Here are some examples of folks who have shown a knack for making the platform really work for them;

• Hillsborough School Foundation raised over $90,000 (www.biddingforgood.com/hsf)
• uMass Fine Arts Canter raised over $1,600 just from items we provided them (www.bidddingforgood.com/umassfineartscenter)
• Memorial Health Care System (www.biddingforgood.com/pink) generated 678 refer-a-friend emails to widen their community and draw in more bidders
• Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (www.biddingforgood.com/llsvalentinesday) raised $60,000 from sponsors
• Friends of Manhattan School for Children (www.biddingforgood.com/MSCauction) had 113 items donated through the tool and the email item acquisition campaign.

Always good to shout out folks who are using the platform to their advantage.

Tx for listening,

jc

From Paulette’s Point of View – AFP has been asked a lot over the past couple of days about the overall impact of these types of relief efforts on overall giving. Are we going to see a lot of new donors getting involved with philanthropy? Will there be an overall increase in giving because of the Haitian relief efforts? My answer is probably not. Even after 9/11, we didn’t see any bump in overall giving for 2001. The overall economy is so large of a factor in the level of giving that most disasters, even major ones, are just a small blip on that map.

But these types of events can act as catalysts for changing how people give and introducing them to new methods of giving. After 9/11, website giving grew phenomenally as many people made contributions online for the first time and got used to it. This time, with Haitian relief efforts, it may well be text giving via cell phones that comes of age. We are already seeing a sharp increase in these kinds of texting contributions. When even the U.S. federal government offers a way to support relief efforts via texting, you know something has become popular. It will be interesting to see final giving numbers from these efforts.

To read full posting, click here.

The one big take-away I’ve gotten from this conference is that the future seers (the venture capitalists) believe that the Internet on computers is going to be usurped by the mobile phone.

Cell phones are the computing platform of the future.

Hmmm.

I am in NYC at the annual OnMedia technology conference where we have been named to the 2010 OnMedia 100 which is the 100 most innovative, venture capital backed marketing/new media companies in the U.S.. Its quite an honor as they had over 500 nominations and there were few slackers.

I am speaking later today on a panel on cause marketing (these folks see us as a cause marketing platform). The attendees are lots of techies and venture capital types. Frankly, most of it is pretty uninteresting to me (e.g. I’m not really overly concerned about getting faster, more targeted ads coming in over my mobile phone). But lord knows these folks are into it.

Sometimes I wonder if too many folks pursue technology for technology’s sale and sorta leave out the how-does-this-make-for-a-better-world part. Too bad, these are some very smart folks. But for sure there is much innovation here and innovation is America’s future so I’m glad to be a part of it.

tx for listening,

jc

Perhaps the biggest source of leverage with an online auction host is customer support. Most folks have never run an online auction so having access to a knowledgeable auction consultant to help you build the right catalogue and take advantage of the many features which can drive $$ is critical.

What should you look for? Four things;

• Access by Phone and Email. Some providers send you to a community message board (this is eBay’s method). Some only communicate via email (esp. the small guys). But in a pinch you generally want tot talk to a real, live human being who is familiar with your case and understands the context.
• Experience. You should expect your auction consultant to have supported a minimum of 100 online auctions and preferably over 500. You should also expect expertise in your category (school, vs. arts, etc).
• Fully Staffed Team. Some smaller folks have a client services group of 1-3 people. A fully deployed client services group should have at least 4 FT auction consultants plus a dedicated mgr. This helps prevent backup during peak times. 
• Dedicated consultant. It is far better to have a dedicated consultant who knows your case and history that to go into a pool where each time its a different person.

When you are looking at a online auction provider be sure to know what you are getting in client services. There is much upside here if you get a well performing service.

Tx for listening,

jc

Fundraising Using Social Media Tipping Point Posted by Allison Fine on January 25, 2010 Blackbaud released a study last year that provided start evidence that fundraising through social media had not yet reached a maturation, much less tipping, point. The study (based on a very small sample of 24 nonprofit organizations that are significant because of their size) revealed that online giving was still just a tiny fraction of giving through direct mail and in person. However, the earthquake in Haiti may have permanently changed sizes of the fundraising pie slices. According to a new study by the Pew Center for People and the Press, “Haiti Dominates Public’s Consciousness” (highlighted by Lucy Bernholz) 37% of giving since the earthquake in Haiti was giving online or by text message. And, we know that it hasn’t been small change, either, with the Red Cross reporting $22 million raised by text message one week after the earthquake. So, have we reached the tipping point? I think so, but with a caveat and a caution (you didn’t think this was going to be straightforward, did you?) Here’s the good news. It is clear that in the time of a disaster or an emergency a lot of people are ready and willing to give donations using social media. Donating by text, in particular, fits the bill perfectly. But millions of dollars have also been raised on Facebook, websites and Twitter. But, here’s the drawback. One of the first lessons is that giving by text is easy for the donor but not so easy for the organization. It takes some time to set up the donation process with the mobile carrier (isn’t anything that involves a telecom going to be complicated somewhere along the line?) It is a cumbersome mechanism on the back end – it takes time to set up (the Red Cross that is so fortunate to have Wendy Harman on staff had already put this mechanism in place.) More disconcerting there is ordinarily a lag time between pledges made by text and the time the organization receives it because the phone bill has to be paid. The phone companies agreed to pay 80% of donations up front for Haitian relief because of the urgency of the situation. This also raises the issues of pledges made in the moment that may not be paid later by the donor, unlike giving online using a credit card or PayPal. The other important lesson is that just because text and, say, Twitter worked under these circumstances doesn’t mean that they are appropriate for other fundraising needs and efforts. So, the bottom line for me right now is hooray for the increased trust and facility with a variety of social media tools that people are showing right now. However, that doesn’t mean that all of these fundraising channels are going to work for every organization in every circumstance. More reason, again, for organizations to continue to experiment with the tool set and focus on building relationships through online social networks rather than just ask random people for money online — and to focus on learning what works for your organization over time.

We’ve been analyzing 2009 and it looks like there are seven places fundraisers are making money on our platform;

1. Expanded Reach;Almost all our clients report that by going online they are now getting bids from folks in their community who don’t typically attend their event
2. BiddingForGood Bidders;Our community of affluent baby boomer bidders drove a new record 26% of additional bids per auction in 2009 
3. Sponsorship;Our platform enables you to activate gold, silver, and bronze sponsorship programs. Folks who sell or barter these are getting thousands of extra dollars in either stuff or cold hard green
4. Ticket Sales;Awhile back we built a ticket ordering feature because many of our clients are raising money thru ticket sales as well as the auction. The web-logs suggest lots of folks selling hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars of tickets thru the platform
5. Provided Items; Our bulk donation team secured over $5million of stuff last year which we offer to clients. Lots of folks raising an additional $1,000-1,500 of what is almost free money
6. Bid Extension;Many folks enable bid extension which means the close time is extended out for 5 minutes if a bid is placed in last 5 minutes. this gives a live auction format where the bidding is only over when its over (vs. silent auction format which has an artificial time deadline). One Massachusetts school raised an additioanl $3,000 from items where bidding kept going.
7. Donate Item Function;Our email tool enables folks to conduct an email item donation campaign to shake the constituency tree hard for items.  Its found money as folks have all sorts of yummy things they can and do part with (tickets to a game, bottles of wine, old gift certificates, etc, etc).

When it is all added up it looks like the typical client gets a 4:1 financial payback from their BiddingForGood investment. All to say, no magic in any of this- just a math problem.

Tx for listening,

jc

I had the honor of attending Rosalyn Hoffman’s Book Signing event last night where she read from her latest book Bitches on a Budget.  She spoke candidly about how ostentatious shopping is “out” and saving money with smart shopping is “in”. 

Rosalyn noted BiddingForGood in her book as a smart shopping category for a couple of reasons.  One, it just makes sense. Two, you may find a great deal. Three, even if you don’t find a great deal, you shopped for a cause or for a specific reason.

As the lovely author repeatedly points out in her book, gone are the days where women shop just to shop…for no reason what so ever other than to spend money and kill time.  She recognizes the movement of women shopping for their needs rather than desires.  With smart shopping and budgeting being the main focus of the book, Rosalyn wisely recognizes that it is ok to splurge on expensive pieces that will last and serve a purpose. You will have them forever. As for everything else, toss.

Shopping on BiddingForGood gives people a reason and a place to shop where they can feel good splurging, feel good finding a steal, and feel good supporting a great cause.

Shop with a purpose.  Sound advice.

-Kaijsa

Just saw some data from earlier this month.

Congrats to Winchester Orchestra for raising an additional $635 paying for 100% and then some of the annual subscription (after our 1/3rd revenue share) from items we provided. This program, where the clients gets majority of dollars from dollar one, is infinitely better than classical consignment.

Congrats to the Carroll School for getting 58% of their bids from the BiddingForgood bidder community. The better the items the more our folks will bid

And lastly, congrats to the Zoological Society of San Diego for generating 89 refer-a-friend emails from the auction to expand the community and build next year’s bidder promotion list.

Thx for listening,

JC

For anyone looking at an online auction service one of the most important factors is client services.

Why? Because, for most folks this is a first time event and there are lots of do’s and don’ts that have huge direct impact on $$$. The right client services group assigns you your own account consultant who helps you make sure you execute on the backs of best practices developed from thousands of folks who have gone before you (why recreate the wheel?).

There is much leverage here. Just making some adjustments to your email promotional plan can result in thousands of extra dollars. Knowing the profile of a good catalogue and what items do especially well online only makes you more money.

At BiddingForGood we measure satisfaction with our client services group every month. On a 1-5 scale (5= good, 1= bad) we have never been below a 4.0 and are frequently at 4.5 as graded by our clients. Think it is safe to say nobody in our industry does it better.  

Tx for listening,

jc