New Software to Aid Donors

Posted by Cynical Sarah on October 21, 2006

If you’re one of the many generous residents who give to the panhandlers in your city, you may at one time or another wondered how many times you’ve given money out to the same person without really noticing. A new program for cell phones and PDAs can help you answer that question.

Bum Tracker allows you to take a picture of a panhandler the next time you give money to him. That photo is saved in a database so that in the future, you can take a picture before you give money to find out if you’ve already given money to that particular person and how much you’ve given.

“If you’re a generous person, this allows you to spread your money around more rather than always donating to the same panhandler every time just because you aren’t sure if it’s the same person or not,” said Tom Ashner, Bum Tracker lead programmer. “It uses the same facial recognition technology used by government agencies so that even if someone has tried to change their appearance in some way with a moustache or dirt, the program will still be able to make an accurate comparison to find a match.”

The software can be loaded onto any cell phone or PDA with picture taking and internet capability. Once the picture is taken and any money information is entered, it’s automatically entered online into a personal database.

Users can access their personal database via their phone or PDA to look through pictures themselves when deciding to give to a panhandler, or they can just take a picture of the person and have the database compare and make a match for them.

The database can also be used for tax purposes. An official record of how much someone has donated to panhandlers through the year can be printed to use as “charitable giving” when figuring out a federal tax return. The record includes the photo of each person with the amount given to them as proof for the IRS.

“I think Bum Tracker is actually going to benefit the homeless community as well as the people willing to give,” Ashner said. “The people who give will benefit from being able to claim it on their taxes as well as keep better track of who they’re giving to and how much they give. It may stop them from giving as much to any one person, but I think more people are going to be willing to give if they get this system. So it will balance out for the homeless who rely on the donations to survive and possibly even give them more from various sources.”

Ashner also has studies to back up his claim that more people will eventually be willing to give. Many charitable organizations reported an increase in donations from a larger pool of sources after they started issuing receipts so people could keep track and be able to claim the donation on their taxes.

“People are just much more willing to give when they’re getting even a small benefit from it,” Ashner said.

Another level of service will be added to Bum Tracker in the future as well once enough users are built up in various cities.

“We’re going to add to the system so people can also look up how much panhandlers have already received from other donors for the day, week, or month, depending on what the user is interested in comparing to,” Ashner said. “That way if someone has already made a good amount of money, you can save your change for someone who hasn’t done so well.”

The new comparison system will be added in cities when enough people are using the software and contributing to the database to give users and accurate idea of how well a panhandler is doing each day.

Even then, users will need to keep in mind that it’s not 100 percent accurate. Not everyone who gives will be using Bum Tracker, and not everyone with the software will be using it every time they give.

“But it will make you a little better informed when you reach into your pocket to give some spare change,” Ashner said.

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