cMarket, the nation’s largest provider of online fundraising auction events and parent to www.BiddingForGood.com, today announced that it has launched its 2,000th auction, making it the “category leader” as the company that has run the most fundraising auction events on the web. The company is set to keep this mantle, with a pipeline of another 500 online auction events scheduled to run over the next 90 days.

The 2,000 auctions ultimately represent thousands of children who’ve received a better education, hungry people who’ve been fed, environmentally beneficial programs that have been implemented, and medical research that has been funded.

Fundraising through auctions is also big business and cMarket believes it can be even bigger. More than $16 billion is raised each year for meaningful causes from auctions; yet, few events undergo much analysis or benchmarking. cMarket brings a different philosophy. Management believes that fundraising auctions can be turned from an art to a science with technology and analyses that give non-profit organizations a soup-to-nuts resource for predicting success, increasing bids and in the end, raising additional dollars.

“This is the future. Fundraising auctions are going online because they enable development professionals like myself to leverage the benefits of the Internet, raise more money and significantly reduce the enormous workload that comes with running a live event,” says Carrie Kinne from Cancer Community Center in Maine. “With the help of cMarket, our small staff was able to not only double our historical fundraising, but we were able to predict the outcome before we even got started.” The online auction proceeds represent a significant portion of our budget and have enabled the Cancer Community Center to fulfill its mission of providing social and emotional support to people with cancer. “

“We’ve built momentum over time as we transition a market that we pioneered in 2003 from early adopter to a more mainstream and accepted market,” says cMarket CEO Jon Carson. “Non-profits have a distinct advantage when it comes to competing in the e-commerce economy because of the uniquely high affinity that donors have to these causes”.

Incorporated in 2003, cMarket has steadily built a client base represented by every segment of the non-profit sector, from education to media to human services to environmental. Indeed, the educational marketplace is thriving, as to date cMarket has conducted online auction events for 350 private schools that benefit by being able to engage alumni and extended family as bidders and item donors. A recent cMarket presentation at the Annual Conference for the National Association of Independent Schools was standing room only.

As part of its 2,000th auction milestone, cMarket is recognizing a number of organizations for achieving results that are notable or unique. The company has also identified a number of core learnings and insights it has garnered through the years. For more details, please visit: http://www.cmarket.com/docs/pr/cmarket_2000th_auction.pdf

The typical cMarket client receives an immediate 200% return on cMarket’s fee in incremental hard value from donated cash, sponsorships, ticket sales, donated items, and more. A client specifically receives from cMarket:

Web publishing tools that enable them to build a branded auction website
10 advertising positions to sell to corporate sponsors
Email tools that enable them to promote the auction to their donors [email list]
Access to attractive items from a consignment marketplace of over 1,000 items
The ability to attract incremental cause-minded bidders via cMarket’s consumer bidder portal, www.BiddingforGood.com
Extensive reporting and data analysis tools to improve outcomes
7 day/week service to guide and support clients with technical and best practice questions
About cMarket

cMarket is turning fundraising auctions from art to science. The company is the leading on-demand, online auction platform solely for organizations engaged in fundraising for non-profit causes. Auctions powered by cMarket have generated fundraising success by enabling over 1,700 organizations, both large and small, to identify new sources of income and simultaneously build mission awareness and care for their cause. cMarket services national non-profit organizations such as the United Way, JCC Association, Junior Achievement, The PTA, and the American Red Cross. cMarket also works with companies including Ford, Deloitte & Touche, Kimberly-Clark and General Electric to raise funds for their non-profit causes. The company recently launched www.BiddingForGood.com, which empowers non-profit organizations to reach the broadest possible audience by featuring their auctions and items on this leading global exchange for goods and services. cMarket, which was founded in 2003, is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.cmarket.com

Posted: 04|23|07 at 3:04 pm. Filed under: Press Release.