eBay - Red Cross Donations
 

Does anyone know how much of the allocated funds on eBay sales go to the designated source (fund)? I want to help via the American Red Cross donation option on eBay but am a little leary about where the funds actually go. Is there a way to research this, or does anyone have any info to share?

If I designate 10% of what I sell an item for, does the American Red Cross get the entire amount?

Hi Steve, I have years of professional experience in this area. I can't tell you what eBay and the Red Cross have worked out -- I strongly doubt eBay gets any of it -- but this is how the system goes: It's a trickle down experience. All of the monies go to Red Cross. Most of it goes for administrative and operational purposes. Eventually victims of Sandy (and the current nor'easter we are experiencing) get shelter, heat, electric, hot water, food, etc. Hence, you can donate for Sandy but you have no exact way of precisely earmarking where your donation will go. So, you might want to locate somewhere more local re Sandy and earmark it for food, shelter, whatever. There are reputable organizations that will adhere to that (not bashing the RC, who do wonderful work, just letting you know how it goes).

Here's a story or two: I'm an out of work schoolteacher. A few days ago I'm sitting on my butt watching the bad news and thinking what am I doing sitting on my butt watching the bad news!? I go the the Red Cross website, a dropdown list requests what will I do, and the first listing states "Everything". So, that is what I chose. The next part asks for skills, so I type in, NYS certified teacher. When I enter all the additional info I get a response that there is no opening, and then get shot back to a donate page.
Last year, during Hurricane Irene, my good friend, who is a master carptenter, volunteers for Habitat for Humanity. He gets backs a message that he is over qualified.

Uh, the moral of this all is to go local with your money where you want it and will go directly to where it would do the most good where you want it. I don't even know if this helps you. But this is how it happens -- to answer your question.

Paul