CA2838406A1 - System and method for charity crowdfunding - Google Patents

Abstract

A system and method for charity crowdfunding. The system includes a crowdfunding platform enabling a charity or charity promoter (fundraiser) to establish a campaign for soliciting funds via crowdfunding. Donors (funders) to the campaign donate directly to the charity enabling security of donation and transparency of donor, the latter permitting issuance by the charity of a tax receipt to the donor. Tax receipts are generated by the system for each donor and sent to the donor upon approval from the charity. The charity is provided with relationship building opportunities, through analytic data relating to the donor and through the possibility of establishing and maintaining engagement with the donor and a network of further potential donors socially related to the donor.

Description

2 TECHNICAL FIELD

3 [0001] The following relates to facilitating charitable giving and more particularly to a social

4 network connected charity crowdfunding platform.
BACKGROUND
6 [0002] Many traditional online charity donation platforms can be considered as a "Yellow 7 Pages" directory for organizations. These platforms host individual charity pages and have a 8 "donate" button for the charity. Charity pages are typically administered by the charity or by an 9 administrator of the platform on behalf of the charity.
[0003] More recently, charities and individuals have turned to crowdfunding as a means to 11 solicit donations. Crowdfunding is an online technique wherein many individuals contribute 12 relatively little amounts of money to collectively raise a significant total. The crowdfunding 13 phenomenon has recently become a popular way to raise funds, whether for funding products, 14 new releases, art, Academy Award movies and even companies.
[0004] However, to date, raising charitable donations through crowdfunding platforms has not 16 been particularly effective. Typical crowdfunding platforms are not built to suit the needs of 17 charitable organizations. They allow individuals to fundraise for their own personal causes. The 18 organization does not have a presence on the platform, but instead a "donate" button would 19 enable the raising of funds for the individual's personal campaign.

[0005] Thus, the use of the existing crowdfunding platforms for charitable giving exposes 21 three major problems:
22 [0006] Security: Crowdfunding campaigns launched by individuals with traditional 23 crowdfunding platforms allow them to fund almost anything, and receive all proceeds of the 24 funds collected. This method of crowdfunding allows fundraisers to create successful campaigns for their favourite charity, but there is no guarantee or safeguards in place to ensure 26 that the charity will receive all, or even any, of the funds.
27 [0007] Transparency: In the case where security is not an issue, and the fundraiser does in 28 fact transfer the donations collected on behalf of the charity to the organization, in many 1 jurisdictions (e.g., Canada), the charity is unable to issue tax receipts to the list of people who 2 have supported the campaign, since the charity cannot guarantee where the funds came from.
3 Thus, the only tax receipt that can be issued would be to the individual fundraiser for the entire 4 amount.
[0008] Relationship building: Beyond the fundraising campaign, there is a greater loss which

6 is the ability to engage and retain the supporters of the campaign.

7 SUMMARY

8 [0009] In one aspect, a charity crowdfunding system is provided, the system comprising: (a) a

9 charity database comprising a plurality of charity records, each said charity record corresponding to a charity; (b) a user database comprising a plurality of user records, each said 11 user record corresponding to a user; (c) a campaign database comprising a plurality of 12 campaign records, each said campaign record corresponding to a campaign, each said 13 campaign being configured by one of said users to benefit one of said charities; and (d) a 14 donation processing module for receiving donations from said users for each said campaign, said donations being directed to said charity associated bypassing said configuring user.

17 [0010] The features of the invention will become more apparent in the following detailed 18 description in which reference is made to the appended drawings wherein:
19 [0011] Fig. 1 is a system for charity crowdfunding;
[0012] Fig. 2 is a process for establishing a charity account;
21 [0013] Fig. 3 is an example tax receipt template;
22 [0014] Fig. 4 is a process for establishing a user account;
23 [0015] Fig. 5 is graphical representation of various types of campaigns;
24 [0016] Fig. 6 is a process for establishing a campaign;
[0017] Fig. 7 is a process for donating;
26 [0018] Fig. 8 is a process for finalizing a transaction;

1 [0019] Fig. 9 is a donation processing process;
2 [0020] Fig. 10 is a link based donation process;
3 [0021] Fig. Ills a process for participating in a multiple fundraiser or team fundraiser 4 campaign;
[0022] Fig. llb is a process for converting collected registration fees to donations;
6 [0023] Fig. 12 is a payment cycle process;
7 [0024] Fig. 13 is a process for charities approving donations;
8 [0025] Fig. 14 is a process for generating a social impact score;
9 [0026] Fig. 15 is a graphical depiction of social impact score factors;
[0027] Fig. 16 is an example of a page summarizing a social impact score for a user;
11 [0028] Fig. 17 is an example of a page summarizing a user's activity;
12 [0029] Fig. 18 is a graphical depiction of factors for charity analytics;
13 [0030] Fig. 19 is a process for establishing a corporate social responsibility account; and 14 [0031] Fig. 20 is a process for configuring the corporate social responsibility account.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
16 [0032] Embodiments will now be described with reference to the figures.
It will be appreciated 17 that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, where considered appropriate, reference numerals 18 may be repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements. In 19 addition, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments described herein. However, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in 21 the art that the embodiments described herein may be practiced without these specific details.
22 In other instances, well-known methods, procedures and components have not been described 23 in detail so as not to obscure the embodiments described herein. Also, the description is not to 24 be considered as limiting the scope of the embodiments described herein.

1 [0033] It will also be appreciated that any module, unit, component, server, computer, 2 terminal or device exemplified herein that executes instructions may include or otherwise have 3 access to computer readable media such as storage media, computer storage media, or data 4 storage devices (removable and/or non-removable) such as, for example, magnetic disks, optical disks, or tape. Computer storage media may include volatile and non-volatile, removable 6 and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information, 7 such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data.
8 Examples of computer storage media include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other 9 memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any 11 other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed 12 by an application, module, or both. Any such computer storage media may be part of the device 13 or accessible or connectable thereto. Any application or module herein described may be 14 implemented using computer readable/executable instructions that may be stored or otherwise held by such computer readable media.
16 [0034] The following provides a system and method for charity crowdfunding. The system 17 comprises a crowdfunding platform enabling a charity or charity promoter (fundraiser) to 18 establish a campaign for soliciting funds via crowdfunding. Donors (funders) to the campaign 19 donate directly to the charity enabling security of donation and transparency of donor, the latter permitting issuance by the charity of a tax receipt to the donor. Tax receipts are generated by 21 the tax receipt generation module for each donor and sent to the donor upon approval from the 22 charity. The charity is provided with relationship building opportunities, through analytic data 23 relating to the donor and through the possibility of establishing and maintaining engagement 24 with the donor and a network of further potential donors socially related to the donor.
[0035] Referring first to Fig. 1, the system is a cloud based internet connected platform 26 enabling online collection of donations and interaction with users and charities. Users and 27 charities access the system via client computer (100). Interaction by users and charities is 28 handled by the user interface module (102) which translates requirements of the other 29 components of the system to a user-friendly format, such as by formatting required data item fields in suitable web pages. It will be understood that, in the following, any user or charity 31 interaction with the system is achieved via the user interface module (102).

1 [0036] The system comprises a charity database (104) for administering a charity account for 2 each participating charity. The charity database (104) has a plurality of charity records each 3 corresponding to a charity account comprising identification information for the charity as well as 4 a donor frontend (charity profile page) for the charity.
[0037] The system further comprises a campaign database (106) for establishing and 6 administering campaigns. Campaigns established in the system are linked to a charity record for 7 a charity, such that campaigns are directly linked to charities, providing increased confidence 8 among potential donors that donated funds will in fact reach the charity.
The campaign 9 database (106) comprises a plurality of campaign records, each corresponding to a campaign, which is linked to donation records for donations to the campaign.
11 [0038] The system further comprises a donation processing module (108).
The donation 12 processing module (108) generates donation records when a user (donor) initiates a donation to 13 a campaign in favour of a charity. Donation records track donations, donors, impressions 14 (referrals to the campaign from the respective donor) and conversions (further donations resulting from the referrals).
16 [0039] The system further comprises a user database (110). The user database (110) 17 comprises a plurality of user records, one for each user account of the system, including for 18 promoters and donors. Users preferably link their user account to third party social networks 19 (112) and permit the system to access information from the social networks (112) as well as post information to the social networks (112). It will be appreciated that typical well-known social 21 networks provide application programming interfaces (APIs) and/or employ open protocols for 22 such purposes. The user account includes identification information as well as activity on the 23 system, such as donations, supported charities and campaigns, subscriptions to other users' 24 notifications ("follows"), etc. Each user account is preferably assigned a user page to showcase activity by the user on the system, as will be described.
26 [0040] In embodiments, each charity establishes its own charity account, however promoters, 27 which may or may not be formally engaged by the charity, establish and promote campaigns on 28 behalf of the charity. For example, the promoter may be an individual passionate about a 29 specific charity but not formally working for or with the charity.
Promoters are users who choose to lead a campaign.

1 [0041] The promoter creates a campaign which is allocated to a campaign record. The 2 campaign record includes a link to a campaign promotion site (campaign page) hosted by the 3 system. The campaign page may comprise media for publicizing the campaign. Media may 4 include audio, video, text, etc. and typically includes a personal message from the promoter about why potential donors should donate to the charity via the campaign.
Preferably, upon the 6 creation of the campaign page, public notification of the campaign is sent through the 7 promoter's social networks. The notification could be through a "status update" for the promoter 8 on a third party social network, the notification being linked to the campaign page such that a 9 social network user clicking the status update is directed to the campaign page.
[0042] A potential donor accesses a campaign page and decides whether or not to donate to 11 the campaign. Potential donors may or may not have previously established a user account with 12 the system, as it is envisioned that potential donors may become aware of the system through a 13 third party social network, for example by being exposed to a status update initiated by the 14 actions of a registered user that happens to be within a social circle of the potential donor on the third party social network.
16 [0043] Upon deciding to donate to a campaign, an unregistered user is requested to register 17 with the system to create a user account, while a registered user can easily complete a 18 donation.
19 [0044] The system further comprises a payment gateway (114) through which donations are processed. The payment gateway (114) is linked to financial accounts for the charities and 21 users, and may further be linked to financial accounts for the system administrator for both 22 collecting fees and retaining funds on behalf of charities (e.g., held in a trust account).
23 [0045] The system further comprises an analytic module (116), which may be made 24 accessible to charities, the promoter, or another user, as configured by an administrator of the system. Charities are given access to analytic information relating to donors, from which the 26 charities can tailor messaging and establish or maintain engagement with donors and potential 27 donors.
28 [0046] The system further comprises a tax receipt generation module (118). The tax receipt 29 generation module is linked to the charity database, the campaign database and user database to automatically generate tax receipts issued by the charity in favour of the donors to 31 campaigns. Charities can prepare tax receipt templates for population with each qualifying 1 donation. Charities can thereafter approve of the generated tax receipts for sending to the 2 donors.
3 [0047] The establishing of campaigns and processing of donations in this manner addresses 4 issues that may exist in previous solutions, including:
[0048] Security. The donations collected from a promoter's campaign do not go to the 6 promoter as an intermediary to the charity. Instead, the donations collected can be held (e.g., in 7 trust) by an administrator of the system until such time, as they are transferred to the charity.
8 Alternatively, the donations could be transferred directly to the charity without either the 9 promoter or system administrator taking intermediary possession. Thus, the promoters are bypassed and never have access to the donations, eliminating corresponding potential fraud.
11 [0049] Transparency. The charity can have access to data identifying the donors to each 12 campaign. By having direct access to the donors' information, it is possible to issue a tax receipt 13 to each donor.
14 [0050] Relationship building. By having knowledge of donors' identities, each charity can engage in outreach programs with its donors. Further, by integrating with social networks, the 16 charities may interact with users directly, post media, and update their donors on how their 17 contributions are being put to good use.
18 [0051] Referring now to Fig. 2, a process for establishing or registering a charity account is 19 shown. The system delivers to a charity administrator a charity registration page having a registration link. At block 10.1 an administrator for the charity selects (clicks on) the registration 21 link. At block 10.2, the charity administrator provides charity information, which may comprise 22 the name of the charity, contact information for the charity (email, phone number, website), a 23 charitable registration number established with a governmental body, financial account 24 information for receiving donations (e.g., bank or PayPaITM account identification) and tax receipt information. Tax receipt information is preferably provided via a tax receipt template 26 configured by the charity administrator.
27 [0052] An example of a tax receipt template is shown at Fig. 3. The tax receipt template 28 enables the charity administrator to configure a tax receipt prefix, starting tax receipt number 29 and tax receipt layout (e.g., with charity name and logo). The prefix may be beneficial to eliminate confusion with tax receipts issued offline or through third party systems. Tax receipts 1 sent by the system are generated by populating the template with donation data from donation 2 records for the campaigns tied to the charity, and generating downloadable documents 3 representing the receipts for use by the donor.
4 [0053] At block 10.3, the charity administrator links media to the charity account, including for example the charity's logo, description, and a link to an online hosted video.
At block 10.4, the 6 charity administrator provides information identifying the charity administrator who will maintain 7 the charity account, including name, email, and password.
8 [0054] At block 10.5, the charity administrator links the charity account to one or more 9 categories of causes with which the charity is involved. The list of possible causes may be preconfigured by the system administrator, though the charity may be permitted to add to the 11 list.
12 [0055] Finally, at block 10.6, the charity administrator reviews and accepts terms of service 13 for registering the charity account. This may include fee information relating to payment to the 14 system administrator. Examples of fees include commissions on received donations, subscription fees, transaction fees, combinations thereof, and others.
16 [0056] At block 10.7, the system verifies items of provided information, such as the email 17 account, charitable registration numbers and donation receiving information being unique within 18 the system and being authentic. If the verification is not successful, the charity account 19 registration process is terminated.
[0057] Otherwise, at block 10.8, a verification email may be sent to the provided charity 21 administrator email address, providing a validation link with unique generated token to ensure 22 that the specified email is correct. At block 10.9, the charity administrator accesses the email 23 and clicks on the validation link which redirects to a validation page with the unique validation 24 token. The charity administrator proceeds to login with their email address and password. At block 10.10, if the email and password credentials are incorrect, the charity registration process 26 is terminated (though the charity administrator may later access the validation link and try 27 again).
28 [0058] Otherwise, at block 10.11, the charity account is marked as validated in the charity 29 database. In embodiments, a further manual verification may be provided by the system administrator prior to activating the charity's account. In such embodiments, a notification email 1 may be sent to the system administrator to indicate that this charity account is ready for 2 approval. At block 10.12, the system administrator reviews the charity account, contacts the 3 charity (perhaps offline), and verifies the charity account for correctness and authenticity. If the 4 charity is approved the charity account is activated. Otherwise, the charity account registration process is terminated. Once activated, at block 10.13, the charity is notified of the activation by 6 email. Upon the successful creation of the charity account, a unique "invitation key" token is 7 generated, which can be used with an invitation URL to invite users to register onto the system.
8 The charity administrator may now log in to the system to begin accepting donations and 9 enabling the creation of campaigns.
[0059] Referring now to Fig. 4, a process for establishing or registering a user account is 11 shown. It will be appreciated that any typical user registration process could be used. In the 12 example of Fig. 4, the system delivers to the user a user registration page having a registration 13 link. At block 9.1, the user accesses the registration link which presents the user with the option 14 to establish a new account. The new account may be manually configured or could be linked to an existing user account on a third party site such as a social network.
Preferably, the 16 establishment of a new user account can be achieved using the 0Auth protocol.
17 [0060] At block 9.2, if the user specifies an 0Auth method for authentication with social 18 networks, at block 9.3 the system initiates an 0Auth REST call for authentication and redirects 19 the user to the third party site for confirmation that the user account information of the third party site should be shared with the system. Upon confirmation, at block 9.4, the user is redirected 21 back to the registration page wherein the system obtains and parses the 0Auth user account 22 data. Once authenticated, at block 9.5, a new authentication mapping is generated between 23 user ID, authentication ID, and third party authentication type. At block 9.6, a new user account 24 is generated with email address, age, location, gender, and any additional demographic or identifying data from the access token. The user account also comprises a password that may 26 be obtained through the 0Auth protocol or uniquely provided by the user.
27 [0061] If at block 9.2 the user chose not to use the 0Auth method, at block 9.7 the system 28 requests the user provide a username (by email address for example) and password sufficient 29 to establish a new user account. Provided at block 9.8 that the username is unique in the system and the password does not have errors (e.g., meets minimum security requirements 31 established by the system administrator), a new user account is generated at block 9.9.

1 [0062] If authentication fails at any time, the user account registration process is terminated.
2 Provided authentication succeeds, at block 9.10a, if the signup URL
contains an "invitation key"
3 token, then the system locates from the charity database the charity to which the token belongs.
4 A relationship record is generated for the newly registered user (i.e.
"auto follow" the charity) with the referring charity. At block 9.10 the system sends a validation email comprising a 6 generated unique validation token to the users email address with a link to confirm their 7 account. At block 9.11, the user accesses the email and clicks the validation link with the 8 generated unique token. At block 9.12 the user is redirected to the account validation page 9 where the user logs in with their username and password. At block 9.13, the system verifies the login credentials. If verification fails, the user account registration process terminates.
11 Otherwise, at block 9.14 a validation flag is set for the user account in the user database. The 12 account is now validated with the designated email.
13 [0063] Any user in the system can participate in campaigns as either or both of campaign 14 promoters and donors. As shown in Fig. 5, campaigns may include basic campaigns tied to a charity, multiple fundraiser campaigns tied to a physical event and a charity, and a team of 16 multiple fundraisers tied to a physical event, a defined team of users and a charity.
17 [0064] Referring now to Fig. 6, a campaign generation process enables any user of the 18 system to establish a campaign to raise funds for any charity registered with the system. The 19 system generates a campaign record to store information related to the campaign, which is configured by the promoter. The promoter configures a campaign as an individualized 21 fundraiser campaign, multiple fundraiser campaign, or teams of fundraisers campaign.
22 [0065] Individualized donation campaigns enable a promoter to establish a campaign for their 23 cause, and invite people to donate or participate as a teammate to fundraise for their campaign.
24 This extends network reach by encouraging influential people to rally more supporters. All funds raised in the campaign will be directed to the charity associated with the campaign.
26 [0066] Multiple fundraiser campaigns are campaigns in which fundraising participants raise 27 funds towards the same goal, where donation records are associated with both the individual 28 participant and the campaign. Participants may be dynamically created.
For example, the 29 system may enable the establishments of multiple fundraisers comprising a plurality of users.
The participants may correspondingly act as promoters, donors, etc. The campaign 31 administrator may configure campaign pages with text, media, fundraising goals, etc.

1 [0067] If the multiple fundraiser campaign represents a physical event, an optional registration 2 fee may be charged to each participant, with optional refund criteria that allows the administrator 3 to set a fundraising target for each participant that triggers a refund of the registration fee to that 4 participant when achieved. Participants are attendees who may purchase tickets using the system. Their names are entered into an event guest list for the organizer to track. Electronic 6 tickets may be issued by the system to the participant, for example by generating a unique QR
7 code, and sent to the participant, for example by email, using a ticket template that can be 8 selected and customized by the organizer. Registrants to an event may be listed in the 9 campaign record for the event, which preferably can be output to a human readable attendee list.
11 [0068] Teams are another type of campaign which allows the charity or promoter to launch a 12 fundraising event that invites team leads to assemble their own fundraising teams. This scenario 13 works well for community partnerships where different organizations may take part to compete 14 with other organizations, or within a corporate structure where the corporation can launch the team challenge and various departments within the business could assemble their own teams.
16 [0069] Teams share the same architectural attributes as charities and campaigns, allowing 17 users to follow their interactions, and perform social media activity (e.g., write on their "wall" to 18 post media and status updates).
19 [0070] At block 11.1, the user locates the charity for which they wish to fundraise on the system. Preferably, the system includes a search feature facilitating locating of charities.
21 Searching may be by charity name, categories of causes, location, etc.
The system may further 22 have a browsing-based index of the charities on the system, which again may be based on 23 name, categories of causes, location, etc. The user accesses the charity's profile page and may 24 view the media accessible therein.
[0071] Upon the user determining he or she wishes to establish a campaign, at block 11.2 the 26 user may access a dedicated link to establish a campaign for that charity. The link may, for 27 example, be a button (e.g., a "Help Fundraise" button) located on the charity's profile page.
28 Clicking the link generates a campaign record tied to the charity.
29 [0072] Beginning at block 11.3, the system collects information for storing in or linking to the campaign record. At block 11.3 the user provides a title and optionally category, address, 31 additional information about the campaign/event, date, duration, image, description, and media 1 for the campaign. The user is further requested to signal whether the campaign supports 2 multiple fundraisers. At block 11.4, if the campaign supports multiple fundraising participants, 3 the system requests that the user optionally provide, at block 11.5, group information for the 4 event. Group information may comprise group size or estimated number of participants. The system also requests that the user optionally signal, at block 11.6, whether any registration fee 6 may be required for other users to participate in the fundraiser (e.g., tickets to be purchased to 7 attend). If a registration fee is required, at block 11.7, the user provides the fee and optional 8 refund rules. Refund rules may correspond to a target fundraising goal for a donor which would 9 permit refund of registration fees to that donor once achieved. An event page is subsequently generated at block 11.8.
11 [0073] If the campaign is not a multiple fundraiser, the user is requested to signal whether the 12 campaign is a team fundraiser. If so, a team fundraiser is created. A
team fundraiser is one for 13 which users may join into an existing team as a fundraising participant, or create a new team to 14 gather its own fundraising participants. Otherwise, an individual fundraiser campaign page is generated at block 11.10.
16 [0074] The campaign generation process is then terminated and the campaign record is 17 stored in the campaign database. Stored campaigns are made accessible via a campaigns 18 listing (or searchable via search) in the system.
19 [0075] Once a campaign has been established, any user is permitted to participate in the campaign, unless the campaign is a corporate or team event for which the promoter has 21 configured the event to be open to a defined set of users. Unregistered individuals may also 22 locate the campaign page and request to participate, upon which the previously described user 23 registration process will be initiated.
24 [0076] Referring now to Fig. 7, a process for donating is shown. At block 1.1, the registered user locates the charity page, campaign page, team page, or participant page.
The user may 26 wish to donate by accessing a link (which may, for example, be a "Donate Now" button or the 27 like) located on the selected page. At block 1.2, the donation processing module determines 28 whether the user is logged in to the system. If not, the user is redirected to the user registration 29 process, which is either establishment of a new user account or logging in to a previously configured user account.

1 [0077] Provided the user is logged in to the system, the donation processing module creates 2 a donation record comprising amount and frequency by requesting payment information from 3 the user including, at block 1.3, the amount of the desired donation and, at block 1.4, whether 4 the payment is a one-time payment or recurring payment. The frequency of recurrence may be preconfigured by the system administrator or configurable by the user. If the payment is to be a 6 recurring payment, a recurring payment indicator is set in the donation record.
7 [0078] The donation record is transmitted to the payment gateway and the donation 8 processing module redirects the user to a payment portal which is linked to the payment 9 gateway. The user provides payment information at block 1.6. The payment gateway verifies the payment information (that the information is sufficient to access the account indicated and that 11 sufficient funds are available) and may place a hold on the donation amount as specified by the 12 donation record. Alternatively, at block 1.7, if the user chooses to cancel, the donation process 13 terminates and any hold is released.
14 [0079] Upon successful verification, at block 1.9, a payment token is generated by the payment gateway and linked to the donation record, which is transmitted to the donation 16 processing module confirming that the funds are available. Upon receipt of the payment token, 17 at block 1.9 the donation processing module redirects the user back to the campaign page. A
18 payment form is populated with user details specifying the payment details, at block 1.10, as 19 well as donation publicity options configurable by the user, at block 1.11. The donation publicity options may be linked to the donation record. The user may configure the donation to be 21 anonymous, or to publicly display or hide the amount, request a tax receipt, or change the 22 amount. The user can then confirm payment at block 1.12.
23 [0080] Upon confirmation, at block 1.12, the donation processing module signals to the 24 payment gateway to execute the payment. At block 1.13, the payment gateway transfers the funds from the user's payment account to the system administrator account, preferably a trust 26 account. If the payment is a recurring payment, the payment gateway can automatically 27 reprocess payment in accordance with the configured frequency.
28 [0081] At block 1.14, the donation processing module receives and parses payment 29 confirmation from the payment gateway and determines from the confirmation whether payment was successful. If so, at block 1.15, the donation processing module initiates a process for 31 finalizing the transaction, which comprises processing the donation amount as well as social 1 network dissemination related to the campaign, charity and donation in accordance with the 2 donation publicity options.
3 [0082] Referring now to Fig. 8, a process for finalizing a transaction is shown. At block 2.1, 4 the donation processing module parses the payment gateway transaction response to obtain the donation amount and payment frequency which will be saved later into a donation record. At 6 block 2.2, if the donation indicates the payment is recurring, at block 2.3, a recurring payment 7 profile is generated to record the user account identifier, payment amount, next expected 8 payment time, and token ID. The donation is then processed in accordance with the donation 9 processing process shown in Fig. 9.
[0083] Referring now to Fig. 9, once a donation transaction has been executed, the donation 11 processing module processes the donation to allocate appropriate portions of the donation to 12 the charity and to the system administrator, as well to update the campaign accordingly. At 13 block 3.1, the system administrator portion, which may be a flat fee, commission or combination 14 thereof, is calculated and stored in the donation record as well as being added to an accumulated processing fee representing the system administrator portion across all donations.
16 [0084] At block 3.2, a donation record is created and a unique token identifier is allocated to 17 the record. At block 3.3, the physical location of the donor is determined either from the donor's 18 user account or from an address associated with the donor, such as IP
address. The location is 19 geocoded and allocated to the donation record.
[0085] At block 3.4, the donation processing module transmits a notification, for example by 21 email, to the charity and campaign promoter to signal that a donation has been made. At block 22 3.5, the donation amount and identification of the donor (if permitted by the donation publicity 23 options) may be posted to a status update on the charity profile page, the campaign page, event 24 page, team activity page and/or third party social network.
[0086] At block 3.6, the donation processing module obtains the campaign record for the 26 campaign and adds the donation amount to the total raised for the campaign.
27 [0087] At block 3.7, the donation processing module determines whether the donation was 28 made to support another fundraising participant, for example a user participating in an event 29 and raising money for the event (as determined by presence of a referral token, for example). If so, at block 3.8, the donation processing module creates a supporter relationship mapping 1 between the current user and the fundraising participant. The mapping enables each user to 2 subscribe to social posts (i.e., to "follow") the other.
3 [0088] At block 3.9, the donation processing module obtains the fundraising participant's 4 record and adds the donation amount to the total amount raised. Further, if the donation processing module determines that the fundraising participant is part of a team at block 3.10, 6 the donation is added to the team amount at block 3.11.
7 [0089] If the campaign has a registration rule (fee) and refund rule, at block 3.12 the donation 8 processing module obtains the campaign registration rule and compares the value of the rule 9 with the amount raised by the donor. At block 3.13, if the donor has reached the target registration rule amount, the system refunds the registration fee, at block 3.14, by looking up the 11 registration record to extract the transaction ID. The fee is refunded by the payment gateway.
12 [0090] Referring back to Fig. 8, at block 2.4, a donor may be automatically subscribed to 13 "follow" the charity or campaign by creating a relationship mapping in the user database 14 between the current user and the respective entity.
[0091] If the donation was made as a result of referral from a third party social network (which 16 is described below), a referral cookie has been generated by the donation processing module.
17 At block 2.5, the donation processing module determines whether a referral cookie is generated.
18 If so, the donation record indicated by the cookie is obtained (which is a different donation 19 record to the donation record for the present donation), and a conversion counter of that donation record is incremented. An influenced donations counter of that donation record is 21 further increased by the amount of the present donation at block 2.7. In block 2.8, an 22 "influenced" field of the present donation record is populated with the prior donation record 23 identifier.
24 [0092] At block 2.9, the donation processing module checks the donation publicity rules to determine whether the user wished for the donation to be posted on third party social networks.
26 If so, at block 2.10, the system authenticates to the user's account on the corresponding social 27 network(s) and verifies successful authentication at block 2.11. Upon successful authentication, 28 at block 2.12 the system posts a notification to the third party social network as a status update 29 for the user, in which the status update includes a link to the donation on the campaign page, with a uniquely generated identifier. The donation record is correspondingly updated to indicate 31 that the donation has been shared, for analytic tracking, at block 2.13.

1 [0093] The donation is then considered paid, with funds received and held in trust. The 2 donation processing module assigns an empty "payment transfer ID" to the donation record, 3 meaning that the funds are held by the system administrator and not yet paid to the charity. This 4 may be the preferred procedure to take advantage of bulk payment transfers, reducing the cost of transactions. Alternatively, the funds could be instantaneously transmitted to the charity's 6 receiving account. When a new payment transfer is created for the charity for that payment 7 cycle, the donation module gathers all donations belonging to the charity with empty payment 8 transfer ID's and will assign it the ID of the new payment transfer. This payment transfer is in 9 pending approval state and requires that the charity's signing officer approve it before the funds are released. The payment transfer ID's can therefore act like a monthly "statement" containing 11 the donations accumulated for that payment period.
12 [0094] Referring now to Fig. 10, a process for establishing a donation from a user accessing a 13 link on a third party social network is shown. At block 4.1, a user clicks on a shared donation link 14 from a third party social network. At block 4.2, the system obtains the unique token identifier for the link and obtains the corresponding donation tracking page. At block 4.3, the donation record 16 for the donation is obtained. The identifier for the donation record is stored into a referral cookie.
17 Additionally, an impressions counter of the donation record is incremented. Further, the 18 GEOCODE for the location of the user is stored in the referral cookie.
19 [0095] At block 4.4, the user is directed to the corresponding charity, campaign, event, or team page of the linked donation. At block 4.5, the user may select to donate, in which case the 21 previously described transaction processing process is invoked.
22 [0096] Referring now to Fig. 11, a process is shown for a user to participate by joining a 23 multiple fundraiser campaign, or a team within a team campaign. At block 12.1, the registered 24 user locates the campaign page (or team page). At block 12.2, the user may optionally post media to their personal fundraising page, including a stated goal, personal message or 26 customized appeal video, for example.
27 [0097] At block 12.3, if the campaign is an event which requires a registration fee, the user is 28 requested to pay the registration fee. The donation processing module redirects the user to a 29 payment portal which is linked to the payment gateway. The user provides payment information at block 12.4. The payment gateway verifies the payment information (that it is sufficient to 31 access the funds) and places a holds on the registration fee amount as established for the 1 event. Alternatively, at block 12.5, if the user chooses to cancel, the user participation process 2 terminates.
3 [0098] Upon successful verification, at block 12.6, a payment token is generated by the 4 payment gateway and transmitted to the system confirming that the funds are available. Upon receipt of the payment token, the donation processing module redirects the user to the 6 campaign page and requests the user to confirm the payment token, and therefore execute 7 payment, at block 12.7. If the user does not confirm, the user participation process terminates.
8 If the user does confirm, at block 12.8, the donation processing module signals to the payment 9 gateway to execute the payment. The payment gateway directs the funds from the user's payment account to the system administrator account, preferably a trust account.
11 [0099] At block 12.9 the donation processing module additionally creates a registration record 12 for the user and sets the status of the record to "paid", meaning that the funds are held by the 13 system administrator and not yet paid to the charity. This status may change to "refunded" if the 14 payment is refunded when the registration rule objectives are met, or to "converted" when the campaign reaches an agreed deadline and registrations are converted to donations (eligible for 16 tax receipts) to be paid out to the charity with other donations during the next payment transfer.
17 [0100] Referring to Fig 11b, a process of converting collected registration fees to donations is 18 shown. When the campaign reaches an agreed deadline, the administrator initiates the 19 conversion process at block 16.1. At block 16.2 the donation module obtains all registrations related to the campaign. At block 16.3, the donation module creates a donation record for each 21 non-refunded registration record (i.e. the registration record with status "paid"), eligible for tax 22 receipt issuing to the registrant. At block 16.4, the registration record's status is changed to 23 "converted". At block 16.5, the donation module updates the total amount raised for the 24 campaign, adding to it the sum of the newly converted registrations.
[0101] In embodiments, received donations are accumulated by the system administrator, 26 preferably in a trust account, and periodically disbursed to the charities to which the donations 27 are intended. Referring now to Fig. 12, a payment (disbursement) cycle process is shown. At 28 block 6.1, the system administrator initiates a new payment cycle.
Payment transfers are 29 created for every charity with outstanding donations not yet assigned to a payment transfer. At block 6.2, charities with new payment transfers are notified, for example via email, that they 31 need to approve of the pending payment transfer before receiving the funds. At block 6.3, 1 donations corresponding to the payment transfer are assigned a tax receipt number. Tax receipt 2 numbers may be issued based on an auto incrementing scheme using a "next available" value 3 as the starting index. The initial index may be preconfigured by the charity administrator when 4 configuring a tax receipt template, and auto increments and assigns to every new donation. A
default value may be assigned if the template has not yet been configured. At block 6.4, 6 payment transfers are pending approval and require that a signing officer of the charity login to 7 the system to approve the generated tax receipts numbers.
8 [0102] Referring now to Fig. 13, a process for enabling the charity administrator to approve of 9 donations and initiate donation transfer is shown. At block 7.1, the charity administrator logs into the system to view the pending payment transfers. At block 7.2, the charity administrator may 11 inspect the generated tax receipt numbers based on their configuration of the tax receipt 12 template, for example to ensure that conflicts do not exist with other third party systems they are 13 using. The charity administrator may correct the entries until they are satisfied. At block 7.3, if 14 the charity administrator signals that the tax receipt numbers are acceptable, then at block 7.4 the system determines whether a tax receipt template has been configured. If not, at block 7.5, 16 the charity administrator is requested to upload a digital scan or photograph of an authorizing 17 signature of the tax receipt. At block 7.6, the charity administrator provides a starting number of 18 the receipt numbers to be used in the generated tax receipts. This number is used as a base 19 from which the value auto increments and is assigned to every new donation. Optionally, the charity administrator may include a unique prefix string value to help easily distinguish the tax 21 receipts from the system from those of third party systems. At block 7.7 the charity administrator 22 ensures that the charity information including its address, contact information, logo, registration 23 number and any information required for a charitable tax receipt are correctly specified.
24 [0103] Provided a tax receipt template is configured, at block 7.8 the authorized officer approves the donations. At block 7.9, the tax receipt numbers are locked in and can no longer 26 be changed. The tax receipt generation module generates digital document (e.g., PDF) versions 27 of the tax receipts and sends them, for example by email, to the corresponding donors, or a 28 download link to a document is sent. At block 7.10, the state of the payment transfer is 29 advanced to "Approved" state. The system administrator is notified, for example via email, of the approval and can formally transfer the funds from its own account (e.g., the trust account) to the 31 charity's account, with corresponding fee (commission, etc.) deduction.
At block 7.11, copies of 32 the generated tax receipts for that payment transfer may be downloaded from the dashboard for 33 the charity's payment records.

1 [0104] Thus it can be appreciated that a system for charity crowdfunding having increased 2 security and transparency is provided. Further, aspects of the system enable increased donor 3 engagement and retention while also leveraging charity awareness through donor evangelism.
4 [0105] The system may comprise commands commonly provided on social network platforms, including means to enable users to generate messages, posts, comments, albums 6 (and other media), as well as create relationships such as two-way (friend) and one-way (follow) 7 relationships. In examples, users may create posts or link media on charity pages, campaign 8 pages, other user's pages, corporation pages, team pages, etc. These posts may, for example, 9 be words of encouragement or support for a donor, promoter, charity, campaign, corporation, team, etc. In all cases, user activity on the system is preferably recorded to user records in the 11 user database to enable charities to access analytics reflecting the users.
12 [0106] The ability to profile donors, understand their motivations for giving and learning their 13 stories is critical to fundraising success. The system enables charities to benefit from 14 understanding, documenting and learning giving trends of individuals by tracking donor engagement, the nature of promoters, donors and donations, and social spread for campaigns, 16 all providing an understanding of how donors are engaging with charities on other social media 17 avenues by sharing, referring and talking about their contributions.
18 [0107] For example, charities can understand how a donor found their page (i.e., through 19 which medium, whether TwitterTm, FacebookTM, a website, another donor's emails, etc.).
Charities can further track the referrals that each individual brought to the charity page.
21 [0108] Donors can correspondingly gain recognition. Users can build a virtual resume of 22 social good with metrics such as donation amounts, causes supported, campaigns hosted, 23 awards received, volunteer hours, how much influence they have within their social circles, etc.
24 A social impact score can be generated to quantify a user's social impact and general "good doing". Thus, the emphasis is placed back upon the donor. This donor-centric model of 26 rewarding or recognizing donors recognizes activity beyond merely direct donation dollars. The 27 model includes time donated, crowdfunding campaigns hosted, referrals, shares, etc.
28 [0109] Referring now to Fig. 14, the analytic module is operable to generate a dynamic social 29 impact score for a user based upon activity with the charity crowdfunding system. Preferably, the social impact score is reflective of donation activity, promotion activity and overall 31 engagement with the system. In one example as shown, at block 21.1 the user registered with 1 the system. At block 21.2 the user customizes a "My Effect" page by enabling and disabling 2 privacy for certain activities and interactions in the system. At block 21.3, the social impact 3 score may be calculated as a weighted metric taking into account all activity the user has on the 4 platform, including the activity elements shown in Fig. 15 such as campaigns hosted, funds raised, number and amount of donations contributed, causes supported, awards received, 6 number of new visitors influenced by the user, number and amount of donations from new 7 visitors influenced by the user, volunteer hours, and engagement (posts, media, comments), 8 etc. Third party social network activity related to a campaign can also be used to adjust social 9 impact score, since dissemination of donations across third party media (social networks, for example) include a token enabling tracking of referrals and conversions back to the donor.
11 [0110] Users may be incentivized to increase their social impact score.
A ranking page may 12 be accessible on the system to view a leaderboard of users ranked by social impact score, thus 13 gamifying the system and encouraging activity, donation and promotion.
Additionally, the score 14 may be used as virtual currency tradable for donation credits, merchandise redemption, corporate sponsorship or loyalty programs. At block 21.4, the user may be assigned the social 16 impact score. An example of a page summarizing a social impact score for a user is shown in 17 Fig. 16, while an example of a page summarizing a user's activity is shown in Fig. 17.
18 [0111] Further, by linking donation records with user accounts, the analytic module may 19 generate demographic metrics for the charity specific to donors and groups of donors. Along with viral reach, conversions, and traffic source, the system is operable to collect donor gender, 21 age, and location details. Charities may be provided access to analytics broken down by any 22 demographic or category across donors. These include the factors shown in Fig. 18, such as 23 geographic location of donors, geographic location of non-donors to campaign pages and 24 charity pages, page views, causes supported by donors of the charity, top influencers to a charity and campaign, donor demographics, donation amounts and number of donations.
26 [0112] The present system may further be used to establish and administer corporate social 27 responsibility programs and other team-based fundraising events. It should be understood that, 28 in this case, the foregoing description applies, with the corporations taking the place of charities 29 and the corporations' employees taking the place of users of the system.
Corporations can showcase their and their employees' philanthropic involvement. This includes highlighting their 31 employee fundraising efforts, total contributions, and causes that align with their corporate 32 values.

1 [0113] Referring to Fig. 19, a corporation registration process is shown.
It will be appreciated 2 that the storing of registered corporations may be substantially similar to storing of charities and 3 the storing of employees may be substantially similar to the storing of users.
4 [0114] In the process shown in Fig. 19, at block 14.1 an administrator for the corporation selects (clicks on) the registration link. At block 14.2, the corporation administrator provides 6 corporation information, which may comprise the name of the corporation and contact 7 information for the corporation (email, phone number, website).
8 [0115] At block 14.3, the corporation administrator links media to the charity account, 9 including for example the corporation's logo and mission statement. At block 14.4, the corporation administrator provides information identifying the corporation administrator(s) who 11 will maintain the corporation account, including name, email, and password.
12 [0116] At block 14.5, the corporation administrator links the corporation account to one or 13 more categories of causes with which the corporation supports. The list of causes may be 14 preconfigured by the system administrator, though the corporation may be permitted to add to the list.
16 [0117] Finally, at block 14.6, the corporation administrator reviews and accepts terms of 17 service for registering the corporation account. This may include fee information relating to 18 payment to the system administrator. Examples of fees include commissions on donations, 19 subscription fees, etc.
[0118] At block 14.7, the system verifies items of provided information, such as the email 21 account and password being suitable. If the verification is not successful, the corporation 22 account registration process is terminated.
23 [0119] Otherwise, at block 14.8, a verification email may be sent to the provided corporation 24 administrator email address, providing a validation link with unique generated token to ensure that the specified email is correct. At block 14.9, the corporation administrator accesses the 26 email and clicks on the validation link which redirects to a validation page with the unique 27 validation token. The corporation administrator proceeds to login with their email address and 28 password. At block 14.10, if the email and password credentials are incorrect, the corporation 29 registration process is terminated (though the corporation administrator may re-access the validation link and try again).

1 [0120] Otherwise, at block 14.11, the corporation account is marked as validated in the user 2 database. In embodiments, a further manual verification may be provided by the system 3 administrator prior to activating the corporation's account. In such embodiments, a notification 4 email may be sent to the system administrator to indicate that this corporation account is ready for approval. At block 14.12, the corporation administrator reviews the corporation account, 6 contacts the corporation (perhaps offline), and verifies the corporation account for correctness 7 and authenticity. If the corporation is approved the corporation account is activated. Otherwise, 8 the corporation account registration process is terminated. Once activated, at block 14.13, the 9 corporation is notified of the activation by email. Upon the successful creation of the corporation account, a unique "invitation key" token is generated, which can be used with an invitation URL
11 to invite employees to register onto the system. The corporation administrator may now log in to 12 the system to configure or customize the CSR information.
13 [0121] The corporation may establish campaigns. Referring back to Fig.
6, at block 11.12a, if 14 the user creating the campaign is a corporation (i.e. a corporation administrator creating the campaign on behalf of the corporation), a mapping between that corporation and the campaign 16 is established in block 11.12b. This mapping provides the means for tying campaign statistics 17 to the corporation's statistics, such as campaign donations contributing to the corporation's 18 cumulative raised funds.
19 [0122] Employees may donate to the campaigns. Referring back to Fig. 9, at block 3.6b, the donation processing module determines whether the user making the donation is tied to any 21 corporation. If so, the employee's corporation's statistics related to employee giving are 22 updated at block 3.6c. At block 3.6d, the donation processing module determines whether the 23 campaign was created by a corporation. If so, the campaign's corporation's statistics related to 24 fundraising are updated at block 3.6e.
[0123] Referring now to Fig. 20, a CSR customization process is shown. At block 15.1, the 26 corporation administrator logs into the system. If the corporation is not registered, the 27 corporation registration process is followed. At block 15.2, the corporation administrator is 28 presented with a set of preconfigured CSR templates and may select one.
The templates 29 comprise fields to populate with charities and causes supported, campaigns launched, employee contributions, funds raised. At block 15.3, the corporation administrator may 31 customize each section to enable privacy settings and customization of the content. Content 32 related to corporate CSR is pulled directly from the system through activity and interactions that 1 the corporation and its employees have had. Additional content and media may be uploaded 2 and posted with links to showcase CSR. At block 15.4, each of the applicable categories carries 3 a weighing factor. The applicable categories comprise the total campaigns launched and 4 supported, corporate donations, funds raised, employee contributions, number of interactions, media uploaded. The corporation and its employees work as a unit to boost the CSR score. At 6 block 15.5, the corporation is assigned a dynamic CSR score. The system may provide a 7 leaderboard to show a ranking of corporations by CSR score to showcase corporations with 8 high social impact.
9 [0124] In another aspect, an open donation application programming interface (API) is provided. The API enables third party applications to integrate the charity crowdfunding system 11 described herein. Third party applications may include social networks, mobile device 12 applications and games, websites, etc. Portions or top-ups of in-app purchases and e-13 commerce transactions, for example, could be directed to the charity crowdfunding system.
14 [0125] Although the invention has been described with reference to certain specific embodiments, various modifications thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art without 16 departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as outlined in the claims appended hereto.
17 The entire disclosures of all references recited above are incorporated herein by reference.

Claims

We claim

1. A charity crowdfunding system comprising:
a. a charity database comprising a plurality of charity records, each said charity record corresponding to a charity;
b. a user database comprising a plurality of user records, each said user record corresponding to a user;
c. a campaign database comprising a plurality of campaign records, each said campaign record corresponding to a campaign, each said campaign being configured by one of said users to benefit one of said charities; and d. a donation processing module for receiving donations from said users for each said campaign, said donations being directed to said charity associated bypassing said configuring user.