Method and apparatus for increasing charitable donations by providing instantaneous donor recognition

Abstract

Charitable donations are increased by automatically providing immediate on-line recognition of on-line donors. A list of donors is maintained on a Web page acknowledging the on-line contributions. Donor names on the list can be links to additional information about the donation or the donor. Information about donor and donation is entered by the donor, who can specify what information is to be published on the Web and what information is to remain unpublished. The donor list can be arranged in order of donation size, and donors can compete for position on the list. The donor information can indicate membership in a group, and donations can also be totaled by group to encourage donation competition between groups.

1 . A method of providing recognition for donors donating to non-profit organizations, the method comprising:
 transmitting to a donor over a computer network a form for the donor to use to enter a donation to the non-profit organization;   entering onto the form an amount of the donation and payment information;   transmitting the form over the computer network to the donation servicer;   electronically transferring funds from the donor to the non-profit organization; and   automatically adding the donor to a donor list published on the computer network.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 entering additional information about the donor; and 
 presenting to a person viewing the donor list through the computer network the additional information about the donor in response to selecting a donor from the list. 
 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  in which entering onto the form an amount of the donation and payment information includes entering personal information and indicating what parts of the personal information will be publicly accessible over the computer network. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  in which entering payment information includes entering a credit card number or a bank account number. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  in which the donor list is arranged by size of donation and further comprising displaying the size of donation required to obtain a position on the list. 
     
     
         6 . A method of increasing charitable donations to an organization, the method comprising:
 providing a network server for communicating with individuals over a computer network;   automatically accepting donations over the computer network; and   automatically publishing on the computer network information about the donation, thereby providing immediate recognition to the donor.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  in which automatically publishing information about the donation includes automatically publishing information about the donor. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7  in which automatically accepting donations over the computer network includes the donor entering information about the donor 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  in which the donor entering information about the donor includes indicating which parts of the information is to be published. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 6  in which automatically accepting donations over the computer network includes automatically processing an electronic funds transfer from the donor to the organization. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 6  in which automatically publishing information about the donation includes providing a link to an electronic page including information about the donor. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 6  in which automatically publishing on the computer network information about the donation includes publishing a donation list including the donation. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12  in which the donation list is arranged in order of donation level and further comprising displaying the level of donation required to achieve a specified position on the list. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 6  further comprising:
 totaling donations categories based upon information provided by the donors; and 
 publishing donation totals by category on the computer network. 
 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14  in which the categories represent competing groups of donors, the method further comprising using the totals published on the computer network to encourage the competing groups of donors to increase donations. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 6  in which automatically publishing on the computer network includes publishing the information on an Internet Web page. 
     
     
         17 . An apparatus for increasing charitable donations to an organization, the apparatus comprising:
 a network server for communicating with individuals over a computer network;   a program executing on the network server to automatically accept donations over the computer network; and   a program executing on the network server to automatically publish on the computer network information about the donation, thereby providing immediate recognition to the donor.   
     
     
         18 . The apparatus of  claim 17  in which the network server communicates over the Internet. 
     
     
         19 . The apparatus of  claim 17  in which the program executing on the network server and automatically publishing information about the donation publishes the information on a World Wide Web page on the Internet. 
     
     
         20 . The apparatus of  claim 17  in which the program executing on the network server and automatically publishing information about the donations publishes an ordered list of donations.