Planning a lockdown decluttering session?

Now there’s a brilliant new way to create some space at home while making some extra cash, shopping local and helping out a very worthy charity – all in less than two minutes.

A Cork student has created a marketplace website that’s similar to DoneDeal or Adverts with one important difference; you can list unwanted items and decide how much of the proceeds to keep or give to charity.

Dogood.ie, created by a group of fourth-year UCC medical students led by Pádraig O’Connell, was initially set up as a platform for students who wished to sell books in college while donating the proceeds to Surgeon Noonan, a charity that works with underfunded, rural hospitals in Sub-Saharan Africa to provide basic medical care for their communities.

Now Dogood.ie has now been tailored to allow both businesses and individuals to sell products while raising money for Surgeon Noonan. It’s early days but there are sections for books, clothing, furniture and homeware as well as educational items.

The more people who get involved, the faster the selection of items will grow.

“I take no fees from this platform, all updates, maintenance and support are done voluntarily by me,” says Pádraig.

“The goal of this site is to raise money for Surgeon Noonan Project – a charity who do fantastic work with hospitals in rural Africa. The site uses Stripe to process payments. Stripe provides a secure, PCI compliant payment gateway which is vital for ensuring the safety of users. For this service, Stripe charge €0.25 + 1.4% on each transaction. Outside of this, all funds received help Surgeon Noonan to provide medical aid and supplies to partner hospitals in Africa.”

“Our goal is to build a community of users who see that we can do more with our shopping. Shopping with us is good for the environment, good for struggling hospitals and good for your pocket.”

Here’s how it works: When adding a product to Dogood.ie, sellers decide how much of the proceeds they want to donate. There is a minimum donation but after that, it’s up to you. This donation percentage is displayed with your product.