eBay For Charity Celebrates 20 Years Of Corporate Social Impact
This September, eBay for Charity is celebrating twenty years of fostering positive change worldwide. With the collective efforts of sellers and buyers, the brand has raised an impressive $1.3 billion for causes of all sizes, solidifying eBay’s position as one of the foremost e-commerce platforms dedicated to corporate social impact. Each transaction on eBay presents an opportunity for individuals to contribute to the causes closest to their hearts, ensuring that their actions align with their values.
A lot can happen in 20 years. To shed light on the lessons eBay has learned through it’s corporate social impact work in that time, we chatted with eBay’s Pats Peña, Lead Product Manager for eBay for Charity.
Three Lessons eBay Has Learned Over The 20 Years
1. Speedy Response Is Vital For Disaster Relief Campaigns
Having a process in place is fundamental to acting quickly when disaster hits. In a large company, so many variables and teams are involved that responding rapidly can be challenging. Nonetheless, eBay knows that people are most likely to donate to and engage with disaster relief in the first few days following a crisis – after that, fundraising drops significantly.
Pro tip from Pats → Companies that want to support disaster relief should start by creating processes, agreements and templates so that they can have a speedy response to a disaster. This pre-planning allows for quicker responses and greater positive impact.
2. Removing Barriers For Nonprofits Is Crucial
Nonprofits have tight budgets and are swamped in their work, meaningful and important as it is. They don’t have the luxury of time to spend on admin projects that many corporations require. eBay has learned there’s a need to make eBay for Charity onboarding as smooth as possible so friction doesn’t prevent nonprofits from signing up in the system and with their partners.
Pro tip from Pats → As a best practice, we review processes and look for ways we can support nonprofits without demanding too much time or special expertise to get involved. Consider what you require from your nonprofit partners and if there are ways to streamline the process or requirements.
3. There's Great Power In Scale & Diversified Portfolios
Supporting the community is not a one-person job. When everyone chips in, magic happens. eBay works to make it easier for everyone to get involved. Not only do they set up channels that support a diverse portfolio of nonprofits, but they diversify their user flows to allow people to engage with eBay for Charity in many ways. For instance, they have a point-of-sale fundraising component so buyers can engage easily, and they have multiple options for sellers to automatically set a percentage of their sales to go to their selected charities.
Pro tip from Pats → Understand the way your users and employees want to donate. Including add-on features for charity in your standard flows may allow for more participation and increased adoption.
eBay's For Charity's 20th Anniversary Video
The brand is celebrating its charitable partners, the everyday heroes who create real and lasting change in their communities, one dollar at a time.
Are you a charity with access to inventory? Learn more about Charity Selling from their toolkit.
Interested in how supporters can donate part of their sales to support your nonprofit? The eBay for Charity Community Seller toolkit can help get you started.
For additional questions, contact the eBay for Charity team via email: charityteam@eBay.com.
