A Guide to Raising Money for your Charity on Ebay

One of the most effective ways to raise funds as a charity is to sell items – whether its second hand donated items or promotional merchandise, but the thought of a shop leaves many charities thinking its just not worth it – all the costs associated with a shop such as overheads, staffing and keeping a regular stock will mean for some charities its just not worth the hassle.

Ebay cuts this problem out and lets you sell as much or as little as you want online.

Ebays partner – MissionFish, are a registered charity who run the ‘Ebay for Charity’ programme. They do a number of things:

• Vet Charities
• Collect Gift Aid
• Process Donations

 Aswell as having a site with lots of information on how to make the best of raising funds through Ebay.  In order to sell on Ebay as a charity the first thing you need to do is register on the MissionFish website and register as a direct seller on Ebay.  Once this is done your free to start selling.  You even get the fee of posting an item recredited if it sells – but only if it sells so be careful as you could rake up some pretty high selling fee’s if you don’t sell items.

What Items are good to Sell on Ebay for Charity Fundraising?

Well practically anything will sell on Ebay but you want to consider what will sell at a profit.  Items like second hand books and DVD’s are hard to sell now with the uptake the internet and computers for these uses and those unwanted ‘smellie’ sets people get from Christmas are rarely wanted so keep these for raffles.

Clothes are a big seller at the moment, and selling similar size items in bundles always goes down well.  Rare items and collectors items are always good to sell but are often hard to come by in the first place.  Always check before posting an items how similar items are doing – are they selling, for how much and at what postage rate?

My advice to start with is to see what items you can rustle up from supporters, hold a donation drive and see what types of items come in.  If you think they might sell then go for it.  If its the wrong kind of item then rethink what you are selling.

What you sell doesn’t have to be second hand items.  How about some custom printed items?  Some hand designed t-shirts.

Using a logo designed by the winner of a competition would be a nice fun thing to sell for supporters.

- but remember you are limited to supporters with this type of sale as well as having a minimum order quantity to work with as well.

So do your research, get out in the community and ask people what they want – a bit of time and effort prior to starting to sell will give you an edge before you start and give you some much needed ideas.

Another great idea is to sell autograph limited edition items – find a famous person to support your charity by donating some sign memorabilia.

It’s always nice to have a local patron for your charity but if thats not possible head on down to your local football club and see if you can get a signed football or shirt or write to local celebrities inviting them to donate something signed.  Search online for a person born locally – celebrities are much more likely to want to support a charity close to home.

Every charity is different, every group of charities supporters are different – so each Ebay for Charity seller needs to be different. Whatever you choose to sell just be sure you can raise funds and that you market your Ebay shop effectively.

Do this and you could raise funds without the overheads of a shop.