Donating cash or offering your work directly to the charity of your choice does definitely have its limits. If you are a car mechanic, there’s not much the local hospital can do with your work, and vice verse, if you don’t have any cash to give, there’s not much you can give to a charity, that it will find inevitably useful.
Except that now there is, thanks to a recently launched website Allthis.com, the “eBay for charities” or the “marketplace for things money can’t buy,” as its founders put it. The new type of auction site features diverse types of listings on behalf of “vendors”, who offer the income directly to the charities they chose to support. Bidders on the other and will receive te product or service they need, and wire the money directly to the charity. Any type of expertise, passion or product can easily be turned to cash for the good cause this way.
“We created allthis with a vision to leverage an individual’s expertise and network as an alternative method of donation, while giving non-profits a creative way to excite and unite their supporters,” said Paul Weinstein, CEO and co-founder of Allthis.com, when the website was launched in late May, following a year and a half of preparations. “Ranging from access to the influential, engagement with the creative, to the downright silly, what people have to offer is infinitely diverse.”
Among the moms offering Sunday lunch recipes all children will like, and designers with several decades of expertise offering brochure design for any business or good cause,
there are well-connect professionals who offer business lunches for anyone who cares to pay $10,000 for such an opportunity.
And, somewhat surprisingly, only a few weeks into its operations, there are already stars and A-list celebs, including Ashton Kutcher, Rihanna (who will give you one of her concert corsets to help children in need — starting bid, $150), Aisha Tyler (who will let the maker of the winning bid attend a recording session with her – starting bid $2,000) or Ben Stiller (who will record a greeting on your voicemail to help rebuild Haiti — starting bid, $200) offering various memorabilia and services for good cause.
All participants of the auctions support the good cause. Website visitors who create the listings offering whatever they have to offer pick the charity the bidding is to support, while bidders on the other hand will actually donate the charities. The money is directly sent to the charity – with five percent staying at Allthis to cover operational costs -, and whenever the offer is not fulfilled, the money is returned directly to the bidder.
The founders have high hopes and ambitions. They want to be as recognized as eBay, and as successful as the charities of Microsoft-chief Bill Gates. The Allthis team is located in Los Angeles, and the current headcount is 12. The plan is to go nationwide as soon as possible, covering the whole United States.
“Everybody has something to give,” Weinstein, who lives in the Bay Area was quoted as saying by Brand X Daily. “Now you can take whatever you do, whatever you’re good at, and turn it into cash for your favorite charity.”
