Workwithus launches online marketplace for voluntary organisations
Howard Lake | 19 February 2004 | News
Scottish voluntary sector portal workwithus has launched 3rdforcebuying.com, a procurement resource to help match voluntary organisations with suppliers of relevant products and services.
3rdForceBuying.com is “a selling and buying marketplace designed especially for charities and voluntary organisations to find a range of suitable products and services to buy.” Currently it lists suppliers in the categories of design & publishing, events management, training, business services, office & IT, utilities & telecoms, and miscellaneous.
The online directory is designed to help Scotland’s 50,000 voluntary organisations locate and access the services of relevant commercial suppliers. Workwithus, published by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVo), is encouraging companies to advertise their services and products to the “£2 billion [Scottish] Voluntary Sector.” They charge £100 a year, but will halve this in return for a link from the company’s site to the Workwithus site.
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Business to business sites have a tremendous potential to help reduce costs for charities, many of whose buying expertise is still not as developed as it could be. Currently, however, 3rdforcebuying.com is simply a directory with no e-commerce element involved. Although the individual category listings are actually part of the workwithus.org site, they are not otherwise linked in to related content, as on UK Fundraising, on the wortwithus.org portal.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.