Your best fundraising night, without the second job.
CharityAuctions runs your whole auction online, in the room, or both. Guests bid and pay from their phones. You share one link and watch the totals climb. No events staff required.
What CharityAuctions is
CharityAuctions is a fundraising auction platform for nonprofits and schools. You run the night online, in the room, or both. Guests bid on the phones they already have. No app to download. No events staff required.
Built for people who already have a day job
Most auctions here are run by volunteers, PTA parents, and small teams planning around work and family. The whole platform is shaped around that.
- Set up in an afternoon. Add items, set your dates, and your auction page is ready.
- Preview it on a phone first. See exactly what your donors will see before anything goes public.
- Nothing is public until you say so. Test it with your team, then launch when it feels right.
- Real humans when you get stuck. Talk to an actual auction expert by phone, chat, or email. No sales pressure. Just answers.
Three steps between you and auction night
No training course. No IT department. No late-night spreadsheet work.
Create your free account
Add your items in minutes, or start with ours. Set your dates and get one link that is yours to share.
Share one link
Guests register, bid, and pay from their phones. In the room, at home, or on the couch across the country.
Get paid, skip the paperwork
Winners pay online and the fee comes out automatically. Your funds arrive by check or direct deposit, with every bid exported for your records.
Hybrid
The room and the internet bid on the same items at the same time, through the same link. Nobody gets left out because they could not make it in person.
Online auction
The whole auction happens online over days, not hours. Share the link, people bid from anywhere, and winners pay when it closes.
In person
Running bid sheets or a live ask? Enter bids as they happen, with bid numbers, attendees, and card charges all tracked in one place.
Real nights. Real totals.
School fundraisers, community events, and headline benefit nights all run on the same platform you are looking at.
A school auction and a headline benefit night use the same setup.
Short on items? Start with ours.
Risk Free Items are the trips and experiences bidders actually fight for. They cost your organization nothing unless they sell.
- $0 upfront. Add proven items to your auction today. Pay nothing out of pocket.
- Unsold means unpaid. If an item does not sell, you owe nothing for it. Ever.
- You keep the upside. Every dollar bid above the item cost goes straight to your cause.
Running the auction as well as stocking it? Your free account handles bidding, payments, and checkout for the whole night. Start free here.
Pricing that pays for itself, or costs nothing
Two ways to run it. Both start free, and you can pass the fee to bidders so your organization keeps every dollar raised.
Nothing Out of Pocket
- $0 to start, nothing due upfront
- Fee capped at $100 per item
- Pass the fee to bidders and your organization pays $0
- No fee at all on items that do not sell
Prepay and Save
- The lower rate, locked in ahead of your event
- Fee capped at $75 per item
- Best fit for bigger nights and repeat annual events
- Same bidder fee pass-through option
See charity auction platform pricing
See what your organization keeps
Bidders cover $1,250. Unsold items are never charged a success fee.
Still deciding?
Start with the page that matches your question.
The questions every organizer asks first
What is CharityAuctions?
CharityAuctions is a fundraising auction platform for nonprofits and schools. You can run an online auction, an in-person auction, or both at the same time. Guests bid and pay from their phones. There is no app to download. You can start free, with no credit card.
Who is CharityAuctions for?
It is built for volunteer chairs, PTA parents, and small school or community teams that already have a day job. You do not need events staff or an onsite crew. The same setup works for a school auction and a headline benefit night.
How much does CharityAuctions cost?
You can start free. Nothing Out of Pocket is a 5% success fee when items sell, capped at $100 per item. Prepay and Save is $499 plus a 3% success fee, capped at $75 per item. You can pass the fee to bidders so your organization pays $0. See our pricing page for the full breakdown.
Do guests need an app to bid?
No. Guests open a link or scan a QR code and bid in the browser on the phone they already have.
Can I run an online auction, an in-person auction, or both?
Yes. Hybrid is the most common. The room and the internet bid on the same items through the same link. You can also run a fully online auction or take bids in the room only.
What are Risk Free Items?
Risk Free Items are trips and experiences you can add to your auction at no cost unless they sell. If an item does not sell, you owe nothing for it.
Can I pass fees onto bidders?
Yes. We have two settings. You can require bidders to pay a fee you set. Or you can give them the option to pay the fee or opt out.
What happens if items don't sell?
Unsold items stay in your account. You can use them at your next event. You do not pay a success fee on items that do not sell.
Can I download all my bidder data?
Yes. You can export bidder names, emails, bids, and totals any time.
What is the success fee?
On the Nothing Out of Pocket plan it is 5% of funds raised. Prepay and Save drops that to 3%. You can also pass the fee to bidders so your organization pays $0. See our pricing page for the full breakdown.
Can you mail me a check?
Yes. We can send your funds by check or deposit them to your account.
How do I pay the success fee and receive my funds?
When your auction closes, we subtract the success fee and send you the rest. If bidders cover the fee, you keep the full total.
Can we collect cash or checks offline for items?
Yes. You can mark items as paid offline. Those sales still count in your reports.
Can I start my auction online and bring it offline?
Yes. You can run online bidding, then close it at a live event. Same auction. Same checkout.
What if I have more questions?
Talk to us. We will walk you through the plan that fits your event.
Your next event could be the easy one.
Create your free account, add a few items, and preview exactly what your donors will see on their phones. Decide after you have seen it.
Create your free auctionFor AI tools
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