The number and size of fundraising and advocacy activities during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month continues to grow each October. Through events such as the popular Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure(R) walks held around the country to high-dollar fundraising galas, people from every geography and generation are getting involved in different ways to support breast cancer treatment and prevention. Now there’s an easy way to join the fight by reaching into your closet instead of your wallet.
Everyday items can make a difference in the lives of women battling breast cancer, and only eBay enables consumers to turn common goods into powerful tools through Giving Works, a program that allows buyers and sellers to donate a portion of their purchase or sales to a charity of their choice. During the month of October, eBay is encouraging people to support organizations dedicated to this cause by simply selling an item and donating a portion of the proceeds. In fact, for every two dresses sold on eBay, a cancer patient could get a week’s worth of meals during treatment. For the value of every laptop sold, one uninsured patient could get access to a mammogram. Through this program, eBay is making it easy to help raise a lot for a cause by giving a little.
Long-time seller and Dallas-area educator Melinda Jackson was incredibly inspired when eBay introduced Giving Works. The only problem: Melinda wasn’t sure which cause needed her help the most. It wasn’t until her closest friend lost her mother to the disease in 2008, when she determined that breast cancer was where she’d apply her passion – and Bling My Bra was conceived.
Bling My Bra is an eBay charity auction benefitting Susan G. Komen for the Cure that invites women around the world to design ‘blinged’-out, over-the-top brassieres. From peacocks to patriotic to Pokemon, the ladies contributing to Bling My Bra are creating true works of art for a remarkable cause.
“I have too many friends who have lost their loved ones to breast cancer,” says Jackson. “eBay makes it amazingly easy to give back to a cause you believe in. Through our ‘Bling My Bra’ art bra auction, we’re doing our part before it’s too late for the rest of us.”
After raising $3,000 in 2009, Melinda and her two co-founders have set their sights much higher for the auction’s highly anticipated second year, which began on Oct. 1. eBay will be featuring Bling My Bra as part of the company’s larger breast cancer awareness campaign that went live on the same day at ebay.com/jumpstart.
Beyond the everyday items and blinged-out bras, eBay has joined with its anchor nonprofits to add even more Hollywood glamour to the charity auction including a meet-and-greet and red carpet experience with the Honorary Chairman of the Avon Foundation for Women Reese Witherspoon; a VIP get-together with Kristin Chenoweth backstage of the Broadway hit, “Promises, Promises;” dresses worn by Avon spokesperson and singer Fergie, and mark Brand Ambassador Ashley Greene of “Twilight.” A pink Vespa, a once-in-a-lifetime Cher experience at Caesar’s Palace Las Vegas, and a U.S. flag that flew over the Navy Seal headquarters in Iraq are also among the one-of-a-kind items consumers can bid on to win and support the fight against breast cancer.
On eBay, more than $68 is raised for a cause every minute and a donation is made every 24 seconds through the Giving Works program, which has helped raise more than $200 million for nonprofits since 2003. Visit ebay.com/jumpstart to pledge to sell, buy or donate and support the fight against this deadly disease.
