Charity Bay, the new way to give back and shop secondhand

My husband, The Builder, had a bedside clock/alarm/phone charger gadget. The thing wasn't being used. Well since we had a child, it certainly wasn't. Our four year old is our 6am alarm clock. It sat around in a cupboard for a long time. I could have donated the alarm clock to my local charity store but I'm always nervous about passing on small electronic items as most Op Shops don't have a tag & test team (to test electrical items for safety and if they work) and won't accept electronics. If the alarm clock does get accepted by a charity store and should it not be sold, what happens to these items? Sent for recycling? I'm definitely for recycling electronics rather than landfill (it's illegal in Victoria, Australia to send electronics to landfill) but ultimately if the gadget is still usable I'd rather the item be passed onto someone else. Then the lovely team at SisterWorks introduced me to the award winning online marketplace Charity Bay at the right time. 

Charity Bay allows people to sell unwanted items and donate the sale to a charity of the sellers choice. Founder Haidar Al-fallouji wanted to help do something about the never ending piles of working household items continuously stacked up on nature strips to be hauled away to landfill. Most of it was furniture and larger items that can often get turned away from traditional charity stores due to the stores lack of space. People sell their items through the CharityBay app or website, and can still provide financial assistance to charities with the sale. I fell in love with the concept immediately and even got to have an online meetup with the dedicated team last year.

Downloading the app and setting up my free account was easy. Items available for sale are listed on the homepage. Users can either search by item or browse via category.

Selling an item is as simple as taking photos, uploading to the app, providing a description, and choosing a charity to donate the sale too.

We sold the alarm clock for $10. CharityBay deducted a .45c transaction fee and the remaining $9.55 was passed on to my charity of choice SisterWorks. 

The next item I will be donating is a projector I used for my talks & workshops at venues without the equipment. It sadly won't be in need as I'm taking time away from that part of my work (new addition to the family is on the way!). The device works well and is in great condition – let's take photos and load it up onto the website.



Community Resources was my chosen charity for this sale – they run several social enterprises and community services, one being Waste Aid Australia. If you have purchased my books part of the profits go to the same group too. What I love about being able to choose your own charity is that it allows lesser known groups doing amazing work around Australia receive funding. 

Once the advert is up, it's published to the home page. I then wait for someone to place a bid. Once a sale has been finalised it's all taken care of by CharityBay. The item is then organised for pickup by the buyer or can be posted depending on the size.

CharityBay's tag line is the new era of giving back – our household loves that we can save our unwanted items from landfill, give them to someone who will use them, and support charities at the same time. Download the app (iPhone and Android) or sell your unused items via the website.