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cMarket Charity Auction Sales Surge in Q1 to Pass $60 Million

cMarket Charity Auction Sales Surge in Q1 to Pass $60 Million

Published 04-07-09

Submitted by BiddingForGood

Cambridge, Mass. - April 7, 2009 - cMarket Network, the leader in online auction fundraising for nonprofit organizations, announced today a record quarter for online auction sales resulting in an additional $6.3 million dollars raised for schools and nonprofit organizations across the US, bringing the total raised since inception to over $60 million. In addition, the number of charities running online auctions increased by 46% over the same period last year signaling a continuing shift in nonprofits adapting to the economic recession by moving some or all of their fundraising events online to take advantage of increased bidder reach, newly available donated items and better measurability.

According to Jon Carson, CEO of cMarket Network, all areas of the company are seeing similar growth as the supply and demand model of auctions draws various sectors together, including product and service vendors and cause minded consumers.

"The cMarket Network has evolved into a 'virtuous circle' where charities, item donors, and consumers all benefit from each other, and the more they do, the larger the network becomes. BiddingForGood.com saw 400,000 unique visitors in March and over 900,000 for the quarter. That's a very attractive market to product and service vendors who, by donating excess inventory or products into the auctions receive valuable exposure, paying customers, measurable marketing data and quantifiable ROI. The more products in the auctions, the more bidders will bid and the more money goes to charities. It's a win/win/win."

In Q1, cMarket achieved a number of milestones:

  • Hosted 613 online auctions, attracting 900,000 unique visitors who browsed and bid on items generating over $6 million for charitable causes; $3.6 million for K- 12 schools,
  • Signed 14 additional partners to its Product Placement program for commercial item donors, bringing an additional $1.5 million dollars of product and services available to clients. Items ranged from a one week vacation at a resort in Cancun to tickets to professional sports teams, weekend get-aways and entertainment tickets,
  • Released and deployed an automated Auction Item Request System (AIRS) making it easier for commercial item donors to process and manage the large numbers of inbound requests for donations,
  • Ran the South Beach Food & Wine Festival online auction which raised over $272,000 for Florida International University's School of Hospitality & Tourism Management Teaching Restaurant and its Southern Wine and Spirits Beverage Management Center.
  • Helped Reebok bring in $70,200 through the sale of Super Bowl MVP, Santonio Holmes' gloves to benefit the Sickle Cell Anemia Disease Association of America
  • Was selected by the American Cancer Society's Northeast region to host a number of their auctions during 2009,
  • Was featured by ABC San Francisco, Auction Bytes, CBS Dallas/Fort Worth, CNBC, Family Circle, Mass High Tech, The Non Profit Times and many others,
Patricia Hunt Sinacole, coordinator for the Hopkinton PTA auction, said, "In today's economic climate you have to do something different and think out of the box. For us moving our annual auction online was a no-brainer. We were able to tap a much bigger bidder universe from biddingforgood.com while availing ourselves of a number of donated items that cMarket provided. I wish we had done this sooner."

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.

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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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