MissionFish: Getting Started

Getting Started

Introducing MissionFish, eBay and eBay Giving Works

MissionFish helps you support your favorite causes through trading on eBay! Since 2000, we've been helping nonprofits raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, using a unique online auction process that turns in-kind donations into cash. MissionFish is a nonprofit service of the Points of Light Foundation.

In 2003, eBay invited us to build a solution that would offer their millions of users an easy way to support favorite causes through trading in the World's Online Marketplace®. The service that MissionFish provides is a safe and easy way to do just that!

eBay and eBay Giving Works

eBay is The World's Online Marketplace®. Founded in 1995, eBay created a powerful platform for the sale of goods and services by a passionate community of individuals and businesses. On any given day, there are millions of items across thousands of categories for sale on eBay through auction or fixed price formats. eBay enables trade on a local, national and international basis with customized sites in markets around the world.

Learn more about eBay Giving Works at www.ebay.com/givingworks

eBay and the eBay logo are registered trademarks of eBay Inc.

Sellers – Registering with MissionFish

Why use MissionFish?

To sell eBay Giving Works items, eBay sellers must register with MissionFish. MissionFish seller accounts allow us to collect donations and guarantee that the nonprofit receives their money as promised, make it easy for sellers to track their items and generate reports that summarize your giving.

Who can register?

To register with MissionFish, a seller must be registered with eBay. Only sellers from the U.S. can currently use MissionFish, and only U.S. nonprofits can currently benefit from eBay Giving Works listings. Click here to learn more about optimizing your system for MissionFish.

Two ways to Register

There are two ways you can register for a MissionFish seller account:

Sign in through eBay

To register with MissionFish, start by logging in to your eBay account with your username and password, and then click "Sign In". Signing in through eBay is a way eBay protects your username and password. Only authorized eBay partners like MissionFish offer this special security feature.

Complete the seller registration form

To sign up with MissionFish, start by logging in to your eBay account with your username and password. To save you time, some of the information in our registration form is pre-populated data from your eBay account. However, making changes to your MissionFish registration will not change information in your eBay account.

Next, read and approve our seller user agreement, including our terms of service. You must approve our agreement to register with MissionFish.

Now, complete the registration form with the following information:

Name and Billing Address - exactly as they appear on your credit card bill
Phone Number - if we can't reach you by e-mail
Credit Card Number - to collect your donations for listings that sell successfully
Security Code - to prevent someone else from making donations on your credit card
News from MissionFish - get occasional updates from MissionFish, like our newsletter for sellers. Your information is always protected by our Privacy Policy.
Share your contact information - lets us share your name and contact information with the nonprofits that you support. Your information is always protected by our Privacy Policy.

We take the privacy and security of your personal information very seriously. We use secure socket layer (SSL) to protect your data, and adhere to a strict privacy policy.

New sellers! Register with eBay.

Nonprofits – Registering with MissionFish

Why use MissionFish?

To benefit from eBay Giving Works listings, a nonprofit must register with MissionFish. It's free and takes just a few minutes.

Once you're a MissionFish nonprofit, you'll have instant access to millions of new donor prospects from eBay's trading community. Any eBay user will be able to list an item and donate the proceeds to your organization. You'll also be able to offer your supporters a new way to help by buying and selling.

Learn more about registering with MissionFish.
Register now

Who can register?

Almost any nonprofit can use MissionFish, as long as the following guidelines are met.

Be headquartered in the United States
Be a tax-deductible organization (that is not a private foundation) in good standing with the IRS
Have a copy of your IRS 501(c)(3) letter or other proof of tax-deductiblity that can be faxed to us for verification.
Able to accept payments by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT).
Do not promote:
- Hate
- Violence
- Racial intolerance
- Activities regarded as illegal by U.S. Federal law
Do not appear on any lists of terrorist organizations published by the United States, the European Union, or the United Nations.

The kinds of nonprofits that can generally use MissionFish include:

501(c)(3) organizations
Churches, mosques and synagogues
Subordinates and local chapters of large organizations
Small nonprofits (under $5,000 in revenue)
Government agencies

The kinds of nonprofits that generally can't use MissionFish include:

Private foundations
Political organizations
Homeowners associations
Fraternities and sororities
Business associations
Other tax-exempt but not tax-deductible organizations

If you're not sure whether your tax-deductible nonprofit can register with MissionFish, contact our Community Care team.

You don't have to join eBay just to benefit from eBay Giving Works listings that are listed on your behalf. However, to raise funds by selling directly through eBay Giving Works you will have to register with eBay.

Complete the registration form

To start registering with MissionFish, read and approve our nonprofit user agreement, including our terms of service.

Then complete the registration form. We strongly suggest getting all of the information that you'll need together before registering. This section offers detail on what you'll need and how we'll use it.

Nonprofit name - Must be shorter than 255 characters, including spaces. Enter your name carefully (no typos!) because it will appear in many places on MissionFish and eBay. Nonprofit names will be listed alphabetically, so you may want to leave "The" and "A" off the front of your name, just to make it easier to find you.

Mission statement - Can't be longer than 512 characters, including spaces (that's about 40 words). Check your spelling carefully: your mission statement will appear in every eBay listing that benefits your nonprofit.

Keywords - Choose up to five keywords that describe the work you do. Sellers and buyers can search by keyword in addition to name, mission and location to find your organization.

Mission areas - Choose from one to three mission areas that best suit your nonprofit. These categories will help eBay sellers find your organization on the nonprofit list. Hold down the "Ctrl" key while selecting to choose more than one mission.

Website URL - Enter your address to create a link to your organization's website. Don't type "http://" before your web address; we'll take care of that. Please read our special notice about online fundraising.

Nonprofit logo - Upload your organization's logo in either .gif, .jpg or .jpeg format. Other image formats (bitmap, .tiff, etc.) will not upload correctly, and may end your registration session. Your logo must also be smaller than 50 kilobytes.

For best results, use a color logo with at least 72 dpi (dots per inch) resolution that is at least 150 pixels wide. Logos that are smaller than 150 pixels wide may appear fuzzy or distorted. Vertically-oriented (tall) logos look best when they are no more than 250 pixels high.

Below are examples of good logos for uploading:

Square logo (ideal)	Tall logo	Wide logo

EIN - Most nonprofits have an Employer Identification Number (EIN). This is usually the number that appears on your nonprofit's 501(c)(3) letter from the IRS. We use it as an additional way of validating your organization if necessary.

Nonprofit type - Select the type that describes why your organization is tax-deductible. If multiple types apply to you, pick the one that best describes your nonprofit. We use this information to verify that the proof of deductibility you provide is adequate.

Contact information (name, address, phone, fax and e-mail) - Enter this information for the person who will be administering your My MissionFish account on a daily basis. This is the person we'll notify when a listing is posted on your nonprofit's behalf, and whom we'll contact if we have questions.

You'll need to be able to check this e-mail account to complete your registration.

General office phone number - We need a main office number in case we can't reach your contact (if they leave the organization, for example).

Item listing notification preferences - select the one that's best for you:

Nonprofits can choose to be notified about their listings in several different ways:

Never notify me. You will not be notified by e-mail for any of the new listings posted on your behalf.
Notify me about new listings. You'll be notified by e-mail when someone lists an item for you (except if they are on the "no-notification" list, described below). You will not be notified if they revise or add to that listing.
Notify me about new listings and listing changes. You'll be notified by e-mail when someone lists an item for you (except if they are on the "no-notification" list, described below). In addition, you'll be notified if they revise or add to that listing.

In addition, nonprofits can add the eBay user IDs of well known and trusted sellers to their list of people who can post listings on their behalf without any e-mail notification.

E-mail news - Opt in to get occasional updates from MissionFish about fundraising through online auctions.

We take the privacy and security of your personal information very seriously. We use secure socket layer (SSL) to protect your data, and adhere to a strict privacy policy.

Check for our confirmation e-mail

After you've submitted the registration form, we'll send you a message to test that the e-mail address you entered is working and belongs to you. Follow the instructions in this e-mail to confirm your account.

Create a password

Once you confirm your e-mail address, we'll ask you to create a password. Passwords must be at least six (6) characters long. MissionFish usernames and passwords are case sensitive, and cannot include spaces. Make sure to remember yours exactly as you enter it! You may want to write it down someplace safe.

By default, your MissionFish username will be your e-mail address. You have the option to change your username if you'd like.

Forgot your password?

Fax us your proof of deductibility and a voided check

After completing the registration form, please fax two very important pieces of information to us at (202) 330-5545: your proof of tax deductibility and a voided organization check.

Proof of deductibility
We need proof of your tax-deductible status on file in our office to verify that your nonprofit can receive donations. For the following nonprofits, these types of proof are required:

Organization Type	Proof of tax deductibility
501(c)(3) organizations	Your IRS 501(c)(3) letter
Church, mosque, synogogue	Your entry in a national directory of religion or denomination OR Charter letter from your religious governing body
Subordinate nonprofit	Parent organization's 501(c)(3) AND letter from your parent organization confirming your charter as a chapter or program
Small nonprofit (revenue under $5,000)	Letter from affiliated third party confirming your purpose (ex. PTAs can provide a letter from school principal) AND a letter on your organization’s letterhead that states you are registering as a small nonprofit, which has a revenue of less than $5000
Government agency	Statement of incorporation on official letterhead
Other types of nonprofits	Contact Community Care

If your nonprofit is a 501(c)(3) but you no longer have your IRS letter, you can get a faxed confirmation of your status from the IRS by calling (877) 829-5500. It usually takes less than 24 hours.

Click here to view a sample 501(c)(3) letter.

A voided organization check
We need the voided check to verify your bank account information for paying out donations via EFT. Without this we can't deliver your donations! We also require this information to prevent fraud by someone diverting donations intended for your nonprofit. We will not make any charges to nonprofit accounts via EFT.

Click here to view a sample voided check.

If you don't have checks available for the bank account you're using, we need a document supplied by your bank that includes the following:

The bank's logo and address
Your nonprofit's name and address
The bank account number
The bank's ABA routing number

Click here to view a sample bank letter.

Unfortunately, we can't accept the following kinds of information as verification of your bank account:

A deposit slip
An e-mail from you or the bank
A handwritten note
Wiring Instructions
Starter checks or checks with handwritten information

Notify your Accounting Department

Please inform your Accounting Department, and/or anyone who oversees the bank account information that you provided to us, that your organization has registered with MissionFish and may be receiving monthly Electronic Funds Transfers (EFTs). Your donations will be delivered directly into your account on or about the 25th of each month and will be deposited under the name "MissionFish/PntsLghtFdn."

Informing your Accounting Department in advance will help prevent any confusion when your organization starts receiving donations from MissionFish.

MissionFish Nonprofit Verification Policy

MissionFish performs a careful screening to ensure that our standards for participation are met, before admitting an organization to our searchable list of nonprofits. We verify that every organization:

Is recognized as a tax-deductible entity in the United States, in good standing with the IRS.
Does not promote violence, hate, racial intolerance or illegal activities.
Has not been identified by the United States, European Union or United Nations as involved in or supporting terrorist activities.

We also take steps to ensure that the MissionFish nonprofit profile was created by an authorized agent of the organization, and that the bank information provided to us belongs to the organization in question.

We do not verify how a nonprofit uses funds from eBay Giving Works or any other source. When you choose an organization to support, please read their MissionFish mission statement and use links provided on MissionFish to their website, to understand how your gift will be used.

We reserve the right to provide or refuse to provide a license to use MissionFish to any organization. We also reserve the right to modify our standards and practices for nonprofit verification as we deem necessary.

Special notice about online fundraising

As explained in our nonprofit user agreement, MissionFish does not act as a licensed fundraiser on behalf of any nonprofit registered on our site. Nonprofits that register with MissionFish are responsible for compliance with all laws related to their actions on our site, including certain state laws requiring those that engage in charitable solicitation to register with those states.

Remember that charitable fundraising online is highly regulated, and before linking your organization website to MissionFish, listing or supporting the listing of charity items via MissionFish and eBay, you should consult with your own legal advisor to ensure that your organization is complying with all applicable laws. MissionFish, the Points of Light Foundation, eBay and our partners are not responsible for your liability for failure to comply with these laws.

Recommending a nonprofit

If your favorite nonprofit is not on our list, you can recommend that they register with MissionFish. To recommend a nonprofit, you'll need to provide:

An e-mail address for someone at your favorite nonprofit
Your name
Your e-mail address

Recommend a Nonprofit now. We will then send an automatic e-mail invitation to the nonprofit on your behalf - it will include your name and e-mail address. This information is governed by our Privacy Policy.

Your recommended nonprofit must sign up with MissionFish before you can donate to them. However, recommending a nonprofit does not obligate you to make donations to them.

Check back on the site regularly to see if your recommended nonprofit joined MissionFish. You can also follow-up with the nonprofit directly to see if they signed up.

Typical Dates and Deadlines

Action	Duration
Listing live on eBay	3, 5, 7 or 10 days, depending on the selling format
Seller pay their donation	1-7 days after listing ends
Donation is automatically collected	2nd Monday after listing ends (from 8-13 days)
Refund request period	Until the end of the month when the listing ends, plus one month, plus 15 days
Tax receipt available to the seller	As soon as donation is paid (if seller opts-out of a donation refund) OR End of the month when the listing ends, plus one month, plus 25 days (if not)
Donation delivered to the nonprofit	End of the month when the donation is paid, plus 25 days (if seller opts-out of a donation refund) OR End of the month when the listing ends, plus one month, plus 25 days (if not)