BiddingForGood First in its Industry to Reach $250 Million Fundraising Milestone

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 1, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- BiddingForGood, the leader in online charity auctions and the industry's first cause-related e-commerce company, today announced that it has passed a milestone of $250 million in funds raised to support non-profits, schools and charities across the United States. BiddingForGood is the first charitable commerce marketplace – where nearly 100 percent of transactions benefit charity – to reach $250 million raised on its platform by charities.

Credited with creating a new category of shopping called Charitable Commerce™, BiddingForGood connects consumers and marketers to thousands of charitable auctions, which increasingly have moved from the physical to the online world in an effort to attract and reach more bidders. The company provides a way for fundraisers to extend auctions to a greater community of charitable supporters who might otherwise not have the time or opportunity to attend traditional events and give to new causes.

"By melding technology innovations with traditional fundraising auctions, we have dramatically changed the world of charitable events," said Jon Carson, CEO of BiddingForGood. "Reaching this quarter of a billion dollar milestone supports our belief that consumers remain diligent about making their dollars go further, are committed to giving back and supporting charitable causes, and enjoy finding unique items and hard-to-get experiences."

BiddingForGood has altered the fundraising landscape by bringing together a powerful community of cause-minded shoppers who can bid on charitable auctions all year round. The company's bidding community is unique: they are affluent, female boomers, 41 percent of whom have served on boards, and are opinion makers with significant influence over their household's discretionary budgets. Using innovative technologies, BiddingForGood has opened charitable auctions to supporters who can now bid wherever and whenever regardless of the device.

Mobile Bidding – Fun, Excitement, and Good-Natured Competition

In response to event organizers' desire to find new ways to attract and engage donors, BiddingForGood offers mobile auction capabilities that have transformed the traditional, 100 year old clipboard bidding process and made bidding fun, more immediate, and interactive.

Mobile Bidding allows event attendees to bid on items directly from their smartphone after registering payment information, which they can complete prior to arrival. While this streamlines event registration and checkout processes, it also allows guests to start socializing upon arrival.

Instant alerts notify supporters on their device when they have been outbid. Alerts and the convenience of bidding from wherever they are – in line at the bar or buffet, mingling with guests, etc. – encourages a friendly, competitive element to the bidding process while making it more fun and the fundraising efforts, ultimately, more successful.

"We have a wonderful network of donors who regularly support our efforts. After running many traditional auction events, we were looking for ways to make the events more engaging and fun for our guests," said Shana R. Wallenstein, development specialist, American Red Cross of Northeast Ohio. "Mobile bidding provided us exactly what we were looking for. This new and innovative approach to bidding allowed us to move away from the traditional auction format with clipboards and bid sheets, and try something new. We used it for our annual gala and were delighted with the technology – its ease of use – and our overall results."

Optimizing Bid Engagements

Working in conjunction with a Harvard Business School professor, the company has developed 120+ proprietary algorithms to send to bidders Intelligent Bid Alerts that vary competitive versus charitable messaging based on auction characteristics to optimize bid engagements, and to predict auction outcomes.

With an average auction size of $11,500 and a recent auction raising $251,565 in just five days, BiddingForGood supports auctions that typically range from $5,000 to $250,000, though there is no limit to the upper range. The top five grossing clients have raised between $1-2 million each. Contributing to fundraising totals is revenue realized from incremental bidding, provided items, sponsorships, cash donations, ticket sales, and BiddingForGood's bid extension feature, which allows bidding for contested items to continue until someone wins the item.

Other notable highlights from auctions run on BiddingForGood:

• Most bids of any auction: 83,510
• Most bids in a day: 56,891
• Most bids in an hour: 15,842

Carson continues, "Our platform, services, and Mobile Bidding application have increased participation in fundraising auctions that have yielded higher fundraising totals by making it easier and more fun for supporters to engage with events. Quite literally supporters can bid anytime, anywhere."

BiddingForGood's e-commerce platform helps causes tap into household discretionary spending budgets for things like travel, dining, and gifts, while providing participating merchants with exposure to a highly desirable, affluent, influential, and community minded audience.

According to Chris Bitonti, development and special events manager, Nevada Public Radio, the station "has seen great success with the BiddingForGood auction platform over the last nine years. The money raised has been crucial to our ability to sustain our mission. We have seen a substantial amount of our revenue come from the BiddingForGood bidding community and continue to invest our resources to make this a vital part of our fundraising strategy. Our business partners and donors continue to support this effort as well, realizing great marketing benefits from supporting us online, whilst being good corporate citizens."

Other highlights:

• Upward Trend Continues – It took BiddingForGood 45 months to run its first 1,000 auction events, 14 months to run the next 1,000, and has run 2,400 auctions in the first eight months of 2014.
• Revenue – BiddingForGood reached the first $1 million in funds raised in six months, reached $50 million after five years. It took only six more years to reach $250 million total funds raised for charities. 
• Frequency of consumers shopping/bidding – In 2011, 30 percent of registered bidders placed bids online at least three times per year. In 2014, 59 percent of registered bidders placed bids online more than 11 times per year.
• Unique Customer Service Model – The company's customer service team assigns each account a dedicated auction expert who works with their accounts from beginning to end of their online fundraising experience. Having helped run over 22,000 auctions, the team, which consistently receives satisfaction scores of 4.5 out of 5.0, has advised on more auctions than any other provider.

Auction Highlights - Top Causes, Categories, & Items

The top causes using BiddingForGood are schools (K-12), arts & culture, healthcare, and human services. Clients include ALS Association, American Cancer Society, Aspen Education Foundation, Broadway Cares, Center Stage, Fox Sports, Girls, Inc., Habitat for Humanity, Kimberly-Clark, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Nevada Public Radio, Rotary, South Beach Wine and Food Festival, and WXXI Public Radio, as well as many local organizations and schools, both private and public.

Top selling auction categories include travel, tickets, dining, and one-of-a-kind experiences like dinner on the 50-yard line of the Cleveland Browns' stadium. While bidding on trips and jewelry are a draw, many bidders have competed for their opportunity to win:

• Flight in an A-4 Skyhawk
• Trip to the Galapagos about MS National Geographic Endeavor
• George Clooney's Academy Awards goodie bag
• One year tuition to Gary Gilchrist Golf Academy
• Full treatment packages, including braces, at an orthodontist
• Custom Lasik treatment
• Ten-year renewal for a Dunkin' Donuts franchise
• Horseback safari in Botswana
• Two tickets to the Super Bowl XLVIII (2014)

Items with the most bids of all time include:

• Meet and Greet with the police chief and LAPD "fly along"
• 2006 Ford Explorer
• Harrison Ford "Experience" – lunch and a flight with actor/pilot Harrison Ford

Year to date (2014), top items sold have raised as much as $30,000:

• Invitation to a private party thrown by Elton John
• Recording session with Jeff Tweedy
• FOX News studio tour
• VIP parking spots at a private school and a university
• 2014 Ford Focus
• 6-day private yachting in the Mediterranean
• Washington Redskin's Owner's Box level suite for a game
• Vintage 1955 Ford F150 Truck (restored)

About BiddingForGood

Founded in 2003, BiddingForGood is a charitable e-commerce company that connects fundraisers, cause-conscious shoppers, and socially responsible businesses. Its unique platform allows nonprofits, consumers, and businesses to converge to create dynamic and exciting fundraising events that result in higher levels of funds raised. Over 8,000 customers ranging in size from large national organizations to small, local nonprofits and schools, and 460,000+ shoppers make up the BiddingForGood Community and create a new category of shopping – Charitable Commerce™. For more information, visit www.biddingforgood.com. Follow on Twitter @BiddingForGood or on Facebook.

Contacts: Perry Allison, vice president, sales and marketing, BiddingForGood, 617-252-6477, [email protected]

SOURCE BiddingForGood