Methods for encouraging charitable social networking

Abstract

A method of encouraging charitable donations by individuals who are members of a social network is disclosed. A user creates a member account by supplying user identity data from the user and creates a campaign, wherein the created campaign is associated with one or more charities and a financial goal. The user sends invitation to one or more members or non-members and the one or more members or non-members may accept or decline the user's invitation. The one or more members are given the option to donate any amount of money to a charity to post comments about the user, where the monetary value of the donation is associated with the comments posted such that a higher amount donated represents a higher trustworthiness of the comments. The one or more members or non-members may support the campaign by donating money to the one or more charities to help reach the financial goal. One or more user weight values are calculated based at least on a total volume of members or non-members who support the campaign by donating money to the one or more charities and/or a total monetary value of the money donated by the one or more members or non-members, where the one or more user weight values represent reliability of a user's reputation.

1 . A method of encouraging charitable donations by individuals who are members of a social network, comprising:
 allowing a user to create a member account by supplying user identity data from the user;   allowing a user to create a campaign, wherein the created campaign is associated with one or more charities and a goal;   allowing the user to send an invitation to one or more members or non-members;   allowing the one or more members or non-members to accept or decline the user's invitation, wherein the one or more non-members create a member account in order to accept or decline the user's invitation;   allowing the one or more members the option to donate any amount of money to a charity to post comments about the user, wherein the monetary value of the donation is associated with the comments posted such that a higher amount donated represents a higher trustworthiness of the comments;   allowing the one or more members or non-members to support the campaign by donating money to the one or more charities; and   calculating one or more user weight values based at least on a total volume of members or non-members who support the campaign by donating money to the one or more charities, wherein the one or more user weight values represent reliability of a user's reputation.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the charitable campaign is created by describing the charitable campaign and by selecting a date to reach the financial goal. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising allowing a user to upload one or more images to describe the charitable campaign. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising allowing a user to associate a campaign with a link to a web page. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising allowing the one or more invited members or non-members to post comments in connection with the donation to the one or more charities in association with the campaign. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising allowing the one or more members or non-members to invite one or more additional members or non-members to donate money to the charitable campaign. 
     
     
         7 . A method of encouraging charitable donations by individuals who are members of a social network, comprising:
 allowing a user to create a member account by supplying user identity data from the user;   allowing a user to create a campaign, wherein the created campaign is associated with one or more charities and a financial goal;   allowing the user to send an invitation to one or more members or non-members;   allowing the one or more members or non-members to accept or decline the user's invitation, wherein the one or more non-members create a member account in order to accept or decline the user's invitation;   allowing the one or more members the option to donate any amount of money to a charity to post comments about the user, wherein the monetary value of the donation is associated with the comments posted such that a higher amount donated represents a higher trustworthiness of the comments;   allowing the one or more members or non-members to support the campaign by donating money to the one or more charities to help reach the financial goal; and   calculating one or more user weight values based at least on a total value of the money donated by the one or more members or non-members, wherein the one or more user weight values represent reliability of a user's reputation.   
     
     
         8 . A method for encouraging charitable donations through a social network, comprising:
 allowing a user of the social network to form a group, wherein the group is associated with a message board;   allowing the user the option to donate any amount of money to one or more charities to post a message to the group message board;   allowing one or more members or non-members to the option to donate any amount of money to one or more charities to post a reply to the message; and   calculating one or more user weight values based at least on a total monetary value associated with the posted message and one or more posted replies, wherein the one or more user weight values represent reliability of a user's reputation.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising allowing the user or the one or more members or non-members to link to a campaign in connection with the posted message or posted reply to the message. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the value of each donation is associated with the one or more members or non-members and displayed with the posted reply to the message. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the total value of all donations is displayed in connection with the posted message. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the user or the one or more members or non-members make an anonymous donation to the one or more charities in connection with their post. 
     
     
         13 . A method for encouraging charitable donations through a social network, comprising:
 allowing a user to create a group, wherein the created group is associated with one or more charities through one or more campaigns;   allowing the user to send an invitation to one or more members or non-members to join the group and to donate money to one or more charities through the one or more campaigns;   allowing the one or more invited members or non-members to join the group and to donate money to one or more charities through the one or more campaigns; and   calculating a group weight value based at least on a total monetary value of money donated to the one or more charities through the one or more campaigns by all of the members or non-members of the group.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the group weight value is further based at least on the number of invited members or non-members who join the group. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising allowing a user or the one or more members or non-members who join the group to post one or more of the following: events, discussion topics, or polls. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising calculating a user weight value for the one or more members who join the group based on a number of posts of one or more of the following: events, discussion topics, or polls. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising obtaining approval from the user or the one or more members of the group in order to allow a member or non-member to join the group. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising allowing a user to designate the created group as public or private, wherein a private designation allows members of the group to participate in the group and a public designation allows members and non-members of the group to participate in the group. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising allowing a user to export the one or more user weight values to an application outside the social network as a data tag which will apprise one of the user's reputation. 
     
     
         20 . A method for encouraging charitable donations through a social network, comprising:
 allowing a user to create a group, wherein the created group is associated with one or more charities through one or more campaigns;   allowing one or more members or non-members to join the group and to donate money to one or more charities through the one or more campaigns; and   calculating a group weight value based at least on a total monetary value of money donated to the one or more charities through the one or more campaigns by all of the members or non-members of the group.   
     
     
         21 . A method for encouraging charitable donations through a social network, comprising:
 providing an online social network for users to obtain information about other users;   allowing a user to become a member of the online social network;   allowing the user to create a user profile containing information about the user;   allowing one or more different users of the online social network to view the user profile;   allowing one or more institutions to verify the information about the user contained in the user profile;   calculating an entity weight value for the institution based on a number of times that the institution has verified user information, whereby a higher entity weight value indicates a higher reliability of the institution.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising allowing the one or more charities to post comments on the social network relating to the status of the campaign. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 22 , further comprising calculating one or more entity weight values of the one or more charities based on the volume of comments which the one or more charities posted on the social network relating to the progress of the campaign. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein a higher entity weight value represents a more reliable reputation of the one or more charities. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising allowing the one or more charities to create a message board for users of the social network to post comments, wherein the users donate money to the one or more charities to post the comments. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25 , further comprising calculating one or more entity weight values of the one or more charities based on the volume of comments which the users posted on the message board created by the one or more charities.