EBay for Africa (or whatever's the hot disaster of the day)

People often want to donate things to help others.

People in need don't always need what donors are sending them. Money is often superior to used goods.


This sounds like an opportunity for arbitrage, or at least for a civic minded middleman.

Some people will still prefer to donate goods because they feel that gives them more control over how their donation is used than money (presumably your old tennis shoes aren't as likely to end up lining a tin pot dictator's pocket than a cash donation.) I imagine that others prefer to donate goods because it's just easier, or it gives them a chance to clean out some things they would like to throw away but feel guilty about "wasting." Also, donating something you'd like to throw away doesn't incur as much of a cost to you as a cash donation does.

So, how about starting a non profit that serves other nonprofits? Your local charities, churches, aid agencies, whatever will now accept donations of goods. Those goods will be picked up by our nonprofit, sold on EBay, and the proceeds given back to the original charity to use as they will. Alternatively, you could set up a firm that accepts donations of goods, sells them on EBay (or Craig's list or through their own contacts) and then donates the proceeds to a charity/aid agency that you choose from a list of their partners.

This would probably need to be a local effort, it's probably a lot easier to convince people to drop off their old stuff than to ship it. There will be some losses due to shipping expenses and donations of essentially worthless stuff. But the net result might be positive, more total donations (since agencies that wouldn't normally take donations of goods now could at low cost) and more liquidity within the donations market.

You can market it as doing two good things with one donation: Giving money to your preferred charity and providing quality used goods at low prices to people who need them.