For example, recently I found myself scouring the internet looking for logos for each auction item our client had. They wanted logos instead of photos of the actual auction item. To them, it was a branding opportunity for their donors. At the same time, I was receiving auction item photos for another client taken by digital camera and they were selling sponsorship areas on the software where we would feature a logo of a paying sponsor. Two unique ways to display donors and sponsors all within the same software.

Now this may seem trivial but the examples continue for each customer and the ability to make those changes is key. ClickBid is built on the idea that software is greatest when it meets your needs. That seems like a simple premise but actually it is very hard to do when you develop a platform that is the same for each customer and only can handle the general needs of the many. What if we had to tell our clients that they either put logos of their donors on each item or not at all? Then some organizations would miss the opportunity to fund their silent auction technology with sponsorships.

In the end, ClickBid is an open platform that takes the shape of our client’s needs. Each client is unique and so is their version of our software. It helps us learn about our customers and it helps our customers get the solutions they need. We feel this is the ultimate future of web and application development and we’re planning for it.

You can imagine adding 1,500 items is no easy undertaking so they started early, in February, adding items one-at-a-time with their massive volunteer base. But unlike many organizations, Dreams took advantage of ClickBid’s Pre-Event Bidding system where items went up for auction immediately after being entered. Guests could create a bidder number on the site and login to place bids on existing items months before the event. This helped move a large number of items and eventually accumulated to over 1,500 bids!

The result was that Dreams was over 40% of the way to their goal before the event even started. In the end they raised 118% of their goal and brought in a new way of bidding on items. Now here’s where I am required to be honest. We actually had so much activity with this event (7 or 8 times what we have ever experienced in 9+ years doing these events) that we put a massive strain on the ClickBid servers. We have since increased our capacity over 700% with newer and heavier duty redundant servers capable of handing nearly 10,000 items across multiple simultaneous events.

Walking away from this experience has shown me that pre-bidding not only increases total giving but it creates awareness of what’s up for auction and a much more solid connection with donor and organization. It’s definitely something I hope more of our customers take advantage of.

As a long-time vendor of website design, video production and print advertisements and now with ClickBid, we have worked hard to give our non-profit friends the best deals possible. That’s why you’ll see our rates are lower than many of our competitors. Why? We see value in relationships rather than a thick bottom line. We’re ok with growing slowly if it helps our clients get more money into their cause. Because when we read the Twitter updates and blog posts of how our clients have helped their communities, it feels incredible.

So we’re looking forward to our new relationships and continuing to build the ones we already have. It’s always been nice to have friends and it’s great knowing we help organizations do good.

For all our new customers, we now offer simple check-in and check-out from mobile devices. You can easily use your mobile device (as a volunteer/client of ClickBid) to check-in and check-out guests. Using ClickBid’s iPod Touch devices allows you to even print from the iPod directly to a wireless printer.

The main advantage is that you can re-purpose ClickBid’s rented iPod Touch devices as check-out stations and have as many as 10 volunteers checking out guests. It cuts down on long lines and makes check-out incredibly fast. We wish we could take credit for the idea – we got if from Apple. If you’ve ever been in an Apple Store, you can see that just about any employee can check you out from their personal iPod Touch. Fast, simple and happy. It works for Apple, and now it works for you.

For example, when ClickBid was born it was a custom web application designed for a statewide non-profit. One of the board members approached me and cautioned me saying “If I can’t walk up to a computer and place my own bid then I’m not going to sign off on it.” The challenge was that this was a retired fundraiser who never got along well with computers. It was like having to start over stripping out all the cool bells and whistles I had dreamed of adding to the software. I had to drill down to the basics so it could be used by the computer illiterate.

A week went by and my presentation meeting closed in. I was incredibly nervous feeling like as soon as they saw how simple it was they would scoff at paying the final development bill. Immediately the non-savvy board member stepped up and said “My turn. Let’s see if I can do this.” Within 10 seconds, she had signed in and placed her first bid. Overjoyed she signed off on the project and the rest of board members followed suit. My lesson was learned. It’s not what I want or need the software to do, it’s what YOU want and need the software to do.

To this day, ClickBid has continued to partner with development staff to glean valuable information on what bidding software should be. There are a growing number of options out there but at ClickBid we aim to be the most user relevant of the bunch. Therefore, if you ever feel that there is a missing need that ClickBid should be filling, please drop us a line and we’ll get on it for you right away. It’s definitely our pleasure.

1. It is critical to find a merchant that can waive monthly minimum fees. Your major activity will occur most likely within a week rather than over months at a time.

2. Try to avoid contracts. 12 months is a long period to maintain an account (and therefore incurring monthly fees) for your single event.

3. Use your non-profit status to get better rates. Usually a phone call and some proof of a good standing 501(c)(3) does the trick. Look for rates to be in the low 2% range.

So this can turn you off to many popular payment gateways but never fear. PayPal is a quick and easy way to manage your payments. You will need to setup a virtual terminal so you can transact payments without requiring your guests to log into a PayPal account or enter data manually. We’ve also partnered with other providers to help reduce or even waive setup fees and reduce or even eliminate contracts. Give us a call or email to learn more.

Let’s face it, online payments are the next big (or should we say bid) thing so it’s a good idea to jump on board now.

Enter ClickBid. Traditionally, silent auctions are a way to entice guests to spend money on valuable donated items to raise money for an organization. While ClickBid maintains that basic premise, it adds that personal assistant to your organization. ClickBid gathers donor information, bidding data, bidding trends and checkout information into a single place where you can view it at your leisure. You don’t have to manually collect bidding information, tally results and so on just to find out what items were hot and what items you should avoid next year. Let’s face it, if you have to spend valuable time after your event building spreadsheets on bidding activity it most likely won’t get done. There’s endless other responsibilities to handle. But ClickBid does this for you – just like your own personal assistant. So now, it actually gets done and all you have to do is browse through the reports.

So, in the end, ClickBid brings you information that you’ve never had time to gather before. You’ll know that the office chair you got from the office supply store had 15 bids so you’d better try and get 2 next year. Bidding was really slow for the first hour of your auction so it would be wise to get your MC to talk up your items early. And most of your guests checked out within 15 minutes of the event closing so perhaps you should set up more staggered closing times to even that out. Really, ClickBid doesn’t just prove it’s value by increasing bidding amounts, it also adds another staff member to help you make wise decisions in the future. Web 2.0, delivered.

First, it’s our experience that non-profits have gotten quite comfortable with card swipers and phone lines at events. This is a great solution because it allows guests to first checkout and get their item receipts through ClickBid and then, if they are paying with credit card move on to a designated volunteer who processes the cards. When we have seen this work, it seems to make guests happy knowing that a single person or two are handling all the credit cards instead of potentially numerous volunteers. We say, if that works and has worked then there’s no sense in changing it.

Second, we prefer to run any transaction whether it be online or via phone jack, through your organization. That is to say that we would use your PayPal account or Authorize.net account. ClickBid doesn’t handle any money transactions similar to what other companies like PayPal and Square.com do (acting like a bank account that you can withdraw from after the event). We prefer this because ClickBid is a for profit organization and our transaction fees will always be higher than what you can get as a registered 501(c)(3). Secondly, your money is better by established payment systems like PayPal, Authorize.net or PayLeap.

For our customers who do prefer that one-stop checkout, we can make the process smooth and accurate by helping you setup your merchant account, testing it and using it for your event.