The Volunteer Coast Guard rescues thousands of Aussies every year, but they do so out at sea, and out of sight. We needed a way to make their work relevant to the millions back on shore. We found that Coast Guard volunteers rescue more than just people lost at sea. While out on the water, the volunteers come across lost items too. That led us to the idea: sell items recovered by or used by Coast Guard volunteers to raise awareness and funds for the Coast Guard. We partnered with eBay to create Seabay, selling these recovered items and equipment used on rescue missions.

We partnered with eBay to create Seabay, a fundraising initiative that leveraged eBay’s native platform, selling items recovered by Coast Guard Volunteers, and equipment used on rescue missions.

Items for sale on Seabay were collected from Coast Guard flotillas across Victoria, ranging from a single flip-flop recovered by a volunteer to a fully functional 24ft Coast Guard vessel that contributed to hundreds of rescues.

We created a promotional video featuring the items for sale and built a website powered by eBay’s functionality.

Seabay was launched to a nationwide audience, with extensive coverage across TV, press, radio and online news outlets, led by a four minute Live cross on the Today Show, Australia’s leading breakfast TV program.

The launch showcased a range of items for sale on Seabay, encouraging bids to raise funds for the Volunteer Coast Guard.

Viewers, readers and listeners were directed to the Seabay website. On the website, visitors could watch and share the Seabay video, browse the items for sale, and place bids by clicking through to our eBay store.

The average AVCG fundraising event brings in $3500. In the two weeks since launch, Seabay has raised over $66,014 and counting, an increase of over 1886%. Enough to fuel a Coast Guard flotilla for over three years.

We helped an unknown organisation gain widespread awareness, with an earned media reach of 30 million.

This included more than 20 minutes of primetime coverage on mainstream TV and Radio news outlets.

We leveraged eBay’s native advertising platform to reach an additional audience of over 300,000 active online shoppers. Items for sale on our eBay store were viewed 12,000 times in just two weeks.

Worthless items like a broken surfboard ($1324) and a single flip-flop ($81) sold for crazy amounts, triggering a new wave of media coverage.

This is just the start. The best result is that with Seabay, we have established an ongoing fundraising platform for the Coast Guard.

We created a new fundraising platform to raise awareness and funds for the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard (AVCG). We partnered with eBay to create Seabay, a unique auction site where people could bid on items recovered by Coast Guard Volunteers and equipment used on rescue missions.

As a not-for-profit organisation, the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard had no media budget and no media presence. Partnering with eBay allowed us to tap into the e-commerce giant’s massive audience of active users with pre-linked PayPal accounts, who are already in a ‘buying’ mindset.

Since our goal was to get widespread awareness for the Volunteer Coast Guard, our audience was the Australian population at large. As a volunteer-run organisation, we had no paid media budget. We knew our response needed to be newsworthy enough to be covered by mainstream media outlets, in order to get the reach we were aiming for.

Partnering with eBay boosted the Coast Guard’s profile, and further amplified our reach. It allowed us to tap into the e-commerce giant’s massive audience of users, who are already in a ‘buying’ mindset. And by appealing to active online shoppers (with a unique inventory), we found a new audience in a crowded charity market.

Selling a range of items also allowed us to use eBay’s native platform to target a variety of interests, from marine equipment to sporting goods to collectables. This same approach was taken on social media to promote the items.

The Australian Volunteer Coast Guard performs 70% of all maritime rescues. They save thousands of Australians lost or stranded at sea every year. But hardly anyone knows that the rescuers who brave the high seas, are all unpaid volunteers. And that the Coast Guard itself relies on donations to stay afloat. In order to get donations, we needed widespread awareness of the volunteer nature of the Coast Guard and the importance of their work lifesaving work.