How We Determine Donation Size

We receive items in several ways, some directly from people who would like their gift to be unrestricted (meaning they want us to choose a charity for them), some from donors who would like to support a specific non profit that is not on our list of partner charities (but must be listed on the eBay for Charity portal), and some from people who are donating to benefit a non profit we are working with. If we receive a direct donation that is unrestricted, we donate 10% to one or several of the non profits we are currently affiliated with. If a donor selects a specific non profit we are not affiliated with (but is listed in the eBay for Charity portal), we donate 10% to that charity. If a donor chooses a charity we currently work with, we use a formula to decide what they receive.

  • If we receive up to 99 sellable items, we donate 30% of the proceeds to the charity
  • If we receive 100-199 sellable items, we donate 40% of the proceeds to the charity
  • If we receive 200 or more sellable items, we donate 50% of the proceeds to the charity

Here is a list of our partner charities we are currently affiliated with – https://riconsignment.com/charities/   these charities have agreed to partner with us and they receive a higher percentage when a donor selects their charity. Each of the partner charities listed has a link to their eBay for Charity portal. You can see the total number of items listed for sale in their portal – although not all items may have come from RI Consignment or our donors, and a number of items may have already been sold. To find out what level a particular charity is at, please contact us.

If you decide to work with one of our partner charities, we would let them know about your gift and they would send you a letter for tax purposes acknowledging the donation. As far as valuing the gift, that is up to you to decide. It is recommended that you use resale value when determining a value for your items. You should create a list of the items and assign a value to each item and then save it for your records, along with the date your donation was made and the name of the charity you have selected. If you are not sure what an item should be valued at, you can check eBay to see what similar items have sold for.

For more information on donating your unwanted items to benefit charity, please read the following IRS publication

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p561

RI Consignment is not a qualified charity – rather, when you donate items to us, you select a non profit and they are listed as the qualified charity on your donation information. We can have them provide a letter acknowledging your donation.