FIELD

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods that enable customers to challenge providers or other entities to make charitable contributions to charities of the customer's choice.

BACKGROUND

Charitable or philanthropic giving has been around for a long time. A main challenge for charitable organizations is to raise funds for their causes. Fundraising is expensive and requires a significant marketing effort. This is particularly problematic for small, relatively local charities—many of which, although they provide funding to areas popular with charitable donors, may be relatively unknown. Additionally, it is difficult for donors or customers to give to two or more charities at one time. Typically, the donors need to find each charity on separate websites and give either a one-time or a recurring donation to each charity. More recently, with the advent of portable electronic devices such as smart phones and tablets, charitable giving has been facilitated using applications that enable donors to give electronically. Systems are also known for small investors that allow them to utilize electronic devices to create and manage, on a cost-effective basis, a complex portfolio of securities, based upon the preferences of the investor. These systems can then initiate trades of the portfolio as a whole or in part in order to facilitate the wants and needs of the small investor.

Today, when a potential charitable donor researches a charity on the internet (or by other means), that donor typically visits many different websites collecting information which might not provide answers to them to make informed decisions on their donation. The landscape for charitable giving is fragmented with many single but different ways for the donor to give.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

There is a need for a donation facilitation system that allows a donor, such as a customer or provider, to challenge another entity, such as a provider, to make a provider contribution to a charity or a portfolio of charities set up by the customer upon, for example, the purchase of a good or service from the provider. There is also a need for a portfolio facilitation system that allows the other entity such as a provider to create its own provider portfolio of charities and make a provider contribution to a customer's portfolio of charities when at least one member of the provider's portfolio of charities matches at least one member of the customer's portfolio of charities. Additionally, there is a need for a customer to challenge providers such as financial institutions, processors or payment networks, card networks, merchants (providers) and individuals to make such a contribution to a provider portfolio of charities.

In one aspect, a donation facilitation system is disclosed that includes a customer having a customer portfolio of charities and a provider having a provider portfolio of charities. In some embodiments, the provider may not have a provider portfolio but may just donate to a charity of his or her choice. The customer can purchase a good or service from the provider. The disclosed donation facilitation system can also include a challenge made by the customer to the provider to make a provider contribution to the customer portfolio of charities when at least one charity in the customer portfolio of charities matches at least one charity in the provider of charities. The disclosed system further includes a challenge contribution made by the provider to the customer portfolio of charities in response to the challenge. In some embodiments, the provider contribution can be a fixed percentage of a price of the good or service or a fixed fee per customer transaction. In some embodiments, the challenge can include a challenge amount and the provider contribution may meet, exceed, or be less than the challenge amount. In another embodiment, the disclosed facilitation system can include a server and can include at least one electronic device in communication with the server. The electronic device can enable the provider to access the customer challenge, the customer portfolio of charities, the provider portfolio of charities. In some embodiments, the challenge contribution can be made to a donor advised fund and the provider can include a financial institution, a processor, a payment network, a card network, merchants, or individuals.

In another aspect, a donation facilitation system is disclosed that includes a customer having a customer portfolio of charities and a provider having a provider portfolio of charities. When the customer purchases a good or service from the provider, a challenge can be made by the customer to the provider for the provider to make a provider contribution to the customer portfolio of charities when at least one charity in the customer portfolio of charities matches at least one charity in the provider portfolio of charities. The provider contribution to the customer portfolio of charities can be made in response to the challenge.

In yet another aspect, a method of facilitating donations is disclosed that includes a provider charging a customer upon purchase of a good or service. The good or service can have a price set by the provider for the good or service. The provider can have a provider portfolio of charities. The method can also include the customer challenging the provider to make a customer contribution to a customer portfolio of charities in addition to the price. The method can also include the provider making the customer contribution to the portfolio of charities when at least one charity in the provider portfolio of charities can match at least one charity in the customer portfolio of charities. The disclosed method also can include the provider making a contribution that can be a fixed percentage of the price, or a fixed fee for each transaction. In some embodiments, the provider contribution can be a combination of a fixed percentage or a fixed fee.

The provided donation facilitation system and method can enable a donor, such as a customer, provider, or both to challenge another entity, such as a provider, to make a provider contribution to a customer portfolio of charities set up by the customer upon, for example, the purchase of a good or service from the provider. The disclosed portfolio donation facilitation system can allow the provider to create his or her own provider portfolio of charities and make a provider contribution to a customer's portfolio of charities when at least one component of the provider's portfolio of charities matches at least one component of the customer's portfolio of charities. In some embodiment, the disclosed method further includes using a server to store the portfolio of customer charities, the portfolio of provider charities, or both.

In this disclosure the term:

“additional contribution” refers to an extra payment made by a customer or consumer to the customer's portfolio when making a purchase from a provider;

“challenge” refers to an amount that the customer requests the provider to contribute to a customer portfolio of charities;

“customer portfolio” refers to a collection of charities set up by a customer or consumer that typically includes from 1 to about 10 or even more charities and is stored in a system server;

“donor advised fund” refers to a dedicated fund, often associated with a financial institution, that collects and stores donations to portfolios (and can earn interest or be a charity itself) and then can distribute or split the donations among the charities in the portfolio according to the rules for distribution of donations to portfolios;

“electronic device” refers to and includes mobile devices, desktop computers, mainframe computers or other electronic computing devices;

“fixed fee” refers to a fee that is a specific amount and particularly refers to a fee that is charged based upon a transaction and not based upon the amount of the transaction;

“fixed percentage” refers to a fee that is a percentage amount of a transaction; “mobile device” refers to smart phones, tablets, laptop computers, or any other portable computing device;

“payment network” refers to a way to move money from one party to another and, unless transactions happen in cash, require a payment system for a smooth transaction.

“price” refers to the amount of money that is expected by a provider from a customer or consumer to obtain a desired good or service. Typically, the price is posted by the provider and is the undiscounted, regular cost of the good or service;

“provider” refers to an entity that offers goods or services for a price or a fee to a customer or consumer. A provider can be a bank or savings institution such as a credit union, a processor/payment network, card networks, merchants, or individuals;

“provider contribution” refers to an extra payment made by the provider to the customer's portfolio of charities;

“provider portfolio” refers to a collection of charities set up by a provider or that typically includes from 1 to about 10 charities (or even about 60,000 charities if, for example, using APPLEPAY) and can be stored in a system server;

“rounded-up” or “round-up” refers to the process of agreeing to pay a price for a good or service and then adding an additional amount (for charitable purposes) to the price to the next dollar or a higher payment amount; and

“rules for distribution of donations to portfolios” refers to predetermined splits with predetermined ratios for disseminating funds amassed by portfolios into the charities contained in that portfolio.

The above summary is not intended to describe each disclosed embodiment of every implementation of the present disclosure. The brief description of the drawings and the detailed description which follows more particularly exemplify illustrative embodiments. In the drawings, the layers are not necessarily drawn to scale.

