This is the text I received from GreaterGiving, inviting me to bid in a school’s online silent auction.
This is a good post to share with your other Gala Chairs who are seeking to invest or change their auction software, but don’t know all the players.
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It’s been five years since I published a list of silent auction software vendors.
Specifically it was a list of mobile bidding software vendors. Back then, mobile bidding had been growing in popularity. Sharing a list of companies selling the tool seemed like a good idea.
I struggled with what to name the post — Mobile bidding? Electronic bidding? Text bidding or text-to-bid? Online bidding?
The industry hadn’t yet settled on common terms. Each vendor had its own branded name to describe the concept of bidding on a device (phone, iPad) instead of a paper bid sheet.
Beyond the naming conventions, another difference of the times was that not all traditional silent auction software vendors had updated their code to accommodate mobile bidding.
Some partnered with the newcomers, allowing companies like BidPal (now called OneCause) to bridge into their robust auction management software systems while they themselves raced to build out their own tool for mobile bidding.
BidPal was one of the first silent auction software vendors to offer mobile bidding. One client used the BidPal (now, OneCause) platform for its own silent auction. This screenshot shows the alerts I received.
Simultaneously, the mobile bidding companies worked to build out their auction management platform to offer the functionality that had traditionally been the domain of long-standing companies like GreaterGiving, Maestrosoft, and AuctionTracker.
Everything changed quickly, and it’s still changing.
CEOs have been fired. Employees have switched companies. Name changes are common. Mergers and acquisitions are prolific.
It’s time to share an updated list.
I offer this list without commentary on price or quality of service. At least 25 of the companies mentioned offer some form of mobile bidding.
In addition to these companies, others offer payment processing to the nonprofit auction industry but do not also offer a silent auction management system. I didn’t include them in the list.
Regardless of your budget, you can find a silent auction software package to fit your pocketbook.
Some of these systems start at less than $100 for small events.
Others are larger, more comprehensive and offer CRM capabilities, too.
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- 32auctions.com (Madison, WI)
- AuctionCoChair.com
- AuctionHarmony.com (Minneapolis, MN)
- Auction & Events Solutions (AES) – www.AESAuctions.com (Englewood, CO)
- Auction Express XT from Sterling Sound Data – www.CharityAuctionSoftware.com (Chicago, IL)
- Auction Frogs – www.auctionfrogs.com (Boise, ID)
- AuctionStar – www.barcodedauctions.com (Houston, TX)
- Auction Systems / Auction! – www.AuctionSystems.com (Colorado Springs, CO)
- Auctria.com (formerly known as CharityAuctionOrganizer). (Canadian software company)
- AuctionZoom / BidStation- GoAuctionZoom.com (Vancouver, Canada)
- BenefitEvents.com (New York, NY)
- BetterUnite.com (Austin, TX) – this is a donor management/CRM software with several modules tied to events, like text-to-give and auctions.
- BidCoz.com (Nashville, TN)
- BiddingForGood.com (Cambridge, MA) – sold in 2015. Now owned by FrontStream Holdings
- BiddingOwl.com (Gaylord, MI)
- Bid-Partner.com (Buffalo, MN)
- BidRocket.com (formerly AuctionSource) (Austin, TX)
- CharityAuctionsToday.com (Willowbrook, IL)
- ClickBid ClickBidOnline.com (Grand Rapids, MI)
- CommunityAuctionServices.com (product is called EasyAuction) (Colorado)
- CrowdComms.com (product is called GalaBid). (Based in UK, with representation in Seattle.)
- Event.Gives (formerly Bidr.com) affiliated with BlackBaud.) (Charleston, SC)
- Givergy.com (New York, NY with UK headquarters). Formerly Daana.
- GiveSmart(owned by Community Brands. They bought 3 auction software vendors in 2017. 1) Gesture – formerly known as AuctionsByCellular (ABC) in Westmont, IL. 2) GiveSmart in Atlanta, GA 3) 501Auctions in New York, NY.)
- GreaterGiving.com (Atlanta, GA)
- Handbid.com (Centennial, CO)
- iBidMobile.net (New York, NY)
- MaestroSoft.com (Bellevue, WA)
- MaxGiving, LLC (formerly AuctionTracker, owned by Northwest Software Technologies) www.Auction-Tracker.com (Boise, ID). On December 31, 2017 Northwest Software Technologies, Inc. was wholly acquired by and is now a division of MaxGiving, LLC of Boise, ID.
- OneCause (formerly Bidpal) – onecause.com/ (Indianapolis, IN)
- PayBee.io – https://w.paybee.io/ (Menlo Park, CA)
- Points of Charity Software under AuctionABC.com (Placentia, CA)
- Proven Benefit (Sold II software) – www.ProvenBenefit.org (Manlius, NY)
- Qgiv – Qgiv is a company focused on peer-to-peer giving applications. A number of CRM companies (like Bloomerang and DonorPerfect) partner with them for this functionality. Qgiv launched its own auction component in late 2019 so if your nonprofit already uses Qgiv, you might be inclined to use this component. (Lakeland, FL)
- QTEGO.com (Indianapolis, IN)
- RallyUp.com (Tucson, AZ)
- Ready Set Auction – www.ReadySetAuction.com. RSA is a division of SofterWare, Inc., which owns DonorPerfect, EZCamp, & other nonprofit/school software)
- SchoolAuction.net (Portland, OR)
- Salesforce.com – SalesForce is a large software program for organizations. There is a small component of this program designed for auctions, called “Auctions for Salesforce.” If your nonprofit already uses SalesForce, you might be inclined or required to use this component. (San Francisco, CA)
- S3 One Goal – https://s3onegoal.com/ – from SWICO Software Solutions. Cloud based software for commercial and benefit auctions. (College Station, TX)
- Silent Auction Pro (Clearwater, FL) – text bidding
- WeDoCharityAuctions.com (Indianapolis, IN)
- WinningCause.com (Minneapolis, MN)
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Did I overlook some silent auction software vendors?
Let me know below and I’ll add them.
Do you have any insight on Accelevants?
No personal experience, Renee.
Online auctions are one of the most profitable fundraising events for charity. iConnectX features some of the best charities on their platform which occasionally run online auctions to raise funds.
Though there is a good time to use online auctions, I would beg to differ on the profitability standpoint in general. But beyond that, my exposure to iConnectX is that it is not appropriate to include on the list above. It is more like an expanded CharityBuzz — another vendor not mentioned — because this list focuses on software used at onsite events, and not just online ones.
Cause4Auction is another, based in San Diego!