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Fundraising ideas using
eBay.com
For
Class Projects for Fundraising Auctions click here
Note: Not all the
fundraising ideas will suit every site! So browse all the fund raising
ideas, be creative, and choose the fundraiser that will work best for your site.
There are a lot of cool ways you can use this fantastic
auction site to
fundraise.
- Selling your member's junk - This is something I did to
fundraise for my son's preschool. I collected items from member's attics,
closets and garages and sold them on eBay. We raised over $3,000
for our little preschool, which was a lot for us. Truth is, I would
not recommend this. Even though I got member volunteers to help, it was
way too much work. At the time, eBay was my business and I knew what I was
doing. I cannot imagine someone who does not know anything about the
collecting business or selling on eBay to attempt this.
The only way I can conceive of an organization attempting this is to make a deal with a professional eBay seller
(if you are a seller or know of a seller that would be interested in
being contacted by nonprofits please let me know). I would bet that there are sellers out there
that would be happy to do all the work for 25%-50% cut of the profits (depending
on the quality of the merchandise). This might be worth trying if some of your members have valuable items
that they want to donate. (Art work, newer cameras or video recorders, antiques
& collectables, jewelry and the like).
Here is a page that I put together to try and identify things from
thrift stores that are worth selling on eBay.
- New items donated by members - It is much
easier to sell on eBay new items. Do a completed
search at eBay to see what a similar item sold for. It would be
best if you can take a picture of the item. List the item for a similar
price and sell!
Again, there is a learning curve here for someone who has never done this
before, but it is much less complicated than selling collectibles.
- Sell local and national gift certificates - I've done this with the
preschool auction. Besides selling member's stuff, we collected local and national
gift
certificates. Most businesses are very generous and are happy to give
you a certificate. If the business that donated the certificate had a website, I put a link to it from
the eBay ad. The great thing about listing gift certificates on eBay
is that you don't have to take a picture and the description is easy.
You MUST advertise the
gift certificates: Besides sending out emails to all our members with
instructions to forward the email to family and friends, I placed a free ad in the local Santa Cruz Market
newsgroups advertising the auction and the gift certificates. You can find newsgroups that are specific for your
area.
As a marketing ploy I started ALL gift certificates at 99 cents. My ad said
something like "Purchase fantastic gift certificates for only
99cents!" Most of the certificates ended up selling for around the
real value and sometimes, believe it or not, even more!!
- Sell a calendar or cookbook etc. - eBay has a cool section especially for
charity organizations. Go to eBay and check it out by looking for Charity
Auctions. What
I've seen some organizations do is sell their calendar, cookbook, or whatever on
eBay. If you have a supply of these items you can have an ongoing
auction selling that item (you would have to relist it every 7
days).
This has great potential for a nonprofit that helps universal causes like homeless kids, Cancer/AIDS, ecology and so forth.
Signing up on eBay as a nonprofit organization gets you listed under a special section. Some people
browse these lists to see if something interests them. When something
does, they check that organization's listings to see if there's an item to
buy,
just for support.
As a nonprofit, eBay supplies you with a page where you can describe your organization
with links to your site. You can put up pictures or whatever you
want. If you offer a calendar, a cookbook or cards, some may buy from you
just to help support your cause. At minimum, this is another way
of getting new visitors to your site.
-
Become an eBay.com Affiliate - Like almost every
other merchant on the web, eBay has an Affiliate Program
to find out how much eBay currently pays check out the
affiliate program link. You can put a simple
link on your site to eBay. Please be sure to check eBay rules about
how to promote such a link.
- NEW eBay Program: Encourage members and friends who sell on eBay to sign up for eBay’s
new Giving Works - EBay’s Giving
Works program helps sellers easily donate a portion of their sale to their
favorite nonprofit. The seller chooses a nonprofit from a list (or can add
a new one) and pledges to a certain percentage of the sale to that
nonprofit. The pledged percentage is taken out automatically by eBay after
the auction. It could not be any easier. For more information visit: eBay's
Giving Works Program
Further reading and information about
selling on eBay:
Free
eBay Selling Guide!
The
Auction revolution eBay system a great book by a long time eBay seller.
The EBay(R) Sellers Guide To
Finding Profitable Hidden Bargains At Garage Sales To Resell On Online Auctions.
Free Affiliate Course E-book:
*****
http://aff-masters.sitesell.com/school1.html Scroll down the page and
download this great e-book. It is absolutely free and is better than most
e-books that you pay for. I personally read it and learned so much from
it. For me this course was the stepping stone.
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