WO2004107084A2

WO2004107084A2 - A fundraising system

Info

Publication number: WO2004107084A2
Application number: PCT/IB2004/001752
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jeanne Louise Rose
Original assignee: Jeanne Louise Rose
Priority date: 2003-05-30
Filing date: 2004-05-28
Publication date: 2004-12-09
Also published as: WO2004107084A3; ZA200600061B

Abstract

A system and method for raising funds which includes a processing facility (2) operable to round up a donor client transaction amount by a rounding amount to obtain a rounded total, to issue the donor client with an invoice for the rounded total and to transfer the rounding amount to a receiver account (20).

Description

A FUNDRAISING SYSTEM

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a system for raising funds.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

Many methods are currently employed to raise funds for charities or other organisations. One example is the Lotto which is run in many countries. Although large amounts of money are generated the operating costs are usually so high that relatively little money ends up going to the charities. There is also generally a lack of transparency in these processes.

It is difficult for charities to raise funds themselves as consumers in many countries often have little expendable income and the expandable income that they do have is usually spent on lotteries or luxury goods or is such a small amount as to be relatively insignificant. The collection of small amounts of money is furthermore unattractive to charities as a high volume is required to justify the costs associated with handling the money. OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of this invention to provide a fundraising system which will at least partially alleviate some of the abovementioned problems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with this invention there is provided a fundraising system comprising a processing facility operable to round up a donor client transaction amount by a rounding amount to obtain a rounded total, to issue the donor client with an invoice for the rounded total and to transfer the rounding amount to a receiver account.

Further features of the invention provide for the receiver account to be one of an administration account and a beneficiary account, preferably an administration account; for an administration facility to transfer the rounding amount from the administration account to any one or more of a predetermined number of beneficiary accounts ; for the administration facility to provide an accounting to the donor client; and for the administration facility to subtract an administration fee from the rounding amounts prior to transferring the rounding amounts to a beneficiary account.

Still further features of the invention provide for the processing facility to identify a donor client from a plurality of clients; for the processing facility to calculate a total of a number of rounding amounts and to transfer the total to the administration account; for the donor client transaction to be an individual transaction, alternatively a number of individual transactions

Yet further features of the invention provide for the processor to indicate the rounding amount on the donor client invoice; for the processing facility to communicate with the administration facility via a network, including a public communications network; and for the administration facility to provide information relating to amounts received and transferred on a publicly available website.

Further features of the invention provide for the predetermined rounding amount to be donor selectable; and for the predetermined rounding amount to include the nearest significant currency amount or any multiple thereof.

Still further features of the invention provide for the administration facility to instruct the processing facility of donor details; for the processing facility to record such details in a repository of client details; and for the processing facility to operate at a provider of goods or services.

The invention also provides an administration facility substantially as defined above.

The invention further provides a method of raising funds which includes rounding up a donor client transaction by a rounding amount to obtain a rounded total, invoicing the donor client for the rounded total and transferring the rounded amount to a receiver account.

Further features of the invention provide for the receiver account to be one of an administration account and a beneficiary account, preferably an administration account; for the rounding amount to be transferred from the administration account to any one or more of a predetermined number of beneficiary accounts ; for an accounting to be provided to the donor client; and for an administration fee to be subtracted from the rounding amounts prior to transferring the rounding amounts to a beneficiary account. Still further features of the invention provide for the total of a number of rounding amounts to be calculated and the total to be transferred to the administration account; and for the donor client transaction to be an individual transaction, alternatively a number of individual transactions

Yet further features of the invention provide for the rounding amount to be indicated on the donor client invoice; and for information relating to amounts received and transferred to be made publicly available on a website.

Further features of the invention provide for the donor to select the rounding amount; and for the rounding amount to include the nearest significant currency amount or any multiple thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

One embodiment of the invention will be described, by way of example only, with reference to Figure 1 which is a schematic representation of a fundraising system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A fundraising system (1) is shown in Figure 1 and includes a processing facility (2) which operates, in this embodiment, at a telephone services provider. The processing facility (2) includes a repository (4) of client information as well as a transaction system (6) and an invoicing system (8). In this embodiment, the processing facility (2) is a server.

The processing facility (2) operates under the control of a stored program (10), the precise operation of which is not germane to the scope of the invention, and which will not be described here in detail. The stored program (10) enables the processing facility (2) to identify a client (12) using the repository (4) and authorise a transaction by the client (12) on the transaction system (6), in this embodiment to permit the client (12) to make a telephone call, and then to calculate the cost of the transaction and, at some stage, to issue an invoice for the transaction amount via the invoicing system (8).

Thus far a conventional processing facility has been described. According to the invention, however, the stored program (10) further enables the processing facility (2) to round a transaction amount to obtain a rounded total. The difference between the transaction amount and rounded total is referred to in this specification as the rounding amount.

The transaction amount which is rounded in this embodiment is the monthly total of individual transactions by the client (12). The transaction amount is rounded to the nearest significant currency amount, which in this embodiment is a Dollar. However, it is possible for the transaction amount to be rounded in any suitable manner including to the nearest 50 cent, $5, $10 etc. It is also possible for individual transaction amounts to be rounded rather than the total of a number of individual transaction amounts.

After rounding the transaction amount, the processing facility (2) invoices the client (12) with the rounded total and then transfers the rounding amount to a receiver account (20). For convenience, the processing facility (2) calculates the total rounding amounts for a number of clients (12) and transfers the full amount in a single operation to the receiver account (20). This avoids transaction fees having to be paid for transferring each rounding amount.

The clients (12) which permit rounding to be performed on their transactions must first authorise the processing facility (2) to do so and it is thus a further function of the processing facility (2) to identify such clients before performing the rounding operation. These clients are referred to as "donor clients". The system (1) further includes an administration facility (30), in this embodiment also a server, which controls the receiver account (20). The administration facility (30) also interfaces with the donor clients (12), the processing facility (2) and beneficiaries (32).

In use, donor clients (12) indicate to the administration facility (30) that they wish to make donations to any one or more of the beneficiaries (32) and authorise the processing facility (2) through the administration facility (30) to round their transactions. This is achieved by providing the administration facility (30) with their details and by completing an electronic authorisation form which is provided by the administration facility (30) to the processing facility (2). Any suitable form of authorisation could, however, be used, including telephone and written authorisations.

The donor client details, which include the selected beneficiaries (32), are stored by the administration facility (30) in a repository (35). When funds are transferred by the processing facility (2) to the receiver account (20) the administration facility (30) receives notification of the transfer which includes the total rounding amount transferred as well as the individual rounding amounts for each donor client (12). The administration facility (30) checks against the client details stored in the repository (35) how the individual rounding amounts must be distributed and calculates a total to be provided to each beneficiary (32). Hereafter a small administration fee is subtracted from the total for each beneficiary (32) and the remainder of the funds are then transferred to the accounts of the beneficiaries (32).

The administration facility (30) also provides to each donor client (12) and the processing facility (2) a full accounting of the funds received, the administration costs deducted and amount transferred to the beneficiaries (32). This is preferably done via an e-mail message. Details of all funds received and distributed are also provided by the administration facility (30) on a website (not shown) which is available over the Internet (40).

The administration facility (30) and processing facility (2) communicate with each other over the Internet (40) and also conduct all transactions relating to the clients (12), receiver account (20) and beneficiaries (32) via the Internet although any suitable communication medium can be used, including private networks.

The fundraising system (1) is highly effective in that large amounts of money can be collected through cumulating many small amounts which are in themselves relatively insignificant. The system (1) can also make use of existing computing infrastructure which in many instances has merely to be reprogrammed to function according to the invention, particularly as regards the processing facility (2).

It is envisaged that donors will find the fundraising system attractive for its simplicity, cost effectiveness, the relatively small amounts that are donated and the accountability for donor funds which is provided. Also, a range of beneficiaries can be accommodated to suit the donor's preferences.

The fundraising system will be attractive to beneficiaries as it provides a monthly gratuity benefit based on a single approach to a donor. Thus, expensive fundraising projects can be avoided.

The technical effect provided by the invention is the calculation of a donation, the rounding amount, based on a commercial transaction, the invoicing of a client in the amount of the donation and the transfer of the donation to a beneficiary. It will be appreciated, however, that many other embodiments of a fundraising facility exist which fall within the scope of the invention especially as regards the operation and configuration thereof. For example, the processing facility could operate at any provider of goods or services, including, for example, supermarkets, insurance companies and utilities providers. At a supermarket, a till will act to round up an amount, either for a single item or plurality of items, and indicate this to a central processor which would in turn transfer the rounded amount to a receiver account. In this instance the till and processor together act as the processing facility.

It is particularly desirable that a plurality of processing facilities exist at different service providers all of which communicate with the administration facility.

Also, the administration facility could calculate funds to be distributed to beneficiaries using a simplified procedure such as calculating and distributing an average of the amount that would normally be received. So, for example, if rounding to the nearest Dollar is being performed then the rounding amount will be between 1 cent and 99 cents. This will probably average to 49 cents over a number of transactions and this average could be used to simplify calculations.

Furthermore, the processing facility could be operable to transfer the rounding amounts directly to the beneficiary accounts if so desired. Also, the service provider could inform clients of default beneficiaries, a list of which could be stored on the administration facility, and that an automatic rounding operation will be performed on all accounts unless the client expressly requests to be taken off the list.

It will still further be understood that any suitably configurable computing means can be used to provide the processing facility and administration facility.

Claims

1. A fundraising system comprising a processing facility operable to round up a donor client transaction amount by a rounding amount to obtain a rounded total, to issue the donor client with an invoice for the rounded total and to transfer the rounding amount to a receiver account.

2. A fundraising system as claimed in claim 1 in which the receiver account is a beneficiary account.

3. A fundraising system as claimed in claim 1 in which the receiver account is an administration account.

4. A fundraising system as claimed in claim 3 in which an administration facility transfers the rounding amount from the administration account to any one or more of a predetermined number of beneficiary accounts.

5. A fundraising system as claimed in claim 4 in which the administration facility provides an accounting to the donor client.

6. A fundraising system as claimed in claim 4 or claim 5 in which the administration facility subtracts an administration fee from a rounding amount prior to transferring the rounding amount to a beneficiary account.

7. A fundraising system as claimed in any one of claims 4 to 6 in which the processing facility communicates with the administration facility via a public communications network.

8. A fundraising system as claimed in any one of claims 4 to 7 in which the administration facility provides information relating to amounts received and transferred on a publicly available website.

9. A fundraising system as claimed in any one of claims 4 to 8 in which the administration facility instructs the processing facility of donor details.

10. A fundraising system as claimed in claim 9 in which the processing facility records the donor details in a repository of client details.

11. A fundraising system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the processing facility identifies a donor client from a plurality of clients.

12. A fundraising system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the processing facility calculates a total of a number of rounding amounts and transfers the total to the administration account.

13. A fundraising system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the donor client transaction is an individual transaction.

14. A fundraising system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 12 in which the donor client transaction is a number of individual transactions.

15. A fundraising system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the processing facility indicates the rounding amount on the donor client invoice.

16. A fundraising system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the rounding amount is predetermined.

17. A fundraising system as claimed in claim 16 in which the predetermined rounding amount is donor selectable.

18. A fundraising system as claimed in claim 16 or claim 17 in which the predetermined rounding amount includes the nearest significant currency amount or any multiple thereof.

19. A fundraising system as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the processing facility operates at a provider of goods or services.

20. A processing facility operable to round up a donor client transaction amount by a rounding amount to obtain a rounded total, to issue the donor client with an invoice for the rounded total and to transfer the rounding amount to a receiver account.

21. A method of raising funds which includes rounding up a donor client transaction by a rounding amount to obtain a rounded total, invoicing the donor client for the rounded total and transferring the rounded amount to a receiver account.

22. A method of raising funds as claimed in claim 21 in which the receiver account is a beneficiary account.

23. A method of raising funds as claimed in claim 21 in which the receiver account is an administration account.

24. A method of raising funds as claimed in claim 23 which includes transferring the rounding amount from the administration account to any one or more of a predetermined number of beneficiary accounts..

25. A method of raising funds as claimed in claim 22 or claim 24 which includes subtracting an administration fee from the rounding amounts prior to transferring the rounding amounts to a beneficiary account.

26. A method of raising funds as claimed in any one of claims 21 to 25 which includes providing the donor client with an accounting of the rounding amount transfers.

27. A method of raising funds as claimed in any one of claims 21 to 26 which includes calculating the total of a number of rounding amounts and transferring the total to the administration account.

28. A method of raising funds as claimed in any one of claims 21 to 27 which includes indicating the rounding amount on the donor client invoice.

29. A method of raising funds as claimed in any one of claims 21 to 28 which includes making information relating to amounts received and transferred publicly available on a website.

30. A fundraising system substantially as herein described and as illustrated with reference to Figure 1.

31. A processing facility substantially as herein described and as illustrated with reference to Figure 1.

32. A method of raising funds substantially as herein described and as illustrated with reference to Figure 1.