An Ebay offer to host fundraising auctions for charitable causes has attracted the attention of folks at the US-based Sierra Club Foundation. The offer has been around for a while but we have not previously seen too many environmental groups taking advantage of it. As one who formerly had fundraising management responsibility at a Canadian environmental group, GallonDaily’s editor sees this use of auctions for fundraising as a worthwhile, though perhaps currently rather small, initiative.

The Sierra Club Foundation auction currently lists thirteen items ranging from an autographed poster for the movie Bridesmaids at $41 to a 7 night stay at a luxury villa in Manzanilla, Mexico, for $5,500 (both prices in USD with the auction listing price at the time GallonDaily published this article). Half of the items are under $200.

Auctions for environmental causes need to be handled with some care. It would not be supportive of the auction cause to fundraise through sales of unnecessary or non-environmental products. Sierra Club Foundation seems to have managed this quite well with most of the items falling into categories that could be found on Gallon Environment Letter’s list of environmentally preferred Christmas gifts, though the three travel items might be considered more distant than is environmentally preferred and one of the items makes a waste reduction claim that GallonDaily suspects may not be supported by a proper LifeCycle Analysis. If all of the listed items sell at their current price Sierra Club Foundation’s coffers will be enriched by almost $12,000.

To review the Sierra Club Foundation fundraising auction on Ebay, visit http://stores.ebay.com/auctioncausestore/pages/sierra-club#bid . If you get there before this Sunday evening, April 28, you will be able to bid on the items.