The right nonprofit auction software ensures your fundraising event continues smoothly, from auction day logistics to registration to item tracking.
Here's a round-up of the top 9 silent auction software available. You can also check out our full guide to start a nonprofit silent auction to get things started.
9 Best Online Auctions Software For Nonprofits in 2024 (Free & Paid)
What is Nonprofit Auction Software?
Online auction software is a tool designed to manage and organize silent auctions. It seamlessly and efficiently handles item listing, ticketing, bidding, and the whole silent auction process.
When it comes to choosing the right online auction platform, there are some essential features that you should look for to bring your silent auction ideas to life.
1. Mobile Bidding
- Automatic Bid Updates: Automatically list each online auction item's current winning bid, the following minimum bid, the fair market value (FMV), and the buy-now price where necessary.
- Push Notifications: Inform bidders about being outbid. Most online auction software either provides in-app updates or sends them via text/email.
- Ability to Pay in-App: Simplify the payment process for your donors by ensuring your platform can save payment information and offer smooth check-out.
2. Event Ticketing Features
- Generate automatic tickets for multiple attendees
- Ability to customize the ticket
- Manage RSVP from silent auction guests
- Collect seating requests and guest names
- Track silent auction guest dietary restrictions
- Send automatic reminders to silent auction guests about the events
3. Check-out and Donations
- Secure Gateway: Regardless of your chosen software, ensure it uses a secure payment processing tool. Look for the payment card industry (PCI) compliance that ensures your donor's information is safe and your nonprofit reputation is intact.
- Multiple Payment Types: Give your bidders the option to pay using various methods, including credit card and Apple Pay, and mark them as “paid” if they want to pay by cash or check.
- Low Transaction Fees: Choose a platform that charges no or little transaction fees so that you receive a large proportion of your donations. Zeffy is a 100% free nonprofit tool that allows you to receive the total donation amount your guests submitted.
4. Item Procurement and Planning
- Generate donation solicitation letters
- Suggest items and unique experiences to include
- Helps to identify recurring sponsors and donors
- Track procurement status
- Log item location
- Bundle several items into packages
- Generate descriptions for items
- Group items by theme or category
- Customize starting bids and raises
5. Gamification Elements
If you're planning virtual and hybrid events, consider auction software with gamification features to make your experience more exciting and inclusive for virtual guests.
- Live leaderboards showing auction items with the most bids and fundraising progress thermometers are remarkable ways to build momentum.
- Scoreboards and countdown clocks are incredible ways to speed up the bidding by sparking a feeling of urgency.
Quick Comparison of 9 Best Silent Auction Software
1. Zeffy: Best Free Silent Auction Software for Nonprofits
- G2 Rating: 4.9
- Capterra Rating: 4.8
Zeffy’s silent auction software is a practical and straightforward tool with varied features to help you plan and manage your online auction from beginning to end.
Top Features
- Optimal Bidding Experience: Organizers can create comprehensive silent auction fundraisers that include key details.
- Automatic Payments: When the online auction closes, payments are automatically charged to the winning bidder's credit card on file.
- Customizable Branding: To achieve a professional and cohesive appearance, tailor your silent auction form to your nonprofit's brand elements.
- Automated Personalized Outreach: Customize the automated email sent to auction winners.
Bid Tracking Dashboard: Easily monitor incoming bids throughout the auction—filter by item to identify options with no bids and adjust your strategy to ensure a successful event.
Pros and Cons
Pricing
100% free with no transaction or platform fee.
What Do the Users Say?
Zeffy surpasses other fee-free fundraising platforms, offering education on fundraising and a comprehensive donation dashboard for events and auctions. After nine years of using a different online payment site for our successful nonprofit, we discovered Zeffy could have saved us five digits annually. Despite initial skepticism about changing donor trust, Zeffy was the best decision. - Kendra C.
2. Silent Auction Pro: Best Dedicated Software For Silent & Live Auctions
- G2 Rating: 4.9
- Capterra Rating: 4.8
Silent Auction Pro is a powerful auction software for successfully planning and executing live and silent auctions.
Top Features
- Outbid Texts: Bidders participating in silent auction fundraisers will receive automatic text outbid notifications throughout the email event, reminding them to bid again.
- Self-Check-Out: Winning bidders will receive an email receipt listing their winning items, which they can use to make payment and self-check-out at the end of the event.
- Display Sheets with QR Code: Create display sheets with a scannable QR code for the online auction site so bidders can view and bid right from their mobile devices in traditional auctions.
- Monitor Bids: Monitor the bidder names and the corresponding donations placed in real time at silent auctions.
Pros and Cons
Pricing
- Mobile Pro: $899 per year
- Mobile Plus: $749 per year
- Bidsheet Pro: $649 per year
- Bidsheet Plus: $499 per year
3. OneCause: Best Silent Auction Software For Large Nonprofits
- G2 Rating: 4.7
- Capterra Rating: 4.7
OneCause is a comprehensive event management tool particularly designed for large nonprofits. It helps with multiple donation campaigns, from silent auction to peer-to-peer and text-to-give.
Top Features
- Item and Package Management: Streamline item procurement by generating solicitation letters to sponsors, tracking the status of your items, logging each one's location, and bundling multiple items into packages.
- Gamification: Add some friendly competition to the bidding process to keep the energy level high and keep raising funds.
- Event Management: You can access a full suite of event management fundraising tools and features, including the ability to sell tickets, create a fundraising microsite, manage RSVPs, facilitate contactless check-in with QR codes, and more.
- Sponsor Management: Identify sponsors by their contribution with flexible logo grouping and resizing. It can easily track all in-kind and paid sponsorships as you increase fundraising revenue.
Pros and Cons
Pricing
OneCause offers various packages, such as Enterprise, Professional, and Essentials, with different features and fundraising tools to meet your unique silent auction event needs.
4. Givebutter: Best Easy-to-Use Silent Auction Software for Nonprofit Organizations
- G2 Rating: 4.7
- Capterra Rating: 4.8
Streamline your silent auction online with Givebutter's modern, donor-friendly design and user-friendly interface. It makes it easy for bidders to place bids, receive bid notifications, and check out from their mobile devices—no additional mobile bidding app download is required.
Top Features
- Silent Auction Item Categories: To improve the bidding experience for nonprofit auctions, group items into specific categories with custom names, descriptions, display orders, and shareable URLs.
- Luxury Travel Packages: Add high-value travel packages and concierge services to silent auction events from the dashboard.
- Automated Bidding: Allow guests to set their maximum bid amount, which ensures automated bidding in customizable bid increments up to their specified limit.
- QR Codes Bidding Sheets: Generate free, printable QR codes for traditional paper bid sheets, which guests can scan and bid at charity auctions.
Pros and Cons
Pricing
All features are free but with optional tips that the platform receives from donors. The platform has a processing fee of around 2.9% + 30¢, usually covered by 95% of donors. For users who choose to disable optional donor tips, a standard platform fee of 5% applies.
5. Clickbid: Best Silent Auction Software For a Virtual Fundraising Event
- G2 Rating: 4.7
- Capterra Rating: 4.7
Specializing in mobile bidding, Clickbid is ideally suited to organize and execute virtual auctions. It offers custom landing pages to centralize ticket sales, auction catalogs, registration, and donations in one place.
Top Features
- Text-to-Register: Choose a keyword and then ask guests to text the word to register for the event.
- Secure Payment Processor: Uses best-in-class payment processor Stripe to offer peace of mind to bidders and nonprofits regarding donations.
- Mobile Bidding Software Solution: Simplifies silent auction management by instantly determining winning bids and check-out totals.
- Mass Messaging: Using mass messaging, you can simultaneously remind winners to make payments, ask donors to add payment information, or send an update about fundraising events to guests.
Pros and Cons
Pricing
- Essentials: $759/per year
- Enhanced: $1,295/per year
- Full Suite: $2,295/per year
6. SchoolAuction.Net: Best Auction Software Designed For Schools
- G2 Rating: 4.6
- Capterra Rating: 4.7
SchoolAcution.net is a silent auction for nonprofits, primarily for schools. It has been in the fundraising space for a long time and is well-respected and deemed trustworthy in the charity auction industry.
Top Features
- Unique Event Sites: Create a separate event site for each event with unique themes, settings, teams, and reporting.
- Great Support: Getting started with auctions is easy with embedded tips, illustrated videos, and articles. The support team is available for prompt, personal support anytime.
- Hybrid And Virtual Live Auctions: Bring live streaming, bidding, and chat together in one place to enable supporters to participate in the silent auction from anywhere – at the gala or at home.
- Mobile Bidding: At-home bidders and guests can use their mobile devices to bid and receive outbid messages via email/text.
Pros and Cons
Pricing
- Acorn: $79/per event
- Essentials: $1000/per year
- Plus: $1500/per year
- Professional: $2000/per year
7. BiddingOwl: Best For In-Person Auctions
- G2 Rating: 4.7
- Capterra Rating: 4.8
Run small, in-person auctions with bidding sheets for free on BiddingOwl. It offers remarkable customer support and a full-service management platform to ensure your traditional charity auction event operates smoothly.
Top Features
- Ticket Sales: This feature makes generating and selling tickets for events easy.
- Instant Notifications: This feature ensures that bidders and donors receive instant text or email notifications when they're outbid or win a silent auction item.
- Proxy Bid: Sets a proxy bid that enables the system to bid on the donor's behalf up to the amount they set as max bid.
- Multiple Payment Options: Donors can pay with all major credit cards (PayPal or Stripe) or pay directly via cash or check outside the system.
Pros and Cons
Pricing
- Online auctions: 5% from winning bids
- Tickets and fund-a-need: Free
- More support and fundraising tools: Free
8. Bloomerang: Best For Volunteer and Donor Management
- G2 Rating: 4.7
- Capterra Rating: 4.7
A successful silent auction relies on donors and volunteers. With Bloomerang, you can manage your constituent ecosystem, including donors, sponsors, volunteers, grantees, and more.
Top Features
- Donor Management: Monitor campaign success, important donor data, donor retention rate, donor engagement, and incoming donations all in one solution.
- Event Planning: Fundraising tools to plan fundraising events, including registration, ticketing, and attendance tracking.
- Mobile Capabilities: Use Bloomerang's mobile donation app to instantly update donors' profiles and securely process credit card and cash payments.
- Marketing & Engagement: Built-in email marketing tools to share personalized emails, letters, surveys, and acknowledgments to build relationships with donors that last.
Pros and Cons
Pricing
- Starts at $83/per month under $250K funds raised yearly.
- Starts at $125 over $250K funds raised each year.
9. Classy Live: Best Auction Software for Mobile Bidding
- G2 Rating: 4.4
- Capterra Rating: 4.3
Whether in-person, live, or hybrid, organize your charity auctions successfully with Classy Live.
With its mobile bidding solution, guests can watch and bid on items from anywhere, receive updates on bidding items, and receive detailed email receipts for self-checkout.
Top Features
- Bidding Notifications: Send automated push notifications related to outbids to encourage participants to bid more.
- Feature Items: This tag will highlight popular or big-ticket items that will grab the guest's attention and direct more funds toward your cause.
- Item Sheets: Print out custom sheets for individual silent charity auction items, each with a unique QR code for in-person events.
- Multiple Payments: Allow attendees to pay with check, cash, or credit cards and complete their donation with a self-checkout experience.
Pros and Cons
Pricing
Classy Live has not disclosed its price, so you have to contact them.
Leading With a Strong Online Auction Platform
Whether you're planning to host an in-person silent auction or a completely virtual one, Zeffy's 100% free auction software can help nonprofits minimize workload and create one-of-a-kind charity auctions!
Frequently Asked Questions: Silent Charity Auctions
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