15 September, 2006 | 04:32PM BST
We would like to announce some important and exciting changes to the eBay for Charity programme.
What is eBay for Charity?
eBay for Charity provides an easy way to support charities while buying and selling on eBay.co.uk. Any seller can donate 10% to 100% of the proceeds from a sale to a charity of their choice. Buyers can easily find and purchase these items knowing they are supporting a worthy cause. Charities are also able to sell their own items directly on the eBay marketplace. Charities further benefit from eBay fee donations, Gift Aid (where applicable) and extra visibility on eBay.co.uk. eBay.co.uk has partnered with MissionFish (itself a UK registered charity) to administer the programme.
Why we are making the changes
In less than a year, eBay for Charity has had a positive impact on UK charities, with more than 1,100 charities registering with the programme. The majority of these charities have already benefited from community donations or from selling items themselves.
To date, sellers donating to charity have been asked to make a minimum donation of £5.00 if their listing successfully sells (this £5.00 minimum donation has applied to each listing, not each item, and has not applied to charities selling for themselves).
We have received strong feedback from the Community that they would like to reduce the minimum donation from its current level of £5.00 to allow more sellers to give to charity more frequently.
The Changes:
For this reason, we are announcing the following changes.
• The minimum donation for sellers will be reduced to £2.00 (from £5.00)
• To enable these lower donations, the minimum MissionFish deduction will be reduced to 40p per successful listing for a £2.00 minimum (currently £2.00 for a £5.00 minimum).
• MissionFish will also no longer take any deductions from the Gift Aid it collects for charities from community donations
eBay.co.uk will continue its fee donation policy by donating the same percentage of final value fees as the seller donates of their sale price.
There will continue to be no minimum donation or MissionFish deductions for charities selling items themselves. The new £2.00 minimum will also continue to apply to each listing and not each item.
What this Means for Sellers
Through the eBay for Charity programme, donations from sellers go even further after eBay fee donations, Gift Aid and MissionFish deductions. On average, charities will receive 10% to 15% over and above the amount donated by a seller.
Two examples:
• A seller will now be able to donate as little as £2.00, and £2.27 will go to their chosen charity (previously sellers were asked for a minimum donation of £5.00)*
• If a seller donates £5.00, £5.66 will now go to the benefiting charity (compared to £4.66 previously)*
We will continue to maintain an efficient fundraising mechanism with this change in minimum donation. To achieve this, MissionFish will deduct significantly less for smaller donations (more than 60% of all seller donations are currently under £10.00) and a bit more from larger donations. The system of deductions will also move from a flat percentage to a tiered structure. Full details of the new structure are shown in the table below.
The overall result is that the majority of sellers will find their donations incurring significantly lower MissionFish deductions, with even more money going to their chosen charity.
When do these changes take effect?
These changes will take effect from the 28th September 2006. Any existing eBay for Charity listings that end on or after the morning of the 28th September qualify for these new changes.
We will also soon be updating the eBay for Charity site, and launching some major charity campaigns for the community to get involved in – so please keep an eye out over the coming weeks!
Everyone at eBay.co.uk, MissionFish and the hundreds of benefiting charities would like to thank the many sellers who have already donated through the eBay for Charity programme. We hope that the changes announced here will make it easier for many more sellers to participate, and for current sellers to list even more items in support of deserving UK charities.
Regards,
Sharath
On Behalf of the eBay for Charity Team
New MissionFish deduction structure
The table below shows exactly how the new deduction structure will work. The MissionFish deduction will continue to average about 10% of all seller donations. On average, charities will receive 10% to 15% over and above the amount donated by a seller through Gift Aid and eBay Fee Donations.
| If the Donation is... |
The Missionfish deduction is... |
* What your donation
brings to the charity (including
Gift Aid and eBay fee donations) |
| £2.00 – £9.99 |
20% of the Donation |
£2.00 becomes £2.27 |
| £10.00 – £99.99 |
15% of the donation above £10
(Plus deduction from tier above for first £9.99 of the donation)
|
£10.00 becomes £11.33 |
| £100 – £999.99 |
10% of the donation above £100
(Plus deductions from two tiers above for first £99.99 of the donation)
|
£100 becomes £116.35 |
| £1,000+ |
5% of the donation above £1,000
(Plus deductions from three tiers above for first £999.99 of the donation)
|
£1,000 becomes £1,201.60 |
*MissionFish deducts 3% of the donation above £1,000 when you make your donation by Banker’s Draft or BACS transfer.
*Examples assume: the seller chooses to donate 100% of their sale proceeds and completes a Gift Aid declaration.
|
