Point-of-sale system for charitable donations

Abstract

A point-of-sale packaging and display system for facilitating donations to charities is provided. A product's packaging is made to include an area that is labeled to identify a beneficiary of the donation and a predetermined amount thereof. The label is provided by the entity operating the system to a product manufacturer or seller in exchange for a donation to the stated beneficiary prior to the time the product is sold to a consumer. The product manufacturer or seller, in turn, applies the label to a product for display at the point-of-sale. By this method the consumer, who pays for the product and ultimately the donation, decides directly who to donate money to and how much solely by purchasing a product with a corresponding label identifying the beneficiary and amount of donation.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A point-of-sale packaging and display system for charitable donations comprising: 
 (a) a means for displaying a plurality of identical products to be sold, each of said products being packaged in its own respective package identifying the product therein; and    (b) a plurality of labels identifying at least two different beneficiaries for receiving a donation from at least a portion of proceeds from said sales, wherein (1) said labels are attached to said package and (2) a purchaser of one of said identical products decides which of said beneficiaries said proceeds flow to by selecting which of said products the purchaser decides to buy.    
     
     
         2 . The point-of-sale packaging and display system of  claim 1 , wherein the labels are coded to identity preselected beneficiaries.  
     
     
         3 . The point-of-sale packaging and display system of  claim 1 , wherein the labels are coded to identify a preselected donation from said purchaser.  
     
     
         4 . The point-of-sale packaging and display system of  claim 2 , wherein said labels are coded with color-based codes.  
     
     
         5 . The point-of-sale packaging and display system of  claim 2 , wherein the labels are stickers attached to said products at the point-of-sale.  
     
     
         6 . A method for packaging and displaying a product at a point-of-sale to facilitate donations to charities comprising the steps of: 
 (a) displaying a plurality of identical products to be sold, each of said products being packaged in its own respective package identifying the product therein; and    (b) attaching to said products labels identifying at least one of two different beneficiaries for receiving a donation from at least a portion of proceeds from said sales, wherein a purchaser of one of said identical products decides which of said beneficiaries said proceeds flow to by selecting which of said products the purchaser decides to buy.    
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the labels are coded to identify preselected beneficiaries.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the labels are coded to identify preselected donation from said purchaser.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein said labels are coded with color-based codes.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the labels are stickers attached to said products at the point-of-sale.