System and method for generating a community contribution index

Abstract

A system and method for generating a community contribution index (CCI) for organizations and providing reports pertaining to the CCI for one or more organizations is described. The CCI for an organization is calculated based upon monetary donations provided by the organization and the members associated with the organization and the number of volunteer hours provided by the members. The CCI provides a standardized way to measure an organization's contributions to the community.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:
 receiving, at an index server of a computer system, via a user interface of a client device, a request to periodically determine a standardized index of community contribution for each of a plurality of organizations;   periodically retrieving, by the index server and in response to the received request, a set of data for the organizations from a database of the computer system, wherein the set of data includes a first monetary donation made by an organization of the organizations, a second total monetary donation made by members of the organization, a number of volunteer hours provided by the members of the organization and a number of members of the organization;   periodically determining, by the index server, the standardized index for each of the organizations, wherein the standardized index is determined as a first function of the received data; and   periodically storing, by the index server, the standardized index for each of the organizations in the database.   
     
     
         2 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1  further comprising:
 periodically generating, by the index server, a report having the standardized index for each of the organizations; and 
 periodically sending, by the index server, the report to one or more users requesting the report. 
 
     
     
         3 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , wherein generating the report includes generating the report based on a user defined parameter. 
     
     
         4 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 3 , wherein the user defined parameter includes at least one of (a) an industry of the organizations or (b) a geographical region of the organizations. 
     
     
         5 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein determining the standardized index as a first function of the received data includes:
 determining an organization donation value as a second function of (a) the first monetary donation and (b) the second monetary donation;   determining an organization point value as a normalized function of (a) the organization donation value and (b) the number of volunteer hours provided by the members of the organization; and   determining the standardized index of the community contribution of the organization as a third function of (a) the organization point value and (b) the number of members of the organization.   
     
     
         6 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 5 , wherein determining an organization point value as a normalized function of (a) the organization donation value and (b) a number of volunteer hours performed by the members of the organization includes at least one of
 (i) determining each of the organization donation value and the number of volunteer hours as a monetary value,   (ii) determining each of the organization donation value and the number of volunteer hours as a time value, or   (iii) determining each of the organization donation value and the number of volunteer hours as a value of a predefined unit.   
     
     
         7 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 6 , wherein determining the organization donation value and the number of volunteer hours as the monetary value includes
 determining an estimated value of volunteer hours of the organization as a function of (a) the number of volunteer hours performed by the members of the organization and (b) average hourly earnings.   
     
     
         8 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 7 , wherein determining an estimated value of volunteer hours includes
 obtaining data on average hourly earnings for specific countries, wherein the number of volunteer hours provided by members of each of the organizations is specified by country, and the standardized index is further based on the average hourly earnings for specific countries.   
     
     
         9 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 7 , wherein the estimated value of volunteer hours or the organization donation value is weighted. 
     
     
         10 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the received data for each of the organizations is verified. 
     
     
         11 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , wherein the standardized index of a particular organization in the generated report is noted to be determined using unverified data, if the received data for the particular organization is not verified. 
     
     
         12 . A system for generating community contribution indices, the system comprising:
 a processor; and   a memory configured to store a set of instructions, which, when executed by the processor causes
 a communications module to periodically retrieve data for one or more organizations from a database in the system, wherein the data includes a first monetary donation made by each of the one or more organizations, a second monetary donation made by members of each of the one or more organizations, a number of volunteer hours provided by the members of each of the one or more organizations, and a number of members of each of the one or more organizations, 
 an index server to periodically determine a standardized index for community contribution of each of the one or more organizations, wherein the standardized index is determined as a first function of the received data, and 
 the communications module to periodically send the determined standardized index of each of the one or more organizations to a requesting user. 
   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the index server is further configured to
 periodically generate a report having the standardized index for each of the organizations; and   periodically send the report to one or more users requesting the report.   
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein the report is customized based on a user defined parameter. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the user defined parameter includes at least one of (a) an industry of the organizations or (b) a geographical region of the organizations. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein determining the standardized index includes:
 determining an organization donation value of each of the one or more organizations as a second function of (a) the first monetary donation and the second monetary donation;   determining an organization point value of each of the one or more organizations as a normalized function of (a) the organization donation value and (b) the number of volunteer hours provided by the members of each of the one or more organizations; and   determining the standardized index of the community contribution of each of the one or more organizations as a third function of (a) the organization point value and (b) the number of members of the organization.   
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein determining an organization point value as a normalized function of (a) the organization donation value and (b) a number of volunteer hours performed by the members of the organization includes at least one of
 (i) determining each of the organization donation value and the number of volunteer hours as a monetary value,   (ii) determining each of the organization donation value and the number of volunteer hours as a time value, or   (iii) determining each of the organization donation value and the number of volunteer hours as a value of a predefined unit.   
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein determining the organization donation value and the number of volunteer hours as the monetary value includes
 determining an estimated value of volunteer hours of the organization as a function of (a) the number of volunteer hours performed by the members of the organization and (b) average hourly earnings.   
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the communications module further obtains data on average hourly earnings for specific countries, wherein the number of volunteer hours provided by members of the organization is specified by country, and the standardized index is further based on the average hourly earnings for specific countries. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the requesting user is a subscriber to a service that provides periodic updates to determined standardized indices for organizations.