Thursday, October 22, 2009

eBay Foundation is Giving away a Million +++

eBay Foundation is Giving a Million ++

Original blog post I wrote at Practical eCommerce
Status: Published
Publish Date: April 28, 2008
Blog: By Merchants, For Merchants
Tags: eBay, eBay Foundation

Some of you may of heard of the ” eBay Foundation” and some of you may not. I felt this was the perfect time to introduce the ” eBay Foundation” to the Practical eCommerce world!

Philanthropy : (from Wikipedia) is the act of donating money, goods, time, or effort to support a charitable cause, usually over an extended period of time and in regard to a defined objective. In a more fundamental sense, philanthropy may encompass any altruistic activity which is intended to promote good or improve human quality of life. Someone who is well known for practicing philanthropy may sometimes be called a philanthropist.

EBAY FOUNDATION HISTORY AND MISSION: (BORROWED TEXT FROM THE PAGES OF EBAY)

Philanthropy has been an important part of eBay since its very beginning. eBay Foundation was established in 1998 and, reflecting eBay innovation, was the first corporate foundation to be endowed with pre-IPO stock. This pioneering decision has inspired over 400 corporations to follow eBay’s example and set aside equity to endow philanthropic programs.

eBay Foundation’s mission is to contribute to the economic and social well-being of local communities. In carrying out this mission, the Foundation engages eBay Inc.’s Community members and employees and supports their pursuit of charitable giving and volunteerism.

Each year eBay Foundation provides grants of more than $2 million to improve the lives of those who most need help, with many of the recipient organizations selected based on Community member and employee recommendations. Consistently recognized as one of the Bay Area’s top corporate foundations, eBay Foundation has made over $16 million in grants since its creation.

TODAY’S MESSAGE WAS POSTED ON THE EBAY ANNOUNCEMENT BOARD BY: BILL BARMEIER, VICE PRESIDENT OF EBAY’S GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP TEAM.

“I’m very pleased to announce today the launch of the eBay Foundation “Community Gives” campaign, which offers you, our Community, a way to participate in our giving efforts.

The Community Gives campaign helps create good in the world by inspiring people to contribute together to causes that matter. To this end, the eBay Foundation is donating $1 million to three worthy nonprofit organizations – to be split equally among them – and is asking the eBay Community to join in. For each Community member who contributes to one of the nonprofits during the campaign, the Foundation will donate an additional dollar, up to $100,000. Imagine what we can do when we all give together! “

“The eBay Foundation worked with active Community members in eBay’s Voices of the Community program to set appropriate selection criteria. After identifying a number of nonprofits that met the criteria deemed most important by our Community members, the Foundation evaluated them further, reviewing their history and accomplishments, their fiscal responsibility and strength, their impact on the causes they address, and their rankings based on public charity standards.

From this review, eBay Foundation selected the three nonprofit organizations to be supported in the Community Gives campaign — First Book, Best Friends Animal Society and Oxfam. The Foundation then worked with these nonprofits to identify specific projects to fund, as this ensures that our dollars will truly make a tangible difference. Through these projects, we will help:

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First Book provide new books so that hundreds of thousands of low-income children can discover the magic of reading,
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Best Friends Animal Society build a puppy care center so that hundreds of abused and injured puppies can have a chance to find loving permanent homes, and
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Oxfam supply access to clean, safe water to alleviate poverty for tens of thousands of people in Ethiopia and Zambia.

Donate today; eBay and PayPal fees waived!

We welcome your participation in the Community Gives campaign! To participate, or find more information about the campaign, please go to www.communitygives.org. The Community Gives campaign runs from now through eBay Live! in June.”

You will notice when you visit the site, everyone that donates has their name scrolling across the bottom of the page. If you look closely, you will see mine a few times!((smiles)) I’m looking forward to seeing YOUR name on the marquee too!

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