Auction Software for Nonprofits

Make the most of your time and resources with our online auction software.

Enjoy the flexibility of in-person, online, or hybrid auction software options. Discover tools and features that will make your job easier.

Nonprofit employee, volunteer, parent, or teacher: we’ve got what you need.

Start your silent auction in as little as five minutes, then share it out to your donor list and your community. Impress guests and donors with the easiest to use auction software solution in the biz.

Auction Hub
screencaps of silent auction software examples

What is Fundraising Auction Software?

Auction software helps nonprofits and causes raise money by putting your item catalog, bidding, and checkout capabilities online. 

From desktops, tablets, or the phones in their pockets, your event guests can browse and watch items, place bids, and get notified in real time if they’re outbid.

Then, at the end of the night, everyone can check out smoothly with multiple payment options available.

You can check your funds raised throughout as well as export both new donor info and auction proceeds data, to optimize future events.

Premier fundraising auction software from CharityAuctionsToday helps you raise more with less.

 

One Spot for Organizers and Donors to Meet

Skip paper bidding: simply share your unique auction link.

Push your auction to your event attendees’ devices—no app required for you, or them!

Bidders can register, start bidding, and receive notifications when they’re outbid. If they win, they receive an invoice via text and email.

We’ve partnered with Stripe, WePay, and PayPal to deposit the funds in your account in just a few short days.

man on laptop holding credit card

How does CharityAuctionsToday keep your funds and data safe?

Learn more about the trust and safety systems we have in place to keep you and your donors’ money and information secure.

Fundraise with confidence on our platform.

Fundraising Auction Software Features That are Easy to Use and Love

Popcorn Bidding

If an item is hot, keep bidding on it open for a few additional minutes.

This will help prevent sniping and help you earn more money on an envy-worthy prize.

Popcorn bidding is one of our auction software’s most popular features and for good reason: every bid is more money towards your cause.

popcorn bidding graphic

Custom Notifications

Customize the messages your event guests receive. 

Communicate with donors and guests in your own voice. Let them know when bidding is about to start, when bidding is heating up or about to close, and thank them for their amazing support.

Not every auction platform allows you to customize the notifications your bidders will receive. We can help you make your auction your way.

cwll phone with texts on it

Fast Registration

Get event guests up to speed and bidding on your great items as fast as possible.

Whether you’re hosting a live event alongside your online auction or sending links out to your supporters, our bidding platform for nonprofits gets even folks who aren’t tech-savvy up to speed and bidding as quickly as possible.

Fast registration

One-Click Donation

Why should your supporters have to leave the page just to donate to you? With our auction software, guests and donors can support your cause even if they skip bidding on anything.

One-click donations make it easier for your auction to make even more money for your cause. Send one link out and tell supporters that they can donate even if they don’t want to bid or buy tickets.

One-Click Donation

Bulk Item Upload

Use our template to format your spreadsheet of items and then let it rip: our system will save you time on manually filling out fields.

Better yet, you can get your auction dashboard set up while you’re still gathering your auction items.

Our silent auction software for nonprofits makes it simple to build your auction on your timetable.

bulk up
Close Auction & Collect Payments

What Does Charity Auction Software Cost?

Fundraising auction software can run from a certain percentage of your auction proceeds to thousands of dollars (some sites even say they’re “free“). It depends on your needs and the size of the event you’re holding.

Take a look at our comparison of features and pricing for 13 top auction sites.

We pride ourselves on offering the lowest fees in the industry. We offer two simple plans you can see below. These allow the most users to use the most features regardless of their size or power.

Fundraising Software for Nonprofits That Grows With You

We’re dedicated to helping you pursue your fundraising goals, no matter how big or small your organization is.

Subscription

No Fee
$297 – $1500
Platform Fees

5%

3%

Processing Fees

3% + $0.30

3% + $0.30

Donation Net Amount

Guaranteed up to 95%

Guaranteed up to 97%

Live Auction Features

Restricted Access

Unlimited Access

Number of Bidders

Unlimited

Unlimited

Don’t see the pricing you’re looking for?

Please take a look at our Pricing page to see rollover text.

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Customer Support

Our customer support team is ready to help you with all your technical questions, and can be reached by live chat, email, or phone depending on your plan.

Service

Give yourself a head start with a custom onboarding plan. Maximize results along the way with premium training, consulting, and technical services.

Education

We have blog articles, online courses, and comprehensive video tutorials to help you and your whole team get the best out of our platform.

What Users Are Saying About Us

Frequently Asked Questions

Basically, you gather items or prizes for people to bid on, and you put their winning bids towards your cause. Obviously it’s more complicated than that, but we’ve got you covered with our extensive guide to silent auctions. Gathering items or asking for businesses to donate prizes that people will want to bid on is one of the big keys to success, but so is getting the word out and having an easy-to-use online auction system in place for your bidders. 

Whether your charity auction is big or small, it can feel overwhelming to do something you’ve never tried before. We can help you out at any point with free hands-on guidance from our Auction Success Managers.

Yes! Here’s what the IRS has to say about winning bidders’ taxes: 

“Donors who purchase items at a charity auction may claim a charitable contribution deduction for the excess of the purchase price paid for an item over its fair market value. The donor must be able to show, however, that he or she knew that the value of the item was less than the amount paid.”

Auction winners will automatically receive receipts but you can also generate invoices on demand if they request this.

It depends! There are no truly free auction platforms: each takes a small percentage of your total funds raised. However, on CharityAuctionsToday you’re guaranteed to pocket between 92%-100% of your proceeds. Even with our Flex plan you can ask your donors to offset platform fees and thus take home even more funds for your cause.

There are a lot of options out there but we can confidently say that ours is the most affordable, and our user feedback consistently tells us it’s easy for absolutely anyone to use. If you’d like to take a look at how different charity auction sites stack up, take a look at our article comparing and contrasting different auction platforms.

The simple answer is that you have to ask! Ask local business owners and organizations if they can donate gift baskets, products, gift certificates, vacation packages, cars—the sky’s the limit as long as you ask politely and understand if the answer is no (small businesses in particular might not be in a position to give). If you have trouble finding local businesses that can give, expand your requests to larger businesses that have a reputation for helping with fundraising.

You can generate reports on what each item earned, who bid on it, who paid for it, and their contact info (for your donor database). Reports also include whether donors covered your platform and credit card fees, and what your total earnings were.

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