CAMBRIDGE, MA. - September 11, 2008 - cMarket, the leader in online auction fundraising for nonprofits, announced the completion of the 2008 Jerry Lewis Telethon Online Auction, raising an additional $580,000 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The Telethon, held on Aug. 31 "“ Sept. 4, raised a record-breaking $65 million. This was the first national auction for the Association.

Included among the over 3,800 items donated and placed up for bid by celebrity Telethon performers and friends of the Association were tickets to a Broadway performance of "Grease" that included dinner with Ace Young who stars as Kenicki in the musical, a Grand Ole Opry VIP trip with country music star Tracy Lawrence and a VIP Package to the 2009 Jerry Lewis Telethon. Other large-scale items in the auction were in conjunction with Harley-Davidson’s 105th anniversary and included a custom Fender guitar, which fetched the highest bid at over $35,000 and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle built on the grounds of the 105th Anniversary in Milwaukee. Overall, nearly 20,000 bids were placed.

"By combining our extensive resources, we were able to offer longtime supporters and new Telethon viewers a fun and interactive way to support Jerry’s Kids while giving generous donors more visible recognition for their contributions," said Kevin Moran, senior vice president, MDA. "We're very pleased with the cMarket network and are already making plans to make next year's auction an even greater success."

In 2007, some MDA offices trialed the cMarket online auction platform in specific communities and based on the success of those auctions, MDA decided to create a larger, national auction with a single access point through which consumers from all over the country could shop from one catalog. Similar to the BiddingForGood portal into all cMarket auctions, cMarket designed the main catalog view to make it easier to shop the over 3,800 items.

"This was a really exciting auction to watch," said Jon Carson, CEO of cMarket. "In just 15 days, we saw generous donations, coordinated efforts and consumer shopping align in a virtual marketplace to benefit research and treatments for muscular dystrophy. Despite a down economy, MDA engaged an additional 3,200 people, drawing over half a million dollars of discretionary income for their cause. That signals a significant shift in consumer behavior that is likely to have broad implications for how we fund social causes in the future and we’re thrilled to be a part of that change."

About cMarket

cMarket is the leading online auction platform solely for organizations engaged in fundraising for nonprofit causes. With more than 4,500 customers, online auctions powered by cMarket have generated measurable successes and tens of millions of dollars by allowing organizations, both large and small, to better optimize their auction fundraising model and at the same time, build mission awareness and heightened caring for important causes.

cMarket services national nonprofit organizations such as the United Way, Muscular Dystrophy Association, JCC Association, Junior Achievement, National PTA, and hundreds of local schools, among others. cMarket also works with companies including Ford, Deloitte & Touche, UGG Australia, Kimberly-Clark and General Electric to raise funds for their nonprofit causes.

You can experience cMarket at www.BiddingForGood.com, its consumer website that aggregates all the company's auction clients under one powerful umbrella for thousands of cause-minded bidders. cMarket is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. For more information, visit www.cmarket.com.

BiddingForGood

BiddingForGood

BiddingForGood is the leading cause based e-commerce platform solely for organizations engaged in auction fundraising for nonprofit causes. With more than 8,000 customers, online auctions powered by BiddingForGood have generated over $75 million for non-profit organizations by allowing them to expand their bidder universe to include their entire constituency AND the 150,000+ BiddingForGood bidder community. Clients also secure more items by delivering a stronger and more measureable marketing value to item donors to ultimately raise more money from more participants.

The company also works with dozens of brand marketers through its unique product advertising program to enable them to efficiently reach affluent donors just as they are spending in a trusted environment. The marketplace can be experienced at www.BiddingForGood.com.

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