How to Participate in eBay Giving Works as a Buyer

EBay Giving Works is a program for charity listings on their auction site. When eBay sellers list an item for sale, they can choose to donate all, or a portion of, the selling price to a participating charity of their choice. Buying an item from a Giving Works auction is a way for the buyer to help out the charity at no additional cost to himself.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Conduct a search of eBay active auctions for the item you are looking to purchase. Scan the list of search results and look for the charity icon to determine which auctions are participating in Giving Works. The charity icon is a blue and yellow ribbon formed in a loop with both ends hanging downward.

2. See only Giving Works listings by visiting the eBay Giving Works page. On that page, when you search for the item you want to buy, your results only include those auctions that are a part of the charity program. You can also search by charity if you wish to find items where the donation goes to the charity of your choosing.

3. Check the auction listing that you are interested in to see which charity the donation goes to and what percentage of the winning bid price the seller is donating. Place your bid on the auction, keeping in mind that not all of the money is going to the seller. Some buyers choose to bid a little higher on charity auctions, but this is up to you.

4. Pay for your auction when it ends, following the seller's payment instructions, like you would with any eBay auction. EBay uses the services of MissionFish, a non-profit organization, to collect the donation from the seller and give it to the charity. MissionFish keeps a small portion of the donation to cover the costs they incur providing the service.

Tips & Warnings

• Talk to your accountant to find out if any of your Giving Works purchases are tax deductible. Typically these purchases are not tax deductible for the buyer; however, if the item you purchased was sold by a non-profit seller, the market value price of the item was clearly stated in the auction, and your winning bid was substantially higher than the market value, you may be able to deduct the amount that you paid above the market value.

Resources

• eBay Giving Works auctions