Section 8.5. eBay Giving Works

8.5. eBay Giving Works

Most people sell on eBay for one simple reason: to make money. But you can give some (or all) of the profit to causes you support through eBay Giving Works, shown in Figure 8-13. The program lets sellers select and donate to nonprofit organizations through their eBay sales. Since 2000, eBayers have raised more than $40 million for good causes.

You can donate to the charity of your choice anywhere from 10 to 100 percent of the final selling price of an item. There's a $10 minimum donation, though, so inexpensive items don't work well in charity auctions. There are about 5,000 registered nonprofits to choose from, so it's not hard to find a cause you can support.

Nonprofit interests range from the arts and humanities to animals and the environment to civic and religious groups, as shown in Figure 8-14.

Figure 8-13. The Giving Works home page (http://pages.ebay.com/givingworks) lets buyers search or browse just for charity auctions. The right-hand side of the page spotlights auctions and nonprofit groups.

Figure 8-14. To find a nonprofit group , start on eBay's home page, then select Giving Works (Charity) "search the nonprofit directory." You can search by mission category, by state, or by name if you already have a specific charity in mind. You can also browse nonprofits alphabetically by name.

8.5.1. Signing Up to Contribute

By teaming up with Mission Fish, a clearing house for nonprofits, shown in Figure 8-15, eBay has made running a Giving Works auction easy. Whenever you list an item (Section 5.4), the Sell Your Item: Enter Pictures & Item Details page (Section 5.4.4.1) gives you the chance to choose a nonprofit and a donation amount, as shown in Figure 8-16.

Figure 8-15. Mission Fish, a service of the nonprofit Points of Light Foundation, makes it easy to donate some or all of your selling price to charity. eBay has sponsored charity auctions since 2000, but in November 2003 it launched Giving Works, when Mission Fish became the exclusive provider for the program.

Figure 8-16. After you determine a starting price, you can select a nonprofit to benefit from the proceeds of your auction. To find a group, choose "Select a new nonprofit " from the drop-down list, which takes you to the nonprofit directory. If you find a group and click Select, the group will appear in the drop-down list whenever you list an item. You can opt to donate as little as 10 percent or as much as 100 percent of your selling price (minimum donation $10); the "Select %" dropdown shows your options in five-percent increments .

When you select a nonprofit for the first time, eBay asks your permission to share information with Mission Fish. Then Mission Fish asks you to register with a credit card number and contact information. (Mission Fish uses your credit card as insurance that you'll pay; the system is described on Section 8.5.3.) You can opt to receive emails (or not) from Mission Fish and the nonprofits on your list.

8.5.2. How Can Buyers Tell It's for Charity?

Giving Works auctions look a little different from other eBay auctions, as shown in Figure 8-17.

Figure 8-17. In a Giving Works auction, the item description (just below the photo and auction details, not shown here) starts off with the logo and mission statement of the charity the seller has chosen . All Giving Works auctions also display the two-colored ribbon symbol you can see in the upper left corner. Buyers can see what percentage of the selling price the seller has pledged to the charity.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION
How Donations Work

How much of the percentage I donate actually goes to the nonprofit I choose ?

When you run a charity auction, eBay and Mission Fish still want their share; the only exception is if you give 100 percent of the selling price to charity. (More on that in a minute.) So how much of the proceeds does the nonprofit collect?

For auctions where you donate between 10 percent and 95 percent of the selling price, regular eBay fees apply; that comes out of your profit. Mission Fish deducts its fee from the donation itself: $3 plus 2.9 percent of the final price. Here's an example to show how it works. You list a stainedglass art panel, pledging half of the selling price to the I Have a Dream Foundation. If the winning bid is $76, your donation is $38.

From that $38, Mission Fish deducts $3 plus 2.9 percent (in this case $1.10), like so: 38 3 1.1 = 33.9. The I Have a Dream Foundation makes $33.90 from your sale.

Don't forget eBay and PayPal fees, because those come out of your share, and they're based on the whole final selling price, as with any other auction. So with a $78 auction, you'd pay insertion fees based on your starting price and listing options, plus $2.77 in Final Value Fees. (To see how to calculate eBay FVFs, see Section 5.3.) If the buyer pays with Pay- Pal, PayPal standard fees also apply to the full amount the buyer deposits into your PayPal account.

Things work differently if you donate 100 percent of the selling price. When you donate the full selling price, Mission Fish still charges its fees, but eBay donates both the insertion fee and the FVF to the nonprofit you've chosen.

Buyers can find charity auctions in several ways: they can search from the Giving Works home page by starting from eBay's home page and clicking Giving Works (Charity), then filling in the Search box or browsing categoriesthe results show Giving Works auctions only. Or, when doing an Advanced Search, buyers can restrict their search results to Giving Works auctions by checking "eBay Giving Works Items for Charity."

ALTERATE REALITY
eBay for Nonprofit Groups

If you work for a nonprofit organization, you don't have to wait around for sellers to find and select your group from among thousands of others. You can raise money through eBay by becoming a nonprofit direct seller yourself and listing auctions whose proceeds benefit your organization.

Of course, you can just sign up and sell on eBay the regular way (Section 5.4), but registering with Mission Fish offers some perks worth having. Other sellers who want to donate to a nonprofit can choose your group as their beneficiary , and your auctions will turn up in the search results of buyers who are looking specifically for charity auctions. eBay's Giving Works ribbon, your logo, and your mission statement appear on the auction, along with a statement that 100 percent of the selling price will support your group. And because Mission Fish screens the nonprofits it lists, buyers have confidence that your group is legit.

First things first: you must sign up with eBay and register as a seller (Section 5.4). Next, register for a Mission Fish account. Go to www.missionfish.org and click the "Register to benefit" link. Any nonprofit group can register; to do so, you'll need:

• An email address.

• A copy of your group's logo (as a .gif or .jpg file).

• A brief mission statement about 40 words long.

• Proof of nonprofit status, such as your 501(c)(3) letter.

• A voided check from your group's bank account. (Mission Fish needs this to deposit donations into your account.)

After Mission Fish has activated your account (it does screen nonprofits, so this might take a few days), go to the Mission Fish Web site (www.missionfish.org) and sign in. Click the My Direct Seller tab, then type your eBay ID into the "Add a Direct Seller" box. Click Add, and your accounts are linked.

Then, whenever you list an item on eBay, you have the opportunity in step 3 of the Sell Your Item form (Pictures & Details) to donate a percentage of the sale price. Always select your organization as the beneficiary, and 100 percent as the donation amount.

When you've connected your eBay and Mission Fish accounts, you get some pretty good benefits:

• You don't have to commit to the minimum donation of $10, so you can sell a range of items, big and small.

• Mission Fish doesn't deduct any fees, and eBay donates its fees to your charity, so your group gets 100 percent of the selling price.

8.5.3. After the Auction

When someone wins your Giving Works auction, the buyer pays you in the usual way, according to the payment options you specified in the auction listing. Soon after, Mission Fish emails you with payment instructions and how much you owe. You can pay Mission Fish by credit card, wire transfer, or certified check. Mission Fish deducts its fees and passes on what's left to your chosen nonprofit. You get a receipt for your donation via email; you can also view your receipts in your Mission Fish account. To do so, from the Mission Fish home page (www.missionfish.org), click My Mission Fish, sign in, and then click My Donations.

Note: Be sure to print out your donation receipts from Mission Fish and save them for tax time; most donations to Giving Works charities are tax deductible. In general, your deduction will be the percentage of the selling price you indicated when you listed the item. (Go to www.irs.gov to check current rules.)

If you don't follow through on the donation you promised by the second Monday after your auction ended, Mission Fish charges your credit card for the amount you owe. This is to ensure that sellers can't defraud eBayers into thinking an auction is for charity when it's not. If you find yourself stuck with a nonpaying bidder, though, you're not also stuck making a donation based on an item you didn't sell. File a UPI dispute with eBay (Section 5.7.2.1). If the bidder still doesn't pay up, file with eBay for an FVF credit (Section 5.7.2.1). When you've done that, you can file for a nonpaying bidder refund from www.missionfish.org. Sign in to your Mission Fish account, and then select My Mission Fish Pay A Donation "File a refund request." When Mission Fish confirms that eBay refunded your FVF, theyll issue you a refund.