BiddingOwl

BiddingOwl has a massive footprint among extremely small charities and grassroots organizations due to its radically different pricing model. Almost every other auction software charges a massive upfront annual fee (often thousands of dollars). BiddingOwl is completely free to set up and host the auction; they only charge a flat 5% performance fee on the final winning bids. If a tiny local animal shelter wants to run a small, virtual online auction to raise $1,000, they cannot afford a $1,500 software license. BiddingOwl allows them to build a completely custom auction website, upload pictures of the donated items, and run the entire event with zero financial risk. If no one bids on the items, the charity owes BiddingOwl absolutely nothing. While it lacks the massive, complex seating-chart and CRM integrations of enterprise software like OneCause, its online auction interface is incredibly intuitive. It is heavily utilized for "month-long" virtual auctions, where a charity posts items online and allows their community to bid slowly over several weeks, driving traffic through Facebook and email newsletters.