System and Method for Processing Electronic Charitable Donations

摘要

Disclosed is a system and method for processing electronic donations to a designated beneficiary, such as a charitable organization, charitable cause, campaign or individual. Also disclosed are a system and method for automated, mobile device-based donations to a designated beneficiary based on redemption of a gift card, and including software operable on mobile-communications devices and/or stand-alone electronic terminals. The present invention provides the ability for a user to make a charitable donation to one or more designated beneficiaries, including but in no way limited to charitable organizations, in part by utilizing a gift card as the form of donation.

主权项

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having recorded thereon a program that causes a processor to execute a method for processing a charitable donation based on liquidation of a gift card, wherein the method comprises:
receiving information associated with a gift card, wherein information comprises merchant information, numerical identifying information, expiration information, authorization codes, or any other identifying information associated with a merchant issued gift card; validating the gift card balance, wherein validation comprises validating the authenticity of the card and the current balance available in dollars or other common currency; liquidating the validated gift card, wherein liquidating comprises a transaction whereby a third party purchases the value of the gift card for an agreed upon value, such as by auction or over an exchange, and the sale price is deposited into an account for future retrieval; transmitting all or a portion of the liquidated value by transferring funds from the account to a designated charitable organization in order to make a donation to the charitable organization; retaining a portion of the funds from the liquidation, thereby collecting a processing fee; sending an acknowledgment of the donation, such as a receipt by electronic means to the donor who donated the gift card, or storing the acknowledgment for later retrieval.