$4,000 Paris Hilton Stapler, Trips & Horse Semen—It All Adds Up!
BiddingForGood, the leading cause-related e-commerce platform connecting consumers and marketers to thousands of nonprofit auction events, announced today that it has passed a milestone of $100 million in funds raised to support non-profits and schools across the U.S. The rise in BiddingForGood merchandise sales is a direct result of silent auctions increasingly going online to reach more bidders. US non-profits and schools have a greater need than ever with 2009 representing the first year to ever report a decline in U.S. philanthropic giving (source: Giving USA).
Top selling auction categories include travel, dining and unique one-of-a-kind experiences like a meet and greet with Lady Gaga. But not everyone who shops on BiddingForGood is bidding on trips to Mexico and high-end jewelry. The site has had their fair share of interesting items, including:
1. Paris Hilton autographed stapler (sold for $4,101) | Â | Â | Â | Â | Â | 6. Horse semen for breeding |
2. Ten hours in your own private jet | 7. Two tickets to Oprah's last season | |||||
3. Vasectomy for you and your cat | 8. Own your own private island | |||||
4. Lunch with the mayor of Boston | 9. Two tickets to the Lady Gaga show of your choice | |||||
5. White House Tour with U.S. Senator and lunch | 10. Justin Bieber autographed guitar |
"Whether the items are serious or playful, or just odd, it all goes to support schools and charitable causes," said CEO Jon Carson. "In today's economic times consumers are naturally looking for ways to make their dollar go further while schools and charitable causes are facing increased need for services and seeking sources of revenue outside of charitable giving budgets. Charitable commerce enables both sides to achieve a win/win."
While shoppers have found that BiddingForGood is a great place to find unique and hard-to-get items, it is also a place to give back to the charities they care about. Scott Allen, a regular bidder from San Diego said, "What I love about BiddingForGood is the combination of great items and giving back. Allen recently purchased two VIP tickets to the 2010 American Music Awards for his 5th wedding anniversary for his wife Jan, who just recently received her last treatment in her battle against Breast Cancer. Jan Allen, now cancer free, said "When you're paying for these special gifts, it's going to a good cause—to a not-for-profit. I think it's awesome." This caused-based bidder community is growing at 65% per year and is comprised of mass affluent baby boomers with a 65/35 skew to female.
BiddingForGood's charitable commerce platform helps causes uniquely tap into household discretionary spending budgets while offering tangible and measureable marketing benefits to participating merchants.The company weblogs also show that clients have raised an additional $61 million in reported sponsorship revenue, almost $500,000 in cash donations, and just under $250,000 in ticket sales from the company's commerce fundraising platform. "Online is where the world is going," said Jennifer Nelson of Cancer Community CenterSouth Portland, Maine. "We have gotten more bids, raised more money and delivered more value to our item donors by using BiddingForGood."
Other highlights:
- The BiddingForGood Platform Features New Enhancements: The platform has three core elements; 1) Tools- a recently deployed set of tools for non-profits to get items and easy-to-use tools to build and promote a live auction website, 2) Bidders- a community of 200,000+ cause-minded bidders to drive incremental bidding, and 3) Items- over 50 participating merchants contributing instant items.
- A Hard to Beat Trend line: It took BiddingForGood 45 months to run its first 1,000 auction events, 14 months to run the next 1,000 auctions now tracking to over 1,000 auction events in the next 90 days. In September the company booked just shy of 400 auction events.
- Proprietary Algorithms: In conjunction with a professor at Harvard Business School the company has developed 120 proprietary algorithms to send Intelligent Bid Alerts that vary competitive vs. charitable messaging based on auction characteristics to optimize bid engagement, as well as predict auction outcomes.
- Award Winning Customer Service: BiddingForGood's customer service team assigns each account its own auction expert. This team, which has helped run over 10,000 auctions, regularly receives a customer satisfaction score of 4.5 out of 5.0. This experience leads to more knowledge because they have advised on more auction events than any other provider.
- A 4:1 ROI for Schools and Causes: The Company delivers the typical non-profit $4 for every dollar of fees from its platform. Returns come from incremental bidding, provided items, sponsorships, cash donations, ticket sales, and its bid extension feature.
About BiddingForGood
BiddingForGood is the leading cause-related e-commerce platform connecting consumers and marketers to non-profit fundraising auction events. Online auctions powered by BiddingForGood have generated over $100 million for non-profit organizations by allowing them to expand their bidder universe and access a new source of items. Clients can secure more items by delivering a stronger and more measureable marketing value to item donors to ultimately raise more money from more participants as well as BiddingForGood's Item Acquisition Manager and donated item program. The company works with dozens of brand marketers through a unique product advertising program to enable them to efficiently reach affluent donors just as they are spending in a trusted environment. This cause marketplace can be experienced at www.BiddingForGood.com.
Contacts:
BiddingForGood
Kaijsa Kurstin, 617-252-6417
kkurstin@biddingforgood.com