AU2014200987A1 - Supplying, verifying and tracking charitable activity disbursements - Google Patents

Abstract

nauIlaguiLerwurcit~uviuJLLuvitIuuq0_jaO-43U/4U4 A method executed by a donor management computing system, comprising: receiving data representing donations from a plurality of donors to a charitable 5 project; transferring to a verifiable payment method at least a portion of donations reflected by the data representing donations, wherein the verifiable payment method is associated with the charitable project; receiving an electronic record related to the transfer and associated with use of the 10 verifiable payment method for at least one transaction, wherein the electronic record represents an appropriation of the at least a portion of the donations to said at least one transaction associated with the charitable project; and using the electronic record to update financial data associated with the charitable project to provide information on said at least one transaction associated with said 15 charitable project. DONOR AND CHARITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 105 NETWORK 115 PAY METHOD 180

Description

SUPPLYING, VERIFYING AND-TRACKING CHARITABLE ACTIVITY DISBURSEMENTS CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLIC:ATIONS 5 This application claims priority through, and hereby expressly incorporates by reereU.S. Provisional Patent Application-No. 601926,120, filed Apil 24, 2007, entitled Supplying, Verifying and TrackiogCharitable Activity Disbursenents This application also hereby expressly incorporates by reference U.S. Application No. 101290,556, filed November 8, 2002, entitled Philinthropy Manage men System and 10 Methods of Use and.Doing Business, which claims priority through and expressly incorporates by reference the common applicant's prior U.S. provisional patent application, serial number 60/345,361, filed November 8, 2001. Thisapplication also hereby expressly incorporates by reference, the common. applicant's prior U.S. Application No. 10/873,995, filed June 21, 2004, entitled Improved Philanthropy 15 Management System and Method of Doing Business. This application also hereby expressly incorporates by reference,.the common applicant's prior U.S. Application No. 11/493,502, filed JnMy 25, 2006, entitled Ar Atiomated Community to Exchange Philanthropy Information. This application also hereby expressly incorporates by reference, the common applicant's prior U.S. ApplicationNo. 11/542,929, fled October 20 2,2006, entitled Philanthropy.Vanagement and Metrics System. This application also hereby expressly incorporates by reference, the common applicant's U.S. provisional patent Appliation, serial number 61/047,648, liled April 24, 2008, entitled Improved Philanthropy Maiageinent System and Method of Doing Busines. 25 FIELD OF THE INVENTION Systems and methods described herein.relate.to providing access to and nnaging information about. philanthropic donations, resources, projects and disbursemenmts. 30 COPYRIG HT AUTHORIZATION A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material wbich is 1 subject to copyright protection The copyright owner has no objection to -the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademak 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. Manyofihe very fnest- educational, health care, and religious institutions and activities have long beei the direct resultof philanthropic 10 donations and activities. The resulting institutions, services, and products not onlyoften fulfilIsubstantial-voids that have not been, and often-cannotbe, met by govenrnt/ntbut also expand the range of options and competitive alternatives to institutions, services, and iiroducts provided by the government:and other private Activities and entities: The net result is not only a more efficient allocation of resources in the tharket and society as 15 a whole, but also substantialincreases in the quality of societal morals, education, human interaction, spiritual accomplishment, and life all across society. The effoinvolved, however, in actually making and managing donaions:on behalf of philanthropists or philanthropic institutions owing or controlling the capital is often-a-sizable, costiy, and...iime c6nsuin challeA pariculaly fr those indiiduals 20 or entities seeking to engage in philanthropic activities without use of a foundation. In general, identifying and researching charitable Organizations can be dilricult, More particularly, it is difficult to track and discuss hoWv and wher6 donations are being used. To help solve these problems, the applicants have developed automated-sysiems and. .imethods.for philanthropists to gain access-to projects. and: organizations of interest and, 25 if desired, for projects and organizations to gain access to philanthropists or philanthropic or other funding. Implementation of sudi donation management.systemns and methods are described in common-applicant's prior U.S; Patent Application 10/873,995, entitled "Philanithropy Matagerment System and Methods of Use and Doing Business'and U.S. Paient Applicationl10/290,556. entitled "hilanthropy.DonAtion 30 Manageient Apparatus, System, and Methods-of Uso and Doing Business," vhich are incorporated herein by reference. 2 -3 These systems make a variety of tools remotely accessible to donors, philanthropic organizations, project managers, team managers, and others, which allow such entities to gain access to the systems from disparate locations, such as through an intranet or the Internet. The systems provide tools for organizations to manage information about 5 themselves and projects with which they are connected or in which 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 monitoring, 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 method that dispenses money to a charity or charitable activity. It is desired to address the above or at least provide a useful alternative. 15 SUMMARY In one embodiment, a donor and charity management system maintains information on charitable organizations, each of which may have one or more projects or endeavours that they are undertaking and which need or have funding. Charities may input a variety of information into this management system, all of a portion of which can be displayed to 20 donors, such as project goals, project assessment information, etc. This information may also include audit trail information including payments made through a payment method such a pay card or stored value card. In one embodiment, one or more verifiable payment methods are used to provide funds to charitids' and allow-the charities to spend those funds. fn certain embodiments, once the payment imeihod has been used to pay foractivities associated with the 5 charitable activity, a record.is generated that is sent to the donor charity inanagenent system. la sone embodiments, the record allows for the donor or others to determine if and to the extentpaynenits benefited the charitable organization; In certain ermbodiments, the record contains information specific to individual projects. In some mrnbodiments, the methods and systems use one ot.mbfe pay cards such 1.0 as credit.cards, debitcards, stored value cards, payroll cards, charge cards or some: dombination. to provide fundi to charities, and to alow the charities to spend those funds. Certain embodiments allow money to be securely transf'erred from donors, by way of:the donor ctjarity management system to carities or charitebie projects. In sonme embodiments., a charitable organization can define activities necessary to 15 achieve a.charitable goal. In some embodiments, the donor may usebis or her pay card to associate his or her money with a specific task or project. The donated imotiey, or:at least a portion thereof, is then passed. onto. the charitable project or to accomplish a specific task.of a charitable project. In certain embodiments, the methods and systens track how the 20 donated money has been used. In some embodiments, a donor can make a donation that is earmarked for a specific charitable organization, charity, or other philanthropic or supported activity using the donor charitable management system, 4 -5 According to one particular example, there is provided herein a method executed by a donor management computing system, comprising: receiving data representing donations from a plurality of donors to a charitable project; 5 transferring to a verifiable payment method at least a portion of donations reflected by the data representing donations, wherein the verifiable payment method is associated with the charitable project; receiving an electronic record related to the transfer and associated with use of the verifiable payment method for at least one transaction, wherein the electronic record 10 represents an appropriation of the at least a portion of the donations to said at least one transaction associated with the charitable project; and using the electronic record to update financial data associated with the charitable project to provide information on said at least one transaction associated with said charitable project. 15 According to one particular example, there is provided herein a computer implemented internet-enabled donor and charity management system, comprising; at least one donor funding link whereby donors can donate to a philanthropic project; at least one verifiable payment method associated with the philanthropic project; 20 at least one verifiable payment method funding link by which donations can be transmitted to the verifiable payment method; and at least one verifiable payment method transaction database whereby verifiable payment method transactions using the verifiable payment method are captured, stored, and associated with the philanthropic project. 25 The foregoing summary recites various features and advantages of various embodiments of the invention. It is to be understood that all embodiments 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 will become apparent as the specification 30 proceeds. The embodiments described in this application can be added 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 invention is to be determined by the clahns and not by whethctrthe:c4nmd subject matter solves any-particular problem or All of them, provide any particular features or all of them, or:meet any particular objective or group-of objectives set forth in the background or Sumnmary above. 3 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The preferred and other embodiments are shown in the accompanying drawings in which FiG. I Ais a block dingram of a system for allowing donors, charitable organizations and others to furd charitico, disburse charitable fundatd trackchadiiable 10 disbursements; FIG. 1.B is a fuller embodiment of the block diagram of FIG; IA; FIG. 2 is an example ot how a potential donor may search or a charitable project: and then.my make a.donation to a chosen charity or charitable project; FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a computearsystem that cai be used in any olnthe 15 examples herein to implement an automated community to fund charitable projects, etc. to disburse the funds, and:to track the disbursements, such as the philanthropicsystem as show in FIG. '. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of payment methods that can be used in a donor charity management system, such as the systein of FIG. 1. 20 DE'TAILED DESCRIPTION General consideration Disclosed below are representalive.embodinients of methods, apparatus, and systems having particular plicability t automtitig communities to exchange. 25 philanthropic information that should not be construed as limiting in any wvay. Instead, the present:disclosure is directed toward all novel and nonobvious features and aspects of the various disclosed niethods, apparatus, anisystems, and their equivalents, alone and in various combinations and subcombinations with one another. Example. I - System for Funding Charlies, Dlsbursing te.Charitable Fwids, and 30 Tracking the Disbursements. With reference to FIG. I.A, in certain embodiments, the present invention 6 provides methods and.systene for facilitating the verification: and tracking of charitable fund disbursements. Embodiments of.a donor and charity inangenent system 105 allow disbirsements that charities may make, such as paying salaries for staff, paying for supplies hor suf direct payments to those receiving assistance, paying for supplies used S for assistance, such as vaccinations, mosquito nets, blankets, paying teachers' salaries, charities, charitable projects associated with charites, to benade with pay cards 180. These pay cards may be a debit card or a credit card. The card hiay be associated with an account which isfunded ihrough.the.donor nu:miagenent system:105. Whlen the charity or a representative ofthe-charity uses-the 10 pay card 180, the transaction may be sent, froi! the point: dfsale, or at some other time, through the-network 115-to.ihe donor management systems 105. The donor mnd charity managentent system 105 can be embodied in software and can incorporate databases, interfaces, and other well-known-and/or commercially available packages, and can employ any conibinatin of the technologies desnibed 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 network, which may be an intranet or the Internet. The one or more networks may also be a geographically confined network, entity-specific network, or other network, possibly including one or more 20 intranetsof a corporate, education, hospital, or religious institution, govemen t, or other system. This might reduce access to and reach of the -comunity whilp meeting other objectives such as restricting accessto only those desired. Donors may-be individuals, businesses, philanthropic. organizations, or wealth managers. Charitable organizations include, without limitations nonprofit organizations, 25 religious organizations, aid organizations, health organizations, environmental groups, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and other philanthropic causes Charitable organizatidas also inlude.members of such organizations,:sueb as project managers, task managers, and the like. Examples of charitable organizations include, for example., and without limitation, the Uoited Way, Doctors without Borders, the Sierra Club, 30 Campus Crusade for Christ, the World Health Organization, and the Salvation Army. With reference to FG. I B, in an embodiment, the donor and charity 7 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 vhich need or have funding. The charitable organizations 170 may use the donor management.systen 105 using a network 160 or other communications system to input 5 a variety of.information, which may 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, such as its current finding needs and expenditures. This may also include an audit trail tied to how charitable funds were spent, The addit: trail information may include payments made through a payment 1tO method such as a pay card or stored value card. Also payment may be made through another vehicle for performing:financial transactionsisuch a computer memom chip, as but one example. The.phrase charitable organization 170 may refer to members of the charitable organization 170 acting on its behalf. For exaniple, the information ipnay include information regarding the naturo:of 15 the charitable organization 170, ongoing or past activities.or projects of the charitable organization, the level of finding of the charitable organization 170 as aihole.or the level of funding:for individual projects 175, data:conceminghow.supplied.funds have been spent, specific outlays for specific projects, specific fuding needs for specific projects, The specific doopt funds that were spent on specific projects, generaldonor 20 funds that are earmarked for specific projects or specific aWtivities (e.g. "buy blankets," "pay building rent," "teacher salary) and/or general financial.data. In certain embodiments, Ihe charitable organizations I70 may add or remove projects 175 from the. donor management.system 105 and update the information stored in the database 167 in: the donor management system 1.05, such as providing progress reports for projects 175, 25 and providing updated fiancial data. A pay method 180 may be associated with a charitable project 175, a charitable organization 17; and/or a different grouping, such as a detined subset.of a project. The donors 155 may review all.or a portion of the information on the charitable. :organizations 110 and projects 175. 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:tosthe chosen beneficiary 8 utilizing the donor imanagdzmentsvstem 105. Example 3- Conputing Envinnunent Figure 3 and the following discussion are intended to provide a brief, general description of a computing envirofiuent in whih-the disclosed technology may be 5 implemented. For insnnce any of the functionalities-described wih respect to creating or using a pay card can be inplemented in such a c6oputing enviroinnent. Although not required, the disclosed technology was described in the general contoxt of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a personal compaterC). Geneiraly, program modules include routines, programs, 10 objects, components,.data structures, etc./that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types: Moreover. the disclosed technology may be implemented vith other computer system configutrationis, indluding-hand-held devices such as PDAs, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics., personal .15 computers (PCs), portable-personal computers, network PCs, minicomputers, inainframe computers, and:the like. Any number-of suitable operating systemsmay be used, suchas, for exanpleauidnot limitation, UNIXor one oflits many flavors, Linux, one developdd by Microsoft for use on PC's, an Apple operating system, an operating; system developed specifically for niainframes,, such as those developed by IBM, or the 20 like. The disclosed technology may also be practiced in distributed computing environinedts iwheretasks-ars performed by remote processing devices that are linked through communications Aenvork;. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices, Figure 3. illustrates a generalized example ofa. suitable computing environment 25 300 in which described embodiments may be implemented. The computing environment 300 is not intended to suggest any limitation as to scope ofuse or functionality of the disclosed embodiments, as the present disclosed embodiments may be implemented in diverse general-purpose or special-purpose computing environments. With reference to Figure:3, the computing environnnt.300 includes atleast one 30 central processing unit 310 and memory 320. In Figure 3, this:niost basic contiguratioi 330 is included within a dashed line. The central processing unit 310 executes 9 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 operations as vertex mapping, pixel processing, rendering, and. texture mapping. In amulti-irocessing system, multiple processing units execute 5 computer-executable.instructioiis to increase processing power and as such the GPU and CPU can be running simultaneously. The memory 320 maybe-volatile memory (e.g., registers, cache, RAM), non-volatile meniory-(e.g., ROM, BEPROM, flash mentory, etc.), or some combination of the'two. Thememory 320 stores software 380 implementing the described methodsofsupplying, verifyingsand tracking charitable 10 activity disbursements. A computing environment may have additional features. For example, the computing envi6aent 300 includes storage 340, one or more input devices 350, one or inre output devices 360, and one or more communication connections 370. An. interconnection.mechanisin (not shown) such as a-bus, controller, or network 15 interconnects the ponpoiments of the computing environment 300. Typically,operating systenisoftware (not shown) provides an operating environment for other software executing in the coinputing environment 300, and coordinates activities of the components ofthe 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 canbe used to store intbrnation-and which can be accessed within the computing environment 300, The storage 340 stores instructions for the software80 to implement-methods of creating, using, or.faciitating the use of an automated community. 25 The input device(s) 350 may be a touch input device such as a keyboard, mouse, peu, or trackball, a voice input device, a scanning device, touchscreea or another device thatprovides input to the computingeniViromnetit 300. For.audio, the input devices) 350 may be a sound card or simihir 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. 10 The communication connection(s)370 enable communication over a communication medium to another computing entity. The coinmunication medium conveys information such as conputer-executableinsitructions, coinpiessd grAphics inforniation, or other data in a.modulated data signal. These connections may include 5 network connecLions, which may be wireless connections, 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-readablic media are any available tangible media that can be accessed within a computing environment. By wa of example.and not.limitationwithjthe 10 computing environment 300, computer-readable.media include memory 320, storage 340,.communication media, a carrierwnve through with the:nedia can be transmiited across a network such as die internetj and combinations of any of the above. Moreover. any of the niethods; apparatus, and systems described heroin can be used in conjuiction with creatirig, using, or facilitating the use-of an automated 15 community in a wide variety of contexts. Although ihe operations ofsome of the disclosed methods are described in a paricular; sequential order for convenient presentaion, it should be understood that this manner of description encoinpasses rearrangement, unless a particular ordering is required by specific language set forth below. For example, operations described 20 sequentially can be rearranged or perfornied coniurrently. Moreover, for the sake of simplicity, the attached figures may not show the various ways in which the disclosed methods, apparatus, and systems can be used:in conjunction with other methods, apparatus, and systems. Additionally, the description sometimes uses terns like "determine" and "identify"Ito describe the disclosed technology. These terrs 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 readilydiscernible by one of ordinary skill.in theart. Further, data produced from any of the disclosed methods can be created., updated, or stored.on tangible computer--eadablenediii (e.g, tangible computer 30 readable media, such as one or more CDs, volatile.memnoiycomponents (such as DRAM or SRAM), or nonvolatile memory components (such as hard drives)) using a variety of 11 different data structures or formats. .Such data can be created or updated at a local computer or over a network (e.g., by a server computer). Exanpie:4 -- PaymenNMethods In somenembodiments, one or more verifiable payment methods are used to 5 provide funds to charities, and allow the charities to spendthose funds. In certain embodintts, once the paymnt.method bas been used to pay for activities associated with 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 ahd/or the charity and/or a auditing fim, etc., can determinethat: thepayment was I0 made to benefit the charitable organization. In at least some embodiments, proof that the payment was made mnay be available to donots to the project, tooutside agencies, etc., by, for example; being posted on-a website associated with the donor charity management 'stemf 105, In-at least some embodiments, the -information Js available at the transaction level. In some eibodimeits. thevei-fied information is available at the 15 project level. In some embodiments, the verified information is available at the charity level i.e:, the charity-can state.that 95% of the money donatedreaches its.intend 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, enatirig a verifiable record of the transaction. The payment rethod may also be a cell phone witha credit transaction facility 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 corffriting-the request 'Further, the 25 payment method 180 may be an internet-enabled payment, such that funds available for a charitable project or endeavor may be accessible through an intemetsite (e.g., associated with the donor charity management system 105). A charity or charitable project may be able to. access these imemet-enabled funds and pay for products or services using theintemet. or use thein:to pay for'products and services which accept 30 such forms of payment, 12 Example 5 - Pay Card In some embodiments, one or more pay cards, such as the pay card 410 (IG. 4) are used to provide funds to charities, andallow the charities to.speitd those fuids. The pay cards may be credit cards, debit cards, stored value cards, payroll cards, charge 5 cards or soine combination. In embodiments in which stored value cards are used; the stored value card may allow the user access to money on deposit available to the charity. The inoney 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 for 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 6 rtain embodiments, alerts can be set on the type of purchases:so that i'funds associated with a particular pay cird 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 managementystem 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, eg. the charity, to pay employees. 20 In such a case, for example, at the end of a pay period-wages inay 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 conmercial.merclunt card processor, fund provider (such as a bank), or donor system l.povider or operator may share fees 25 generated from pay card access, such as, for example basis point fees, tiered fees, a flat annualfee 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 of the donor management system 105, the merchant card processor, the charitable organization, orqualified clients of the charitable organization. Some 30 embodiments only allow money to be loaded on the pay card.if there is authorization froin the donor charitable management system.o5 to the entity that will be using the 13 card. Other embodiments allow authorized users ofa charitable organization 170 to reload the card. Various embodiments allow money to be securely transferred from donors, by -way of the donor charity management system 105 to charties or charitable projects in far-flung. locations. In some enbodimientls the pay card may be 5 loaded/reloaded in i remote location using an internet or other network connection. In some embodiments,. tlie donor charitable management system 105 charges a fee for reloading the card. In some enibodiments, the donor charitable management system 105 charges a fee for using tlepay card 180. In some embodiment.$ the donor charitable management system IOS cn 10 securely transfer funds fion donors 155 to charitable organizations 170 and/or projects .175 using the pay card 180. In some embodiments, when the pay card is used, a record ofthe transaction is stored on the card.or otherwise delivered to the donor managementsystem 165 or other transaction management system of facility. In some embodimentsi a record of the 15 transaction is sent to.the donor management system 105, by, e.g., the-litemet. 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. Therecord may indicate the particular charity with which the payment was associated. in some embodiments, the record may.indicatethe particular project with which the payment was 20 associated, for, by example, being associated.with a specific pay card associated with (hat project. In some embodiments, the specific payment may 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:payments 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 fund verification and reconciliation, and/or-to-create an audit trail. I sone embodiienls thefund verification and reconciliation is done in real-time. In certain embodiments, the reconciliation process ties individual transactions to individual project budgets. The charity may then be able to determine; forexmiple, 30 what percentage of'donations were used for activities-such as fundraising and administrative activities, and-what percentage of donations were spent directly forthe 14 charitable $rojectswhere.lirds were spent, by whom, when, etc. In some embodiments, the donor management system 105 can use the pay card .information to deogether theinci he iththe project. rifornation so the donor can monitor the impact the project is making. 5 Exmirnple6 - Method to TrackFurnds Supplied to Chaities In some embodiments, a charitable organization can defmie activities necessary to achieve a charitable goal, such as "increase literacy in Sub-Saharan Africa." Activities that might be undertaken in such a project might include: 10 -Select and train literacy instructors. Assess literacy levels of women and men, Produce and distribute literacy materials. Provide basic literacy, post-literacy and nurneracy training for (f7m) community members and groups. 15 'Coordinate with Government to provide certification of learner achievement, stipends for facilitators, curriculun.assistance and testing of learmers (f/m). Establish key coniponents to Oromaote continuing education that. will maintain and strengthen literacy skills such as creating box libraries, book clubs, rural lending libraries,.and refresher workshops-and.ensuring the key population has access .20 to local newspapers. Conduct accounting and tinancial literacy classes. Assure follow-up and monitoring. Each of these activities mayhave associated expenses. For eiduuplC, selecting and training literacy-instructors may. require salaries for the literacy instructors duriiig 25 training, rent 'or 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 allocate 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.l105 15 Such a report may allow the donor management system.105-to determine that the particular task (rent) was funded. The donor manageient-system 105, or the charity rising the donor tranagement systemAQ5 imy then be able to modity..itsproject information to indicate that the specific task has been funded. Example 7 - Method to Use the Pay Card in an embodiment, a.donox niakes a charitable donation to a charity or a project associated with a charity. In some embodiments, the donor may associate his or her noney ith-a specific task-:such as "buy. poliovaccine to be-used for vaccinations in Uttar Pridesh, idia." in other enibodiments, 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 pissed onto the charitable project. For example, a payment method, such as apay card 180 may be loaded With the dortated money, an identification'ofanother asset, eto, Then, the payment method may be used by a charitable project to fund the associated charitable 15 project. Example 8 - Method to Supply Funds to Charities In some embodiment, a donor 155 can make a donation that is earmarked for a specific charitable organization 170, charity 175, or other philanithropic 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 p6tentii donor may search for a charitable project fov. whic to donate 204, and then may-make-a.donation 2.1 0 to a chosen charity or charitable project 175. This money is then transferred to the given project though a verifiable paymentnielhod. This money may be used to. initially fund a project and/or to fund ongoing monthly and/or 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 transaction 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) transferred to the 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 accounting and budgeting.for the project 214, 16 M:miagI nlvovmN 'orDJ\U \AU\ j4B3_.OOC-25/U2/2U) 14 -17 and/or to be used for auditing or reporting information either through the donor management system 105 or otherwise. 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 embodiments are only 5 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 claims. We therefore claim as our invention all that comes within the scope and spirit of these claims. The reference in this specification to any prior publication (or information derived from it), or to any matter which is known, is not, and should not be taken as an 10 acknowledgment or admission or any form of suggestion that that prior publication (or information derived from it) or known matter forms part of the common general knowledge in the field of endeavour to which this specification relates. Throughout this specification and claims which follow, unless the context requires otherwise, the word "comprise", and variations such as "comprises" or "comprising", will 15 be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or group of integers or steps but not the exclusion of any other integer or group of integers.

Claims (10)

1. A method executed by a donor management computing system, comprising: receiving data representing donations from a plurality of donors to a charitable 5 project; transferring to a verifiable payment method at least a portion of donations reflected by the data representing donations, wherein the verifiable payment method is associated with the charitable project; receiving an electronic record related to the transfer and associated with use of the 10 verifiable payment method for at least one transaction, wherein the electronic record represents an appropriation of the at least a portion of the donations to said at least one transaction associated with the charitable project; and using the electronic record to update financial data associated with the charitable project to provide information on said at least one transaction associated with said 15 charitable project.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the financial information is the percentage of the donation that was spent on the one or more transactions associated with the charitable project. 20

3. The method of claim 1 or 2 wherein the transmitted information is a verifiable payment method transaction.

4. The method of claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the verifiable payment method is a pay card, 25 such as a credit card, a debit card, a payroll card, or a stored value card.

5. The method of claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the verifiable payment method is an internet-enabled payment, a PDA, or a cell phone. 30

6. The method of claim 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 wherein updating the financial information further comprises associating the at least one transaction with the donor. H:\mag\lnienvoven\NRPoitbl\DCC\MAG\6050483_.doc-25102/2014 - 19

7. A computer implemented internet-enabled donor and charity management system, comprising; at least one donor funding link whereby donors can donate to a philanthropic 5 project; at least one verifiable payment method associated with the philanthropic project; at least one verifiable payment method funding link by which donations can be transmitted to the verifiable payment method; and at least one verifiable payment method transaction database whereby verifiable 10 payment method transactions using the verifiable payment method are captured, stored, and associated with the philanthropic project.

8. The computer-implemented system of claim 7 wherein the database is operationally able to determine what percentage of the donation was spent on one or more transactions 15 associated with the philanthropic project.

9. The computer-implemented system of claim 7 or 8 wherein the verifiable payment method is a pay card, such as a credit card, a debit card, a payroll card, or a stored value card. 20

10. The computer-implemented system of claim 7 or 8 wherein the verifiable payment method is an internet-enabled payment, a PDA, or a cell phone.