School fundraising auctions go online.

THE SHARON HIGH SCHOOL PTSO, in Sharon, Mass., raised more than $30,000 in March through cMarket Inc., the leading on-demand, online auction platform for organizations engaged in fundraising for nonprofit causes. It was more than triple the PTSO's average annual yield.

Jon Carson, CEO of www.Bidding forGood.com, the Web site that hosts the cMarket auctions, says that traditional fundraising tactics present three serious flaws: The products sold are usually unhealthy, sugar-coated snacks; the companies keep a significant cut of the revenue (cMarket takes 9 percent); and they require students to traverse door-to-door. Carson says that with the Internet, cMarket's online incremental bidding "opens the barriers" and allows school fundraising organizations to widen their net to a much broader community--ideally, anyone with an Internet connection.

Prior to the auction, Sharon High School PTSO board members met with Sharon Public Schools staff members and administrators to inquire what types of resources and tools the district needed, which led to essentially a "product wish list" that they would ultimately purchase with the raised funds. Diane Needle, a member of the PSTO fundraising team, was already visiting the cMarket site frequently to shop for items of her own. It was her idea to hire the group to host the auction.

The items auctioned off included vacation time-shams, concert tickets and jewelry--all donated by school and community members--but also items that cost nothing to the school, such as coveted parking spaces. At the auction's close, the district was left with much more money than it anticipated and was able to purchase Smartboards, laptop computers, Spanish dictionaries and products manufactured by ELMO.

Sharon's success with cMarket is modest compared to other schools. "There are districts in California that have made more than $100,000 with this service. $30,000 is definitely in the middle range," says Carson.

According to Needle, East Elementary School in Sharon, Mass., is currently using cMarket for one of its own fundraising auctions.

Rising costs, larger class sizes, and decreasing budgets are hampering public and private schools nationwide, and Carson says it is very practical for school district officials to consider building a home page for their educational fundraising with cMarket. "The marketing tools and materials are all them, and the customer service team makes it very accessible," he says.

www.cmarket.com