eBay Acquires Nonprofit Fundraising Tool MissionFish

eBay has been acquiring companies left and right recently and today is announcing the acquisition of yet another startup (this time a nonprofit)—MissionFish.

MissionFish has actually been powering eBay’s Giving Works program, which allows sellers to donate items and proceeds from sales to charitable causes and enables buyers to donate to these causes. MissionFish, which is an independent nonprofit organization, screens nonprofits that want to become members, and processes the millions of dollars in donations that result through eBay Giving Works. The platform is a collaboration of the Points of Light Institute, Pew Charitable Trusts, and The Case Foundation.

MissionFish has powered eBay Giving Works for the past eight years, raising almost $250 million for U.S. and UK nonprofits. The eBay community raised $54.8 million for U.S. and UK nonprofit organizations in 2010 and a donation is made every 24 seconds through eBay Giving Works, raising more than $91 every minute for nonprofits. Overall, donations were up 7 percent in 2010, compared to 2009, says the company.

eBay plans to create a separate nonprofit organization that will eventually be directly responsible for the collection and distribution of funds, using MissionFish’s technology.