eBay Trading Initiative

Background

In Kind Direct has, for several years, been offered goods which would have a value to the public at large but which we don’t accept from donors because our charity partners can’t or won’t take them or they are uneconomic to deal with. This presents an opportunity to raise funds from sales of these items to benefit In Kind Direct’s wider work.

In Kind Direct has set up a trading company – Trading IK Ltd – which will sell the products. Trading IK is a wholly owned subsidiary of In Kind Direct and all profits which it makes will be donated up to In Kind Direct to benefit the organisation’s work.

How is the project being managed?

The project is being run by Trading IK which is a wholly owned trading subsidiary of In Kind Direct. All net profits raised from the project will be donated in full up to In Kind Direct to be used to deliver the charity’s work.

Trading IK has a Board of Directors who oversees the work of the Company, including this project.

The day to day management of the project is carried out by a member of staff at In Kind Direct, reporting to the Senior Management Team.

How will you decide which goods you will sell via this route and which will be passed on to charities as normal through the catalogue?

In Kind Direct’s priority remains firmly focused on sourcing and redistributing goods for charities to use in their operations. We will always give priority to providing goods to charities via our catalogue and normal channels.

We anticipate receiving goods for sale from companies which are existing donors and, also, because we will be able to accept types of goods that aren’t suitable for our usual channel, companies which have never donated goods to In Kind Direct before. However, it is expected that goods sold via Trading IK will only represent a small percentage of the overall volume of goods we accept.

The decision about whether we will sell goods via Trading IK will be taken on a case by case basis by a committee comprising the Head of Logistics, Head of Charity Partnerships, Head of Business Development and CEO.

There are two types of goods that In Kind Direct would consider selling via Trading IK:

Goods that would not generally be required by our charity partners – eg. high-end toner cartridges, specialist business software
Goods that we would otherwise have been unable to accept from donors because of the complexity and cost of making the products usable by our charity partners - for example complicated mixtures of soiled and new clothing,

Absolutely no goods will be sold by Trading IK without explicit prior permission being given by the company which donated them.

Who decides which goods will and won’t be required by charities?

This decision is made by In Kind Direct’s senior management team. In Kind Direct has 13 years’ experience of understanding what goods charities may or may not find useful in their operations. If we are not sure, we will carry out research with charity partners to ascertain demand.

We will always err on the side of making goods available to charities via the catalogue if there is a chance that they may be something charities would want.