cMarket Reports Forty Four Percent Online Auction Growth in 2008 and Dramatic Increase in Bookings for 2009

Published 02-05-09

Submitted by BiddingForGood

CAMBRIDGE, MA. - February 5, 2009 - cMarket Network, the leader in online auction fundraising for nonprofit organizations, announced the results of auctions hosted on it's platform in 2008, noting a 44% increase in the number of auctions run, bringing the total to over $53 million raised for nonprofits since 2003. Contrasting the decline of traditional funding sources, the company has already booked 58% more charity auctions in Q1 then the same time last year.

Summary of 2008 Auctions:

2,259 online auctions closed in 2008, generating $20,459,687 in revenue for a wide variety of worthy causes;

Auctions supporting K-12 Education accounted for 38% of all auctions. Rounding out the top three cause categories were Arts and Culture, and Human Services generating 11.65% and 7.37% respectively;

California schools and nonprofits attracted nearly 25% of the total online auction revenue generated, followed by New York with 11%, Massachusetts with eight percent, Texas seven percent and Florida six percent;

The top five selling item categories were travel, sports tickets, dining, entertainment tickets, and health & beauty;

The single highest grossing item sold was a Mercedes-Benz Smart Car, fetching $68,200 on behalf of the Second Baptist School Foundation in Houston, Texas;

The single largest auction of the year, South Beach Food & Wine Festival, raised $266,414, while eleven chapters of the Muscular Dystrophy Association combined their auctions and raised $580,000 on top of the annual Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon event;

Registered BiddingForGood.com shoppers exceeded 88,000. Surveys of this audience show that 63% are women, over 40 years old, with an average household income well over $100,000. These bidders drove 24% of winning bid revenue across all cMarket hosted auctions.

"The nonprofit sector is suffering on nearly every front, but there is a bit of good news and tangible growth indicators that suggest American consumers are happy to purchase goods and services from non retail sources when their money goes to a good cause," said Jon Carson, CEO of cMarket. "The fact that we are setting new records every quarter for the number of auctions run in a weakening economy, and the growing number of bidders coming in from BiddingForGood.com validates that fundraising committees are finding new pockets of revenue in tens of thousands of smaller transactions versus depending on one or two major donations. In these trying times, online fundraising auctions are proving to be an increasingly resilient form of fundraising."

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An additional new driver of cMarket's model comes from product and service vendors who began partnering with the company in 2008 and donated over $1.5 million worth of goods and services to these auctions. This form of "social marketing" directly targets an affluent, cause-minded consumer base and generates positive brand recognition through association with charitable causes.

Providing online auction services that generate more items, more bids and more revenue to thousands of small and large schools and nonprofits across the country, cMarket is in a position to survey these fundraisers and the company collects and analyzes data from their online auctions to identify emerging trends and best practices to improve client outcomes.

For more information on 2008 auction findings, please contact Helen Stefan at (617) 252-6417.

About cMarket Network
cMarket is the leading online auction platform solely for organizations engaged in fundraising for nonprofit causes. With more than 5,000 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, Phillips Andover, Junior Achievement, National PTA, and hundreds of local schools, among others. cMarket also works with companies including Ford, , UGG Australia, Reebok, 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 hundreds of auctions 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 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.

cMarket Reports Forty Four Percent Online Auction Growth in 2008 and Dramatic Increase in Bookings for 2009

cMarket Reports Forty Four Percent Online Auction Growth in 2008 and Dramatic Increase in Bookings for 2009

BiddingForGood

BiddingForGood

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