Top 5 charities using e-commerce to raise funds

Oxfam

The international development charity has long been supplementing its High Street retail operation with e-commerce. It has a dedicated online shop, which is particularly successful for its retail operation, to attract a far larger audience for valuable, rare and collectable items donated by supporters.

An example is the charity tapping into a global revival in vinyl records. Among items available at the time of writing was a copy of the first Rolling Stones debut album retailing at £19.99 and a rare Spanish copy of the Jackson 5’s album Maybe Tomorrow, retailing at £149.00.

British Heart Foundation

Among the top five charities, in terms of funds raised, using the e-commerce platform eBay for charity is the British Heart Foundation (BHF). At the time of writing the charity had more than 7,520 items available for sale using the auction site.

It has found eBay particularly useful for selling expensive and collectable items. Among its most lucrative items for the charity has been an Edwardian silver clock, which at the time of writing the highest of 17 bids was for more than £2,550. Meanwhile, a private number plate for a car was on sale for the charity for £849.

Following lockdown earlier this summer, BHF reopened around 400 of its shops as well as continued promoting its e-commerce operation.

“Our shops fund a huge proportion of UK cardiovascular research, said BHF Chief Executive Dr Charmaine Griffiths on the importance of commerce on the charity’s fundraising for medical research.

St Barnabas

Campaigns for donations of charity shop stock have been particularly successful this year. For some smaller charities, this success was overwhelming, with too much stock for High Street stores alone to sell. This is where e-commerce operations have really helped. Stock can sit safely in distribution centres to be sent to online buyers.

Among small charities to experience a deluge of charity shop donations is St Barnarbas Hospice in Lincolnshire. It received more than 4,000 bags and boxes of donations in July, which is ten times the normal amount it receives at this time of year. The total number of bags and boxes was estimated to be about 15,000 and had to be stored at three cowsheds at Lincolnshire Showground.

To help sell items gifted by supporters it uses eBay, with more than 200 items for sale on the charity’s dedicated page on the auction site at the time of writing.

The charity also uses Amazon, through its Amazon Smile initiative, which donates a percentage of the price of items bought, to the charity

Maddi’s Butterflies

Each Christmas children’s cancer charity Maddi’s Butterflies gives children on oncology wards a brand new pair of pyjamas. This usually relies on supporters buying pyjamas themselves for the charity.

With COVID-19 restrictions in place, the charity has turned to e-commerce to make it easier for supporters to continue to buy pyjamas for young patients.

This includes donating to a Just Giving page so that the charity can buy pyjamas on the supporters’ behalf. In addition, supporters are encouraged to buy pyjamas for the charities through Amazon Smile.

“COVID-19 will also affect how we collect the pyjamas this year,” says the charity.

“We understand that it won’t be as easy for people to go out to buy the pyjamas for us, as in previous years. To make it easier for our supporters to continue to help us, we have introduced a number of new ways to take part in our appeal.”

Are you using e-commerce in your charity? Let us know how in the comments below.