eBay Behind The Scenes: eBay Giving Works
by Zigmund
eBay Staff Member

September 11, 2001 marked the date of one of the most tragic events in our country's history. But it also brought about something positive: a nation of people working together to help those who had been most affected by the attack. Soon after the tragic events, New York Governor George Pataki and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani contacted eBay to see what could be done to mobilize the Community to help those in need, and the wheels started to turn.

Like other companies and individuals around the world, there was never a question about whether eBay and its staff wanted to be of assistance. Members themselves were a step ahead and had begun using eBay to help on their own. Already, they were asking what eBay could do to help them help others.

The only question for eBay was how to do it well… and fast.

Decisions had to be made quickly, and by Friday, September 15 the plan was in place to create a program where sellers could list charity items on the site and choose one of the September 11th-related nonprofits to receive the proceeds. eBay would waive the listing fees on these items, and to streamline the process and guarantee donations would be going to the appropriate places, buyers would pay through Billpoint, eBay's online payment service at the time. All donations would be distributed to the designated organization automatically.

eBay staff from almost every department in the company worked around the clock over the weekend. On Monday the 18th, after a heroic effort by many individuals, Auction for America (AFA) was born.

"To me, it was one of eBay's very proudest moments," said Jeff Jordan, Sr. Vice President of eBay's US business. "We were able to do the impossible -- develop an entirely new functionality from scratch, code it, make it work and get it live to the Community in under three days."

The Community responded immediately to news of the AFA initiative and began to buy and sell AFA items. Although many sellers rely on income they make from eBay sales, many donated items to the cause.

Michael Dearing, Vice President and General Merchandise Manager, who oversaw much of the creation of AFA, said that as soon as the program was launched, it was clear what the Community wanted. "After September 11, the eBay Community saw right away how the power of eBay could be harnessed in a giving tool. As soon as AFA was released, there was a spontaneous flow of feedback from members. They wanted that functionality made a permanent part of eBay. They were -- as usual -- right on."

The Development of eBay Giving Works Begins

"The company learned a lot from AFA about how to create this type of a program," continued Kristin Cunningham, General Manager of the eBay Giving Works. "It let us see what would work and what wouldn't, for both the Community and the world of nonprofits."

eBay knew that AFA had several limitations that would make it difficult to run on a long-term basis. The eBay team thoroughly assessed all the feedback received during AFA, and it was quickly apparent that for a permanent giving tool to work, there would need to be more flexibility during the payment process. It would be crucial to give sellers the ability to donate partial amounts of their sales to charity and give buyers the ability to pay through multiple methods.

Another serious limitation with the AFA solution was that it limited how many nonprofits could participate. A permanent giving tool would need to be available to as many organizations as possible.

These two requirements meant that eBay would have to totally overhaul the AFA system.

"The challenge was how to turn trading on the site into a powerful fundraising tool for nonprofits," said Angela Weiden, who worked closely with Cunningham on the project. The job was made even tougher by the fact that the nonprofit world is highly complex and regulated, and eBay was starting from scratch, with no experience in that business.

The steep learning curve cast some doubt as to whether eBay Giving Works could be created in-house. "After fully exploring the regulatory impacts of the program, and reviewing the Community's needs, we decided to look for a partner," explained Weiden.

So the search began. eBay needed a partner that had a lot of experience in the nonprofit world, but also had the technical expertise required to build tools that would work with the eBay platform. After looking at several qualified candidates, eBay chose to work with a nonprofit called MissionFish, a service of the Points of Light Foundation, and announced the relationship in March 2003. Despite being smaller than some other organizations, they were chosen due to their industry expertise and dedication to making eBay Giving Works a success.

"We started MissionFish to help nonprofits find consistent sources of revenue - enabling them to focus less on fundraising and more on their missions," Sean Milliken, executive director of MissionFish, said. "Our alliance with eBay represents a giant step forward in the pursuit of that goal. I believe now more than ever, that our work together will have the same kind of positive impact on giving that eBay has had on buying and selling."

MissionFish began developing the required functionality. "Our goal was to mirror the listing process on eBay," said Cunningham. By eBay Live! 2003 in Orlando, Florida, she and Weiden were able to give members a sneak preview of the program and get some helpful feedback. "The comments and reactions we heard during eBay Live! let us know we were on the right track. We were also able to incorporate some of the feedback into the finished product."

Finally, Giving Works looked like it was finished. Sellers would list items through MissionFish's site using The Giving Assistant listing tool. The items would be listed on eBay.com with a special icon, and buyers could either find the items during their normal searches, or look for charity-specific items through a special charity search function.

The question of how the money would be distributed still lingered, however, after more input from the Community, a change was made.

Originally, the plan was that the buyer would pay MissionFish, which would keep the appropriate percentage of the payment to distribute to the nonprofit, and pass the rest to the seller. But this would have changed the way members normally transacted on the site, and staff involved with the project were afraid that this would be confusing.

They decided to change course, and the program was modified so that the buyer pays the seller directly. To work around the problem of donations, instead of collecting the funds from the buyer, MissionFish bills the seller for the appropriate donation, and then distributes the funds to the designated nonprofit.

With the release of eBay Giving Works in November, an entire team of people at eBay and MissionFish couldn't be happier. "It's always a great feeling when something you've worked so hard on comes together," said Cunningham. "The best part is that this project helps everyone get a chance to make a difference."

For more information about eBay Giving Works, please go to www.ebay.com/givingworks.