Going, going… gone online
Howard Lake | 5 November 1998 | News
Online auctions have been a popular method of Internet fundraising for more than three years. Marilyn Dickey reviews successes to date in her article for the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Sold, to the Man at the Mouse. As well as interviewing fundraisers, Dickey pulls together some useful guidelines for other charities planning to launch an online auction. She stresses the need for research into the market, offering items of interest to a broad audience, anticipating shipping charges, and covering all legal implications. Perhaps not surprisingly, many online auctions attract shoppers and bargain hunters, rather than future donors for your charity. But if you run a trading operation that need not be a bad group of future customers.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.