Tom Kelly

In 2007, Tom tried to help his mother run a fundraising auction for her organization. The software available at the time charged steep commission fees, offered little flexibility, and still left most of the actual work of the event, entering items, tracking bids, collecting payment, on a volunteer's plate the night of the auction. That gap became the starting point for CharityAuctions: a platform a first-time volunteer chair could set up herself, that guests could use from their own phones without downloading an app, and that did not take a heavy cut of every dollar raised.

Nearly two decades later, that starting point has not changed. CharityAuctions.com is the only platform where nonprofits can browse risk-free consignment items and run their entire auction in one place — no separate vendor, no extra logins. Tom still works directly with the nonprofit chairs, school volunteers, and PTO organizers who use the platform, and most product decisions still trace back to a conversation with someone running an actual event.

Alongside running CharityAuctions, Tom writes and speaks about nonprofit fundraising and growth:

• Author, Million Dollar Nonprofit — a book on building sustainable fundraising and growth for small and mid-size nonprofits.
• Host, The Million Dollar Nonprofit Podcast — conversations with nonprofit leaders about what actually moves the needle on fundraising.
• TEDx speaker — Tom spoke at TEDxColumbiana on building something you are proud of.

Every guide Tom writes for CharityAuctions draws on these conversations and on nearly two decades of watching what works and what doesn't in real nonprofit auctions.