individuals 20 or entities seeking to engage in philanthropic activities without use of a foundation. In general, identifying and researching charitable orgamzations can be difficut. More particularly, it is difliculh to track and discuss how and where donations are being vised. To help solve -these problems, the applicants have developed automated systems and methods for philanthropists to gain access to projects and organizations of interest and, 2 if desired. for projects and organizations to gain access to philanthropists or phiianthropic or other funding. Implemerntations of such donation management systems and methods are described in common applicat prior U.S. Patent Application 10/873,995, entitled "Philanthropy Management Systeim and Methods of Use and Doing Business" and U.S. Patent Application 1F 0290 -556 entitled "Philanthropy Donation 30 Miaragement Apparaus. System, aid Medxx ils of Use and Dng Business." which are incorporated herein by reference.
WO 2008/134448 PCT/US2008/061450 These systems make a variety of tools remotely accessible to donors. philanthropic organizations. pro ject managers. team members, and others, which allow such entities to gain access to the systems from disparate locations, such as through an intranet or the Intenet. The systems provide tools for organizations to manage 5 information about themselves and projects with which they are connected or in vlhch they are interested. They also provide tools for donor users to manage information about themselves and entities in which they have donated or that they are monitring, and tools to find and associate themselves with those and other entities, Despite the numerous tools and features described in the prior systems, they 10 generally have not provided an automated way for a donor to trace what his or her money has been spent for. Moreover, they have not tied the verification and tracking features to a niethod that disperses money to a charity or charitable activity SUMMARY h applicant has invented systems and methods relating' to providing access to 15 and managing information about philanthropic donations, resources, projects and disbursements. In one aspect, the methods and systems include faciitating the verfication and tracking of charitable fund disbursements, In another aspect, the methods and systems Include the use of pay cards, n some aspects, the card may be associated with an account which is funded through a donor management systent 20 In another aspect, t systems and methods provide access to information about potential projects and organizations seeking charitable finding In yet another aspect, the systems and methods track donations to specific projects, including information relating to the administrative costs associated with each project and the amount of donated money that was spent on the specific project. In another aspect, a pay card is 25 used to track donations to specific projects. In another aspect, a donor and charity management system maintains infonnation on charitable organizations, each of which may have one or more projects or endeavors that they are undertaking and which need or have funding Charties may inp ut a variety of information into this management system, all of a portion of which can be displayed 30 to donors, such as project goals, project assessment information. etc, This information may also include audit trail information induding payments made through a payment WO 2008/134448 PCT/US2008/061450 method such a pay card or stored vaue card, In one embodiment, one or more veriliable payment methods are used to provide funds to charities, and allow the charities to spend those funds. In certain embodiments, once the payment method has been used to pay for activities asso cited with the 5 charitable activity, a record is generated that is sent to the donor charity management system., In some embodiments, the record allows for the donor or others to determine if and to the extent payments benefited the charitabe organization. In certain embodiments, the record contains information specific to individual projects. in some embodiments, the methods and systems use one or more pay cards such 10 as credit cards, debit cards, stored value cards, payroll cards, charge cards or some combination, to pro vide, funds to charities, and to alow the charities to spend those finds. Certain embodiments allow money to be securely transferred from donors, by way of the donor charity management system to charities or charitable projects. In some embodiments a charitable organization can define activities necessary to 15 achieve a charitable goal in some embodiments the donor may use his or her pay card to associate his or her money with a specific task or project. The donated money, or at least a portion thereof, is then passed onto the charitable project or to accompish a specific task of a charitable project In certain embodiments, the methods and systems track how the 20 donated money has been used, In some enbodinents, a donor can make a donation that is eamarked for a specific charitable organization, charity; or other philanthropic or supported activity using the donor chariable management system. The foregoing Sumnmarw recites varnous features and advantages of various 25 embodiments of the invention It is to be understood that all embodinents need not necessarily include all such features or provide all such advantages or address the issues noted in the background. It is also to be understood that there are additional features and advantages of certain embodiments, and they wil become apparent as the specification proceeds. The embodiments described in this application can be added 30 readily to, and utilized in combination with, the subject matter disclosed in the above referenced related applications. it is therefore understood that the scope of the WO 2008/134448 PCT/US2008/061450 invention is to be determined by the clahns and not by whether the claimed subject matter solves any particular problem or all of them, provide any particular features or all of the"n or meet any particular objective or group of objectives set forth in the Background or Sunmanr above. 5 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The preferred and other embodiments are shown in the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 A is a block diagram of a system for allowing donors, charitable organizations and others to fund charities, disburse charitable funds and track charitable 10 disbursements; FIG, IB is a fudler embodiment of the block diagram of FIG, 1A FIG 2 is an example of how a potential donor may search for a charitable project and then may make a donation to a chosen charity or charitable project; FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a computer system that can be used in any of the 15 examples herein to implement an automated community to fund charitable projects, etc. to disburse the fimds and to track the disbursements, such as the philanthropic system as shown in FIG. I FIG. 4 is a block diagram of payment methods that can be used in a donor charity management syst em, such as the system of FIG. L 20 DETAILED DESCRIPTION General Considerations Disclosed below are representative embodiments of methods,. apparatus, and systems having particular applicability to automatmgIn communities to exchange 25 philanthropic information that should not be construed as limiting in any way. Instead, the present disclosure is directed toward all novel and nonobvious features and aspects of the various disclosed methods, apparatus, and systems, and their equivalents, alone and in various combinations and subcombinations with one an other, Example I -System for Funding Charities, Disbursing the Charitable Funds, and 30 Tracking the Disbursements With reference to FIG. 1 A, in certain embodinnis, the present ivention WO 2008/134448 PCT/US2008/061450 provides methods and systems far facilitating the verificati and tracking of charitable fund disbursements, Embodiments of a donor and charity management system 105 allow disbursements that charities may make. such as paying salaries for staff, paying for supplies for staff direct payments to those receiving assistance, paying for supplies used $ for assistance. such as vaccinations, mosquito nets, blankets, paying teachers' salaries, charities, charitable projects associated with cnarities, to be made with pay cards 180. These pay cards may be a debit card or a credit cad_ The card may be associated with an account w-hich is funded through the donor management sy stem 105. When the charity or a representative of the charity uses the 10 pay card 180, the transaction may be sent, from the point:o f sale or at some other time, through the network, 115 to the donor management system 105. The donor and charity management system 105 can be embodied in software ando can incorporate databases, interfaces, and other well-known. and/or commercially available packages, and can employ any combination of the technologies described herein. Electronic 15 communications can be any transfer of signs. signals, writing, images, sounds, or data, transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectronic or a photooptical system such as through one or .more networks, which may be an intranet or the Internet. The one or more networks may also be a geographically confined network, entityspecific network, or other network.. possibly inciudin ore or more 20 iniranets of a corporate; education, hospital, or religious institution, government, or other system This right reduce access to and reach of the community whie meeting other objectives such as restricting access to only those desired. Donors may be individuals, businesses, philanthropic organizations, or wealth managers. Charitable organizations include, without limitation, nonprofit organizations, 25 religious organizations, aid organizations, health organizations, environmental groups, non-govermental organizations (NOs) and other philanthropic causes. Charitable organizations also include members of such organizations, such as project managers, task managers, and the like. Examples of charitable organizations include, for example, and without limitation, the United Way, Doctors without Borders, the Sierra Club, 30 Campus Crusade for Christ, the World Heahh Organization, and the Salvation Army With reference to FIG. 1B in ar embodiment, the donor and charity WO 2008/134448 PCT/US2008/061450 management system 105 maintains information on charitable organizations 170. each of which may have one or more projects 175 or endeavors that they are undertaking and which need or have funding, The chantble organizations 170 may use the donor management system 105 using a network 160 or other communications system to input 5 a variety of information, which rmay be Input into a database 167, all or a portion of which can be displayed to the donors 155, This information may include anything related to the charitable organization or its projects, suc as its current fnmding needs and expenditures, This may also include an audit trail tied to how charitable funds were spent. The audit trail information may include payments made through a payment 10 method such as a pay card or stored value card Also payenet mray be made through another vehicle for performing financial transactions such a computer memory chip, as but one example. The phrase charitable organization 170 may refer to members of the charitable organization 170 acting on Its behalf For example the information may include information regarding the nature of 15 the charitable organization 170, ongoing or past activities or projects of the charitable organization the level of funding of the charitable organization 170 as a whole or the level of finding fr individual projects 175 data concerning how supplied funds have been spent, specific outlays for specific projects, specific funding needs for specific projects, the specific donor funds that were spent on specific projects, general donor 20 funds hat a armaked for specific projects or specific actiies (e g. 4buy blankets." "payn building rent teacher salary) and/or genera fincial data, In certain embodiments, the charitable organizations 170 may add or remove projects 175 froi the donor management system 105 and update the information stored in the database 167 in the donor management system 10.5, such as providing progress reports for projects 75, 25 and providing updated Enamcial data. A pay method 180 may be associated with a charitable project 175, a chantible organization 170, and/or a different grouping, such as a defined subset of a project The donors 155 ray review all or a portion of the information on the charitable organizations 170 and projects 75 30 A donor 155 may choose to donate to a particular charitable organization 170, or to a particular project 175. The donation may be made to the chosen beneficiary WO 2008/134448 PCT/US2008/061450 uilizing the donor management system 105, Example - Gomputing Environment Figure 3 and the following discussion are intended to provide a brief, general description of a computing environment in which the disclosed technology may be 5 implemented. For instance, arn of the fiactionalities described with respect to creating or using a pay card can be implemented in such a computing environment Although not required, the disclosed technology was described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a personal computer (PC). Generally, program modules incuderorutines, programs 10 objects. components, data structures, etc, that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, the disclosed technology may be implemented with other computer system configurations including hand-held devices such as PDAs, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, personal 15 computers (PCs). portable personal computers, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers. and the like, Any number of suitable operating systems may be used, such as, for example and not limtatiomn UNIX or one of its many flavors, Linux one developed by Microsoft fbr use on PC s an Apple operating system, an operating system developed specifically for mrainframes such as those developed by IBM, or the 20 like. The disclosed technology my also be practiced in distributed computmg environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices. Figure 3 illustrates a generalized example of a suitable computing environment 25 300 in which described enbodiments nay be implemented. The computing environment 300 is not intended to suggest any limitation as to scope of use or functionality of the disclosed embodiments, as the present disclosed embodiments may be implemented in diverse general-purpose or special-purpose computing envtronments. With reference to Figure 3. the computing environment 300 includes at least one 30 central processing unit 310 and memory 320. In Figure 3, this most basic configuration 330 is included within a dashed line. The central processing unit 310 executes WO 2008/134448 PCT/US2008/061450 computer-executable instructions and may be a real or a virtual processor. The environment 300 further includes the graphics processing unit GPU at 315 for executing such computer graphics operawons as vertex mappimg, pixel processing, rendering, and texture mapping. In a multiaprocessing system, muliple processing units execute 5 computer-executable instructions to increase processing power and as such the GPU and CP U can be running simultaneousy. The memory 320 may be volatile meniorv (e.g., registers, cache, RAM), non-olatile memory (e.g, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory, etc.). or some combination of the hvo- The memory 320 stores sofilvare 380 implementing the described methods of supplying, verifing and tracking charitable 10 activity disbursements A computing environment may have additional features. For example, the computing environment 300 includes storage 340, one or more input devices 350, one or more output devices 360, and one or more communication connections 370. An interconnection mechanism (not shown) such as a bus, controller, or network 15 interconnects the componems of the comnputing environment 300. Typically, operating system software (not shown) provides an operating environment for other software executing in. the computing environment 300, and coordinates activities of the components of the computing environment 300. The storage 340 may be removable or non-removable. and includes magnetic 20 disks, magnetic tapes or cassettes, CD-ROMs., CD-RWs. DVDs, or any other medium which can be used to store information and which can be accessed within the computig environment 300 The storage 340 stores instructions for the software 380 to implement methods of creating, using, or facilitating the use of an automated community. 25 The input device(s) 350 may be a touch input device such as a keyboard mouse, pen, or trackball. a voice input device. a scanning device, touchscreen, or another device that provides input to the computing environment 300. For audio, the input device(s) 350 may be a sound card or similar device that accepts audio input in analog or digital form, or a CD-ROM reader that provides audio samples to the computing environment 30 The output device(s) 360 may be a display, printer, speaker, CD-writer, or another device that provides output from the computing environment 300.
WO 2008/134448 PCT/US2008/061450 The communication connecion(s) 370 enable communication over a communication medium to another computing entity. The communication medium conveys information such as computer-executable instructions, compressed graphics information, or other data in a moduted data signal. These connections may include 5 network connections, which may be wireless connetions, may include dial-up connections, and so on, The other computing entity may be a portable communications device such as a wireless handheld device, a cell phone device. and so on Computer-readable media are any available tangible media that can be accessed within a, computing environment. By way of example, and not himitation, with the 10 computing environment 300, computer-readable media include memory 320, storage 340, communication media. a carrier wave through vith the media can be transmitted across a network such as the intemet, and combinations of any of the above. Moreover, any of the methods, apparatus, and systems described herein can be used in conjunction with creating, using, or facilitating the use of an automated 15 community in a vide variety of contexts. Although the operations of somle of the disclosed methods are described in a particular, sequential order for convenient presentation, it should he understood that this manner of description encompasses rearrangement, unless a particular ordering is required by specific hnguage set forth below For example, operations described 20 sequentially ca be rearranged or perlbried concurrently. Moreover. for the sake of simplicity, the attached figures may not show the various ways in which the disposed methods, apparatus, and systems can be used in conjuction with other methods, apparmtus, and systems; Additionally, the description sometimes uses terms like determine" and "identifr"to describe the disclosed technology. These terms are high 25 level abstractions of the actual operations that are performed. The actual operations that correspond to These terms will vary depending on the particular implementation and are readily discernible by one of ordinary skill in the art, Further, data produced from any of the disclosed methods can be created, updated, or stored on tangible computer-readable media (e.g tangible computer 30 readable media, such as one or more CDs, volatile memory components (such as DRAM or SRAM), or nonvolatile memory components (such as hard drives)) using a variety of WO 2008/134448 PCT/US2008/061450 different data strutures or formats. Such data can be created or updated at a local computer or over a network (e,g.. by a server computer), Example 4 -Payment Methods In some embodiments. one or more veifiable payment methods are used to 5 provide funds to charities, and allow the charties to spend those funds. In certain embodiments, once the payment method has been used to pay for activities associated wah the charitable activity, a record is generated that is sent to the donor charity management system 105. Using the record, the donor charity management system 105 and/or the charity and/or an auditing fimn etc., can determine that the payment was 10 made to beneht the charitable organization. In at least some embodiments. proof that the payment was made may be available to donors to the project, to outside agencies, etc., by., for example, being posted on a website associated with the donor charity management system 105. In at least some embodiments, the information is available at the transaction leave' I some embodiments, the verified inonnad-on is available at the 15 project level. In some embodimems, the -verifted information is available at the charity level; e the charity can state that 95% of the money donated reaches its intended recipients and so forth The payment method may be a pay card 410. The payment method may be a PDA with a credit transaction facility 415. such that money (or. its electronic equivalent) 20 may be uploaded to a chip associated with the PDA and then spent, generating a verifiable record of the transaction. The payment method may also be a cell phone with a credit transaction fciity 420. For example, such a cell phone may allow the seller to send a payment request to the user's cell phone: the user can then pay by confirming the request. Further, the 25 payment method 180 may be an intemet-enabled payment, such that funds available for a charitable project or endeavor may be accessible through an intemet site (eg., associated with the donor chanty management system 105). A charity or charitable project may be able o access these internet-enabled funds and pay for products or services using the intemet, or use them t o pay for products and services which accept 30 such foris of payment, WO 2008/134448 PCT/US2008/061450 Example 5 - Pay Card in some emrodiments. one or more pay cards. such as the pay card 410 (FIG. 4) are used to provide finds to charities, and allow tle chariies to spend those funds. The pay cards may be credit cards, debit cards, stored value cards, payroll cards, charge 5 cards or some combination. In embodiments in xhch stored value cards are used, the stored value card may allow the user access to money on deposit available to the charity, The money may be on deposit with. the card issuer the donor credit management system, etc. The stored value card may be able to be used by anyone that has access to the 10 card, or may require that a password be input .fr use, or that other security measures be used to access funds associated with the card. In some embodiments. the use of funds associated with pay cards may be limited to specific uses In certain embodiments, alerts can be set on the type of purchases so that if finds associated with a particular pay card are used or attempted to be used 15 outside the authorized scope of use, such uses or attempts to use will be flagged for review and. possibly reject such uses, in some embodiments, the donor charitable management system 105 monitors and flags uses or attempted uses outside of the authorized scope of use. The pay card may be a payroll card used by, e.the charity to pay employees. 20 In such a case, for example, at the end of a pay period wages may be placed on (or accessible through) the card. The pay card may be associated with a commercial merchant card processor, such as Visa or Mastercard. In such cases, the commercial merchant card processor, fund provider (such as a bank), or donor system provider or operator may share fees 25 generated from pay card access, such as, for example basis point fees, tiered fees, a flat annual fee, or some combination with the donor and charity management system 105 The pay card may be able to have money loaded/reloaded on it by some combination ofthe donor management system 105, the merchant card processor, the charitable organization, or qualified clients of the chariable organization. Some 30 embodiments only allow money to be loaded on the pay card if there is authorizaion from the donor charitable management system 105 to the entity that will be using the WO 2008/134448 PCT/US2008/061450 card. Other embodiments allow authorized users of a charitable organzaion 170 to reload the card. Various enbodiments allow money to be secureh transferred from donors. by way of the donor charity management system 105 to charities or charitable projects in tar flung locations, In some enbodinents, the pay card may be 5 loaded/reloaded in a remote location using an intemet or other network connection. In some embodiments, the donor charitable management system 105 charges a fee for reloading the card. In some embodiments, the donor charitable management system 105 charges a fee for using the pay card 1.80. In some embodinents, the donor charitable management system 1 05 can 10 securely transfer funds from donors 155 to charitable organizations 170 and/or projects 175 using the pay card 180. In some embodinents, when the pay card is used, a record of the transaction is stored on the card or otherwise delivered to the donor management system 105 or other transaction management system or cilimty hi some embodiments, a record of the I5 transaction I'S sent to the donor management system I 05 by e g the Intemet. In other embodiments, This record may then be downloaded into a database, such as the database 167 associated with the donor charitable management system 105 The record may indicate the particular charity with which the payment wsW associated. I some embodiments, the record may indicate the particular project with which the payment was 20 associated, for, by example, being associated with a specific pay card associated with that project. In some embodiments, the specific payme inay then be associated with a task or event associated with the project. The donor charitable management system 105 may then be able to link specific patients made with the pay card to specific funding activities and/or reporting mechanisms. 25 in some embodiments, the donor charitable management system 105 can use the data from the pay card to provide find verification and reconciliation, and/or to create an audit trail In some embodiments, the fund verication and reconciliation is done in real-ime, In certain embodiments, the reconcatn process ties individual transactions to individual project budgets. The charity may then be able to determine; for example, 30 what percentage of donations were used for activities such as fundraising and administrative activities, and what percentage of donations were spent directly for the WO 2008/134448 PCT/US2008/061450 charitable project. where funds were spent, by whom when, etc. in some embodiments, the donor managemem system 105 can use the pay card infonnation to tie together the frmancial accountability together with the project information so the donor can monitor the impact the project is making. Example 6 - Method to Track Funds Supplied to Charities ia some embodiments, a charitable organiaion can define activities necessary to achieve a charitable goal, such as "increase literacy in SubSaharan Africa) Activities that might be undertaken in su h a project might include: 10 Select and train literacy instructors. Assess literacy levels of wonm and men. Produce and distribute literacy materials. Provide basic literacy. postliteracy and nuneracy training for (fm) community members and groups. 15 Coordirate with Government to prove ide certification of leader achievement, stiends for facilitators, curriculum assistance and testing of learners (f0m). Establish key components to promote contnmig education that will maintain and strengthen literacy skils such as creating box libraries, book clibs,. Rural lending libraries , and refresher workshops; and ensuring the key population has access 20 to local newspapers Conduct accounting and financial literacy classes. Assure filow-up and monitoring. Each of these activities may have associated expenses. For example selecting and training literacy instructors may require salaries for the literacy instructors during 25 training, rent for a suitable location to hold the training snacks to be served during training, and so on. Using the donor and charity management system 105. the Charity may be able to budget desired funds for each of the tasks, and locate funds as they come in to each of these tasks. Then. using the payment method 180, the individual tasks may be funded. For example, rent may be paid for a classroom using the pay card. 30 When the rent transaction occurs, a report or report portion may be generated that is transmitted (either immediately or at a later time) to the donor management system 105.
WO 2008/134448 PCT/US2008/061450 Such a report may allow the donor management system 105 to determine that the particular task (rent) was funded. The donor management system 105, or the charity using the donor management system 105 may then be able to modify its project information to indicate that the Specific task has been funded, 5 Example 7- Method to Use the Pay Card in an embodiment a donor makes a charitable donation to a charity or a project associated with a charity. In some embodiments, the donor may associate his or her money with a specific task, such as "buy polio vaccine to be used for vaccinations in Uttar Pradesh India" hi other embodiments, the donor may associate his or her 10 donation with a more general task; such as ::Eradicate Polio." The donated money, or at least a portion thereof, is then passed onto the charitable project. For example, a payen.t method, such as a pay card 1.80 may be loaded with. the donated money, an. identification of another asset, etc. Then., the payment method may be used by a charitable project to fund the associated charitable 15 project. Example 8- Method to Supptv Funds to Charities In some embodiments, a donor 155 can make a donation that is earmarked for a specific charitable organization 170 charity 175, or other philanthropic or supported activity using the donor charitable management system 105. For example, as shown in 20 Fig. 2, using a donor/charitable management system 105, a potemial donor rsmy search for a charitable pro ject for which to dona ate 204, and then may make a donation 210 to a chosen charity or charitable project l75, This money is then transferred to the given project though a verifiable payment method. This money may be used to initially fund a proct a or d nohly ador capital expenses. The verifiable payment 25 method is given to the charitable project or someone associated with the charitable project- When items are purchased using the verifiable payment method, an electronic transacnon record is generated by, e, g- the commercial merchant card processor. This record is then (or at some time, for example all transactions within a certain time frame may be transferred in a batch) trns-ferred to ie donor and charity management system 30 105 At the system. the record can then be used to verify that the donation was used for the project, to keep track of ongoing accountig and budgeting for the project 214, WO 2008/134448 PCT/US2008/061450 and/or to be used for auditing or reporting information either through the donor mnagerent system 105 or othenvise. In view of the many possible embodiments to which the principles of the disclosed invention may be applied: it should be recognized that the illustrated 5 embodiments are only preferred examples of the invention and should not be taken as limiting the scope of the invention. Rather, the scope of the invention is defined by the following claisn. We therefore claim as our invention all that comes within the scope and spirit of theseclains.