Convert in-kind donations to loons...If your organization receives in-kind donations of goods or services, one traditional way of converting those donations to cash has been some form of auction, iether a live or silent auction. Silent auctions are where potential purchasers write their bids on a piece of paper and when bids are closed, the highest bid wins. These types of auctions are typically done during events. One modern alternative to the silent auction, particularly in organizations with high numbers of pageviews or a large email distribution list of persons interested in your mission is to hold an online auction.

The simplest way to hold a charity ’silent auction’ online is to use Ebay Canada’s charity auction service. In brief, after validating that you are a registered Canadian charity, Ebay Canada will donate back to you the standard fees involved with selling your items. Non-profits who are not registered charities can also use the service, but are not eligible for the fee donation.

For example:

A registered charity called ‘Good People Doing Good Things’ (GPDGT) holds an auction, selling off some donated restaurant gift certificates, a boat and some gift baskets. The items sell for a total of $10,000. Ebay collects the money from the buyer, deducts their processing and payment fees, and sends GPDGT a cheque for $9950 (exact fees will vary). A few weeks later, Ebay will also donate amount of the fees (in this case $50) to the charity. Loon coin

Donated items sell for:
Ebay Fees:
Ebay remits to GPDGT:
Ebay donates to GPDGT:
Total funds raised:		 $10,000
$ 50
$ 9,950
$ 50
$10,000

The GPDGT sale items are listed alongside all the other items. GPDGT features a new donated item for sale on their website each month, with links to that item on ebay so people can bid, along with an acknowledgement of the donor of the item and link to the donor business’ website. GPDP also features the donated items in their monthly e-newsletter, with links to the online auction.

 Sophia Kelly Technology Tailoring can provide the following services to help Canadian charities and non-profits to host their own online charity auctions.

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  • Professionally photograph your donated items to their best advantage and prepare images for website and Ebay listing use.

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  • Create a web feature on your organizations website to help promote the items and recognize donors.
  • Set up and manage opt-in mailing lists on your site to help you stay in touch with your donors, members and others interested in your mission.
  • Create and administer attractive html emails that promote your auction, services, and other information relating to your mission
  • Handle the paperwork and links to set up a web auction (documentation of charity status will require some input from your staff).

For more information speak to Sophia at 604-255-3450 (M-F 10-6 PST).