cMarket/BiddingForGood, an online auction platform for charity auctions, has passed $70 million in gross merchandise sales supporting non-profits across the U.S., with $22.4 million (32%) of that number raised over the past 12 months. In addition, the number of charities running online auctions increased by 23% over last year, which the company attributes to the continued migration of silent auctions online during the economic downturn.
cMarket said it had in excess of 130,000 bidders on biddingforgood.com and said they were typically affluent, female baby boomers who shop for themselves and for gifts for friends and family. The company now has 42 merchants providing over $5 million of donated items to its non-profit client auctions in return for marketing visibility and reporting. These clients include Thomas Cook Travel, DKNY, Four Seasons, Dancing Deer, and Curves.
The BiddingForGood 2009 calendar has included multiple multi-million dollar agreements including a recent $1.5 million deal with LVI/Thomas Cook, as well as the addition of nationally recognized Four Seasons hotelier Robin Brown, principal at CWB Boylston, LLC, instrumental in the development of Mandarin Oriental- Boston, to the Board of Directors.
