eBay & MissionFish Charity Agreement
28 April 2003 at 1:04 pm
One of the world’s largest online auction sites, eBay, has signed an agreement with MissionFish, the Not for Profit auction experts, to make it easier for buyers and sellers to donate to charitable causes in the US.
As part of the agreement, MissionFish will create the functionality and manage eBay’s charity fundraising program, providing the eBay community with an innovative and convenient way to support their favourite causes while buying and selling on the site.
When the fundraising program goes live on eBay later this year, sellers interested in raising money for charities from their eBay listings will be able to select a Not for Profit and determine the percentage of the proceeds they would like to donate.
In turn, NFP’s will have the opportunity to approve or reject the eBay listings with which they will be associated. Approved items will be placed up for bid on eBay with a special “charity auction” icon. Buyers of the charity item listings will send money to the NFP organisation via MissionFish.
Qualifying organisations will be invited to register for free with MissionFish, to participate as a benefiting Not for Profit prior to the program’s launch.
Sean Milliken, the executive director of MissionFish says that since its inception, its NFP members have hoped that one day they would bring their solution to a larger community like eBay.
Kristin Cunningham, the senior manager of eBay Charity says that to date, NFP’s have raised nearly $US30 million on eBay, benefiting more than 500 charities in 2002 alone.
Since 2000, MissionFish has helped organisations turn in-kind donations into hundreds of thousands of dollars. MissionFish is a service of the Points of Light Foundation.
eBay is the ‘World’s Online Marketplace’. Founded in 1995, eBay created a powerful platform for the sale of goods and services by a passionate community of individuals and businesses. On any given day, there are millions of items across thousands of categories for sale on eBay through auction or fixed price formats.
eBay enables trade on a local, national and international basis with customised sites in markets around the world. So far eBay has not extended the MissionFish agreement to the Australian web site however, eBay Australia does run charity auctions.
For more information check out www.ebay.com.au.
It is time Mission Fish started to work with eBay Australia as well. Why wait any longer when so much can be done now! All these natural disasters seem to be happening more and more everyday, so why not make a difference as soon as possible. eBay Australia needs to incorporate more charity auctioning.