Arm of the Lutheran church to sponsor an online auction fundraiser to help worthy causes

Trading Graces, an online auction on eBay hosted by Lutheran Services in America, will open Feb. 5 and continue through June 10. In its third year, Trading Graces' mission is to raise awareness and funds to support Lutheran health and human service organizations across the United States and the Caribbean.

Trading Graces is open to benefit all member organizations and, new for the 2008 season, Lutheran schools, colleges, universities and congregations.

Lutheran organizations receive donated items from constituents and sell them on eBay to raise capital, said John B. Carter, LSA's Trading Graces online auction event manager. "Exchanging new and/or used goods for the common good is what makes Trading Graces so powerful," he said.

LSA is an alliance of about 300 social ministry organizations, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Reaching more than 6 million people annually and employing a quarter of a million staff and volunteers, social ministry organizations provide care ranging from healthcare to disaster response, from services for children and families to care for the elderly, from adoption to advocacy and more.

MissionFish, eBay's charity support division, provides technical support for Trading Graces.

For more information about Trading Graces, e-mail news@elca.org or visit www.elca.org/news.