eBay for Charity and auction fundraising

Have you heard about this fantastic new initiative from eBay? eBay for Charity is an easy way for buyers and sellers on eBay.co.uk to support their favourite charities. Buyers can shop for items knowing they’re supporting a good cause, be it an everyday bargain or a special auction. Sellers, whether they’re individuals or businesses, can donate a percentage from any sale to a charity of their choice and add Gift Aid to their donations. It's a great way to raise money and show your support!

During the month of September, the three UK charities with the highest number of “favourite” designations were awarded £5,000, £3,000, and £2,000 respectively. Luckily for us and due to the kind work of our generous supporters, we came in 2nd place! We're very fortunate and grateful to eBay for Charity for this opportunity and a big thank you to everyone who made it happen!

This leads me to introduce you to Daniel Aherne who is currently looking to donate 70% of the proceeds from his eBay sale to us (so generous!). I'll let him take it from here:

I am a Brighton-based actor with my own theatre company, Crimson Horse Theatre which I co-run with fellow actor Sascha Cooper. This piece is my first foray into sculpture and indeed art in general. I created the sculpture as a reflection of the economical effects caused by having banks attaching vast interest to the money they provide countries with, causing an endless cycle of debt. It also reflects the problems faced by a society in which banks are not properly regulated and as a result have to be bailed out by their states.

I have assigned 70% of the sale price to Dogs Trust because from before I was born my parents kept rescued dogs and they remain a tremendously important part of my life to this day. Dogs Trust is a fabulous cause doing great work that I feel is especially important as we humans have a responsibility to care for this planet and everything living on it, and having recklessly bred dogs for specific roles for so long I feel we humans have an even greater duty to look after them.

You can see Daniel's scuplture on eBay and feel free to share this with any art lovers or eBay fans you know!

Dogs Trust Honours: Sponsors & prizes sought

Our annual Dogs Trust Honours will shortly be open for nominations. These are awards dedicated to the bravest, most devoted, smartest and most talented of our four-legged friends (and the odd human who has gone the extra mile to help dogs). I'll be blogging more about the categories and past winners when nominations open, but in the meantime I have a special request for anyone able to contribute to making this a very special evening.

We're looking for both sponsorship and 'money-can't-buy' auction prizes.

Sponsors need to be companies, and there is a range of ways to get involved, from principal to event, table, award or online sponsorship.* It's a fantastic opportunity to support a pet-positive event and help us celebrate the dogs and people that make us so determined to continue caring for thousands of dogs every year. As the UK's largest dog welfare charity, we can offer coverage in a variety of ways - online and off - with a potential audience of millions.

'Money-can't-buy' prizes for the charity auction on the night are also very welcome. Can you offer someone a truly unique experience that people would fall over themselves to bid for? We have been very lucky to receive generous gifts from celebrity supporters over the years and hope that this year will continue the trend. If you are someone who can help - or know someone who needs little persuasion - please get in touch!

If this has sparked your interest and you have a suggestion, please email me with details and / or questions and I'll be sure to get back to you asap. The Dogs Trust Honours will be held on May 19th.


*Normal Dogs Trust advertising rules do apply, however, so breeders, pet food manufacturers, pharmaceutical / vet services and pet insurers are not eligible.

Oooh! Generous eBayer selling Zagliani handbag for Dogs Trust!

A lovely eBayer has decided that their Christmas present to Dogs Trust will be full proceeds from the sale of a brand new, tags-still-on Zagliani handbag!

The luxury, suede-lined black bag has a retail price of over £1,800 and the seller has started the bidding at £500. Mission Fish flagged it up for us as they've set up the sale so that 100% of the sale price will go to Dogs Trust. It's their "present to the puppies", it seems!

There's only one bid at the moment, but there are still four days to go. Since the auction ends on Monday and the last Christmas posting day is next Saturday it looks like you could make a woman in your life extremely happy on present-opening day, and still get a bargain designer buy (they don't have to know, but if you tell them it helped puppies I'm sure that would work in your favour!).

Clickety-click people, and thank you very much to our wonderfully generous supporter.