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Tuesday, September 9, 2003
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eZine Volume 3 Issue 28: eBay To Certify Charity Sales, Terrorism and Charities, Job Bank, Sarbanes-Oxley Act, eTour Philly, NYC and San Francisco
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VOLUME 3
ISSUE 28
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EBay to Add Feature to Certify Charity Sales
Move Inspired By Rapid Growth of Online Fund-Raising and the Potential for Fraud
http://www.latimes.com/la-fi-ebay1sep01,...
by Ralph Frammolino, LA Times Staff Writer
Hoping to inject another "layer of trust" into online charitable fund-raising, San Jose-based EBay Inc. says it will add a feature to assure buyers that money from nonprofit auction sales will reach the intended groups.
EBay has contracted with MissionFish, a service of the Washington-based Points of Light Foundation, to help broker the growing number of online auctions in which charities and other nonprofit organizations offer items for sale or individuals promise to give proceeds to charity.
Beginning in November, nonprofit groups listing items for sale on the EBay charity page will be able to register for free with MissionFish, which then will verify and vouch for the organization's tax-exempt status, EBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove said Sunday.
MissionFish also will help buyers find charities with specific purposes. For instance, someone looking to buy items from organizations benefiting cancer research will be able to obtain a menu of relevant groups by using a keyword search on the MissionFish link, Pursglove said.
In addition, MissionFish will be available in cases in which individual sellers promise to donate a percentage of their proceeds to nonprofit groups. Such sellers, using conventional EBay listings, will be able to fill out an online template and channel the transaction through MissionFish, which then will forward the agreed-upon amount of money to the nonprofit.
"It's an added layer of trust we can build in for potential buyers," Pursglove said.
He said MissionFish would charge sellers a fee for its service based on gross monthly sales, but he declined to disclose the terms. MissionFish representatives could not be reached Sunday.
More than 500 charitable organizations have sold $35 million in items on EBay since the Internet auctioneer established its charity fund-raising page in 1999. Users of the page range from prominent charities such as the American Red Cross and the Tiger Woods Foundation to more obscure groups such as Weimaraner Rescue of North Texas.
EBay's alliance with MissionFish comes as charities are increasingly turning to online fund-raising. Internet donations amounted to $123.3 million in 2002, triple from the year before, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
At the same time, there have been growing concerns about potential fraud related to charities and the Internet.
Pursglove said some nonprofit groups had contacted EBay to express concern that their names had been misappropriated on the site, which on average lists 16 million items and generates $62 million in sales each day.
In addition, Pursglove said, law enforcement officials contacted EBay after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks about a handful of listings that they believed came from charity scam artists.
He said the working arrangement with MissionFish was designed to address both of those worries.
Bloomberg News was used in compiling this report.
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