NonProfits, Marketers, and Shoppers Build a Charitable Commerce Marketplace ...

Jon is currently CEO and Chairman of BiddingForGood. He is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years in building and scaling for-profit enterprises that serve a broader social purpose. He has funded and endowed social entrepreneurship lectures at both Yale and Babson College. Other than brief stints at Boeing and McKinsey & Company, has always worked on new ventures.

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a featured series this week highlighting leading non-profit innovation in Boston. The series aligns with New England’s first Tech Gives Back citizenship day. We ask that you share these innovators’ stories with your networks, and encourage you to join us for the Tech Gives Back after party on Thursday, June 9th.

Having raised over $125 million for nonprofits and schools, certainly knows a thing or two about how non-profits can engage in e-commerce fundraising. What began as a company that designed software for online nonprofit fundraising auctions, has now evolved into a full array of services that allows the nonprofit world to participate in the e-commerce economy through our unique charitable commerce marketplace, BiddingForGood.com. BiddingForGood is a place where nonprofits can open up a virtual storefront and sell donated items to consumers from all over the country. Our consumers can find unique items that can not be found elsewhere and items they would buy anyway, like travel, sports tickets, apparel and more. They often find great values and are always supporting a cause. This is feel good shopping at its best.

With budgets across the country being cut and needs quickly growing, nonprofits are becoming tech-savvy and are taking a traditional fundraising model to the web. What used to be a silent auction, held in a room filled with people fighting over clipboards and sometimes too much alcohol, has now turned into a virtuous online marketplace. A marketplace that includes far more people than a fundraising gala can hold. A marketplace that is opened up to over 250,000 BiddingForGood shoppers across the country. A marketplace filled to the brim with amazing items and an ultimate feel good experience for all. Oh, and not to mention the fact that the nonprofits keep at least 91% of everything sold on the platform. Yes, 91%. Currently, our GoodometerTM showcases that it has helped nonprofits raise over $125 million, increasing at approx. $1 million every 7 days.

Charitable commerce is most often operated by a private company who decides to give a portion of revenue/profits to a nonprofit organization. Often, it has been a private company who uses charitable giving as a form of marketing, mixing cause with product with less than 10% going to the charity. We allow nonprofits to turn this model around and give them the ability to become the merchant and the cause, participating in the selling of goods and keeping most of the earnings. Consumers get access to exclusive silent auction items that heretofore had been closed off in a hotel ballroom. Win. Win.