With the current economic troubles it is clear that one of the sectors which is most suffering is that pertaining to charities. These organisations are generally hard pressed for funds at the best of times but their situation has been worsened by the fact that people all round the world are having to tighten their purse strings and cut back wherever they can. Donate now in any charity to avail a low tax deduction.
A couple of examples of this are the disappointing UK charity cards sales in 2010 and the drop off in interest in charity challenges such as foreign treks and bike rides. There two fund raisers are generally considered as being among the industry’s bankers, and the fall in revenue from them is making charity workers turn to other sources of funding in an attempt to boost their coffers.
One of the ways of raising cash for good causes which is receiving a lot of interest right now is that of charity online auctions. At first sight this method of getting donors back on board seems to tick all the boxes for a recession proof fundraising method, so let’s have a look at it in more detail.
For a start, one the first rules of an economic downturn is that you can’t expect people to give over good money with nothing in return. As much as someone wants to help out their favourite charity their good intentions are, more often than not, over ridden by the cash shortage which so many of us are feeling right now.
Charity online auctions are a great way to avoid this “something for nothing” trap, because the donors only part with their cash if they win the auction and get the lot they want. If they fail to lodge the winning bid then, just like any auction, they leave it empty handed but without having spent anything.
Another positive point in favour of these charity auctions on the internet is that charities can offer people something which they really want. Rather than trying to make money off things which kind hearted souls only buy to make a gesture they can actually put up for auction top quality goods, restaurant trips and hotel stays which genuinely stir up some interest in the public.
Because these charity online auctions benefit both the charity and the sponsoring business they also give the chance to build stronger links with the local business community. Many firms are now waking up to the fact that the commercial benefits of exposing their firm on this kind of charity auction far outweigh the relatively low costs of coming up with the goods which are to be auctioned off. The feeling of getting something back in return for their good work therefore extends to both the eventual donor and also to the business making the original donation.
Finally, the work on the internet auction site is carried out purely on a commission basis by programming experts, meaning that the charitable firm knows up front that they run absolutely no risk of losing any money during the event.