By. Natalia Marrero
From June 26 through July 14, you have been able to vote up to once a day for your favorite finalist in each category. CEO Gabe Middleton talked about the importance of the awards to human-I-T in the following video.
Please click the vote button below to help us win a chance at $10,000.
How eBay has Helped Boost human-I-T’s growth
eBay SHINE awards launched in May 2016 to recognize and celebrate the best and brightest in eBay selling community. The platform has been the cornerstone of human I-T’s growth and financial sustainability, which has helped human-I-T grow into an organization with a national presence. In 2012, with only a staff of two, human-I-T worked from an office the size of a storage closet. This year, human-I-T proudly celebrates that success, by being featured as 1 of 15 finalists (2,400 submissions) eBay SHINE Awards for the Charitable Business category. human-I-T now has three locations and a staff of 25 employees. Largely because of human-I-T’s success on eBay, we have provided free technology, bilingual digital literacy training, and Internet connections to 3,200 low-income individuals in Southern California and throughout the U.S. In order to provide these resources for free, we created a resale arm on eBay for all “outlier” technology – or technology that does not have use for a low-income family, to fund our operations. For example, corporations looking to get rid of technology may donate a server rack to human-I-T. By reusing and reselling that same server rack on eBay, human-I-T re-circulates the equipment back into the market and helps reduces the staggering levels of E-waste produced every year. human-I-T partners with entities like the University of Southern California (USC), and the City of Los Angeles to ensure their E-waste is being used for social good. eBay has helped human-I-T transform our vision into a full-scale reality. It fuels our fight to achieve digital equity and inclusion while continuing to promote the sustainable disposal of E-waste across the United States.
human-I-T’s Future – Using eBay to Scale
human-I-T’s eBay sales have allowed us to scale quickly and efficiently. This platform enables us to be financially stable without having to depend on the fluctuating tide of grant funding. With eBay, we tap into the secondary IT market, which generates $1.3 billion annually, and propel our mission using internal funding. human-I-T is self-sustaining because we sell a variety of refurbished technology, including networking equipment (servers, switches, and cables), enterprise grade computers, computer components, and office equipment. In the summer of 2012, human-I-T only sold a few items each month on our store. Today, we are averaging $80,000 in gross profit per month with the goal of achieving $100,000 per month by the end of 2017. Looking forward, human-I-T plans to fundraise using eBay. We aim to build relationships with other sellers, so that a portion of their proceeds go towards our mission. The ability to leverage these partnerships is an innovative way to increase our impact. human-I-T also looks to continue our positive trajectory by using promoted listings to increase traffic to the store and raise awareness about our mission.
Voting for human-I-T in the eBay SHINE awards will ensure that we will continue to increase digital equity, digital inclusion and more opportunities in our community.
About this Year’s Awards
The week of July 24, the winners (5 Category Winners and 1 Small Business of the year) will be announced at the 3 day eCommerce Conference, eBay Open in Las Vegas, with 15 finalists in attendance.As a Category Winner human-I-T could win a $5,000 cash prize, a 1-year Anchor store subscription, a $250 in eBay shipping supplies, $250 in promoted listing credits, a store banner makeover and a professional photo shoot and video profile.
As a Small Business of the Year it could win a $10,000 cash prize alongside a 1-year Anchor store subscription, $500 in eBay shipping supplies, $500 in promoted listing credits, an inclusion in Small Business Saturday Marketing, an inclusion in one eBay Buyer Digest, a store banner makeover and a professional photo shoot and video profile.Related articles from our blog:
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