What About Nonprofit Charity Auctions Online?

Summary:

Ideas for using existing auction facilities as a fund-raising tool.

Bob Ellsworth wrote on September 29, 2001:
One thing to consider when doing this is what the audience will be. If you
are looking to have an auction that is for members only, then you can go
with some of the auction provider companies (OpenSite is the leader in this
field [OpenSite was acquired by Siebel in July of 2001; see http://www.siebel.com/products/iss/eauction/index.shtm for a description of Siebel's auction facility -- PB] and there are others that will host a private auction, one that is
interesting is Epiq: http://www.epiqtech.com/).

However if you want to have an auction where anyone can bid on the product,
frankly you have to go with eBay -- http://www.ebay.com. I say that with such conviction because
the only way to get the best bidding possible for your product is to have a
large audience. In the real world, if only 10 people show up for an
auction, the prices will always be low, but if 1000 people show up, there
will be more opportunities for up-bids, etc. MissionFish -- http://www.missionfish.com -- and others have
great charity solutions, but they have almost no consistent audience.

Another idea is to have a virtual silent auction via a discussion board
(like yahoo groups or something.) This would be easy to do and not require
a significant investment in time or effort. Think about using email as a
way to do this as well if possible. Of course, these last solutions only
work for a members-only auction.

Ian Shearer (ians@etr.org) wrote to NPTalk on May 24, 1999, on the subject "Online Auction Model for Nonprofits":
This is not so much about applying the online auction model to
nonprofits as much as using the existing online auctions as a
fundraising tool. Many nonprofits have used charity auctions as ways
to raise money. One reason is that it is often much easier to get in
kind donations of items rather than direct funds.

An alternative to the physical charity auction is having an online
auction using eBay or another online auction. Normally you go into
eBay searching for a specific item or product. To hold an online
charity auction you need to provide a web page which lists links to
all the items raising money for your organization. A local foodbank
here in Santa Cruz, CA (part of the Second Harvest network) is doing
just that, and has even taken the step of setting up free online
auction hosting web site for other nonprofits: http://www.cbid.com.

There are probably already other sites doing this, but this is the
first I've heard and it makes a lot of sense. Not only can you let
your supporters and the community know about your auction, you can
have people around the country and world bidding on your items.

The downside of the online auction is that you don't have the gala
event type thing, the direct community interaction, the kind of
friendly competitive bidding among community leaders, and the
opportunity to raise awareness. But in some instances the online
auction probably holds a lot of potential, especially for smaller nonprofits.

On Tue, 5 May 1998, someone asked in NONPROFIT:
Has anyone seen a full-time NON-PROFIT auction site where I can buy
computer goods? All these retail for-profit sites have cropped up in
the past year or so (eg. http://www.onsale.com, http://www.dealdeal.com,
http://www.ubid.com) but I haven't seen or heard about a CHARITY-based
site doing the same thing. I'm not talking about one-off charity event
sites. I'm talking about a *dedicated* site.

Steve Braker of WORTHWHILE FILMS - video production for nonprofits -
(braker at wicip dot org) replied:
This isn't *dedicated* to nonprofit purposes, You might want to look a
eBay (http://www.ebay.com). I would guess it is the largest and best known
aucton site out there, and unlike some of the ones you mention, it is an
auction system only and not a front-end for a sales operation.

I have seen auctions on eBay which are identified as "charity" items, but
it shouldn't really matter. The donor takes a deduction, your
organization places the item in the online auction and gets the proceeds.

Quite a few services offering various forms of support for online auctions are listed in the long list of resources for fundraising online at http://www.nonprofits.org/npofaq/0/1491.html -- Ed.