Phone-first, app-free, account-free. Set it up in 30 minutes, share the link, watch bids roll in. The platform behind 130,500+ causes since 2008.
"Almost double last year." — Sarah, PTA Pres.
The shift to online auction fundraisers is the single most important change in nonprofit event fundraising since the credit card. It expanded who can participate (grandma in Phoenix can bid on the same item as the parent at the gala table), it expanded what counts as an event (your auction can run for ten days, not just one evening), and it removed the venue cost that used to swallow 20% of a small gala's gross. For most small and mid-sized nonprofits, schools, churches, and community causes, online-first is now the default — and for the rest, hybrid (online auction + in-person closing party) increasingly outperforms either pure format.
32auctions was built for the online-first model from the start. Since 2008, organizers have used the platform to run 130,500+ online auctions across schools, churches, nonprofits, sports teams, and families. The model is the same whether your auction runs for two hours or two weeks: build the page, share the link, watch bids in real time, collect the money when it ends.
This page covers what an online auction fundraiser actually requires from a platform, the features that drive engagement through longer auction windows, transparent pricing, how 32auctions compares to alternatives like Handbid and OneCause, and the answers to the questions organizers ask before they go online-first.
Every painful step of a silent auction, rebuilt for how organizers actually run them.
Paper bid sheets. Midnight recounts. The runner who lost the form.
Every bid lands on every device in real time. Auto-bidding, outbid alerts, and a live leaderboard drive the final-minute frenzy. Final totals reconcile themselves the second the auction closes.
Praying donors show up. Praying they brought a checkbook.
Your custom URL is the only thing donors need. No app, no account, no friction. Outbid texts and emails keep them in the auction until the final minute.
Chasing winners for payment for the next three weeks.
When your auction closes, every winner gets their invoice. Most pay by card within an hour through your own Stripe or PayPal account — we never sit in the middle of your money.
Not a kitchen-sink feature list. The capabilities that consistently separate auctions that work from auctions that flop.
The biggest difference between online auctions that work and ones that flop is the friction between intent and bid placement. Every app install, account creation form, or email verification step costs you donations. 32auctions strips all of it. Donors tap your custom URL, browse items, bid in two taps. The first time they actually need to give us anything is when they're winning a bid — then we ask for name, email, and (optionally) phone for outbid texts. Nothing more, ever.
Online auctions typically run 5-10 days, which means engagement decay in the middle is the failure mode that hurts revenue most. Auto-bidding lets committed donors set a max and walk away (no abandoned bids when the donor stops checking). Outbid notifications by email (free) and text (upgrade) pull casual bidders back at the moment they're most likely to act. The live leaderboard creates urgency through the closing window. Extended bidding prevents bidding wars from being cut off arbitrarily by the clock.
While the auction is live, you see what's working and what isn't. Page views by day tells you whether your latest email landed. Active bidders shows engagement depth. The fundraising goal meter (configurable) shows progress against your target. Item performance data (Advanced Insights upgrade) identifies items that need promotion. If your second-most-valuable item has zero bids 48 hours from close, you can send a targeted promotion email focused on that item — that single move has saved many auctions' second-half momentum.
An online-only auction has to do extra work to feel like a real event, because there's no venue, no dinner, no speaker to anchor it. Strong branding helps — the Apply Your Brand upgrade (in the Most Popular package) lets you upload your logo, set custom colors that match your organization, add a custom banner image with your event name, reorder page sections to put the most important content first, and even point your own domain at the auction page. The result feels like an event, not a generic auction template.
When the auction closes, winners are auto-invoiced through your own Stripe or PayPal account (Online Payment Collection upgrade). Funds deposit directly into your account on whatever schedule Stripe or PayPal already runs. 32auctions adds a 2.9% + $0.40 transaction fee on top of Stripe or PayPal's own rate. You also have the option to pass that fee on to donors, which many organizations do — the donor can choose to cover it when paying, which protects your net.
Treasurer-ready CSV exports include winners, fair-market-values, winning bids, payment data, and reconciliation fields. Donor and sponsor exports separately. The Duplicate Auction feature copies the whole event for next year — items, photos, sponsor logos, branding — so you don't start from a blank page. Veteran organizers tell us this is the feature that keeps them on 32auctions year after year.
The end-to-end workflow most organizers follow on 32auctions, in the order they follow it.
Create your account. No credit card. Three minutes.
Name it. Pick start and end dates. Choose privacy settings.
Upload photos, write descriptions, set starting bids and bid increments. Import from a spreadsheet if you have one from last year.
Free base supports 20 items with house ads. The Most Popular package (about $170) removes ads, adds branding, expands items and images, unlocks text notifications.
Link your Stripe or PayPal account for automatic winner invoicing, or use self-managed payments at no 32auctions transaction fee.
Share your custom URL via email, text, social media, and printed materials. Auction goes live at your scheduled time.
Real-time insights, live leaderboard, automatic outbid notifications — the platform handles engagement automatically.
When the auction ends, winners are invoiced. Funds deposit. Export your treasurer reports. Send thank-yous.
The full pricing model, plainly stated. Use this to compare against any competitor — we publish ours; most of them require you to talk to sales to find theirs.
Free base auction (free forever): Up to 20 items, 1 image per item, custom auction URL, real-time mobile bidding, outbid email notifications, real-time auction insights, proxy/Buy Now bidding, basic donor and sponsor promotion, unlimited bidders, email support. Funded by house ads displayed on the auction page.
Optional upgrades, à la carte or as packages:
The Most Popular package — about $170 per event: The pre-built combination most organizers pick. Removes house ads, adds your branding, expands items and images, unlocks text notifications.
The Works package: All upgrades bundled, for organizers who want everything.
Transaction fees on payment collection: When you use the Online Payment Collection upgrade, 32auctions adds 2.9% + $0.40 per online payment, on top of whatever Stripe or PayPal charges. Or use self-managed payments (cash, check, your own processor) and pay no 32auctions transaction fee.
What we never charge: No annual contract. No commission on what you raise. No platform fee on donations. No minimums.
Honest, sourced comparison. Pricing changes — verify with each vendor before purchase.
| 32auctions | Handbid | OneCause | GiveSmart | Bloomerang Fundraising | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free (base auction) | From $1,396/yr | From $200 + 5% on funds raised | Custom (no public pricing) | Bundled with CRM (~$3K+/yr) |
| Pricing model | Pay per event (~$170 package) | Annual subscription | Subscription OR pay-as-you-go | Annual subscription | Annual subscription |
| Free tier? | Yes — base auction free forever | No | No | No | No |
| Bidder requires app? | No — web-based | Yes — native iOS/Android app | No — web-based | No — web-based | No — web-based |
| Bidder requires account? | No | Yes (in-app) | Yes (registration) | Yes (registration) | Yes |
| Transaction fee on online payments | 2.9% + $0.40 (32a) on top of Stripe/PayPal — OR $0 with self-managed payments | 3.5% + $0.30 per transaction | 5% pay-later on pay-as-you-go; varies by plan | Custom (sales-led) | 2.9% + $0.30 (standard processing) |
| Years in market | Since 2008 (17+ years) | Since 2010 | Since 2008 | Acquired by Community Brands | Auction tools via Qgiv acquisition |
| Best for | 1-4 events/yr, schools, churches, small/mid nonprofits | Mid-to-large nonprofits with annual gala budgets | Larger nonprofits running multiple events/yr | Large nonprofits, schools, associations | Existing Bloomerang CRM customers |
Pricing and feature data sourced from each vendor's public pricing pages and verified third-party listings on G2, Capterra, and GetApp (Nov 2025-Apr 2026). Pricing changes — always confirm current rates directly with vendors before purchase. 32auctions transaction fees apply only when using the Online Payment Collection upgrade; self-managed payments carry no 32auctions transaction fee.
Stories from preschool PTOs to verified G2 reviewers. The metric we care most about: did they use 32auctions again the next year?
So easy, so smooth, and so fun. Our preschool has used them for many, many years for the biggest fundraiser of our school year — and every year it just works. Entering items is simple. The presentation to our families is great. Wrapping it up is easy.
The site was easy to set up and worked like a charm for our first fundraiser. The remote bidding features were the best part — administrators could post items in minutes and see who'd bid on what in real time. We raised more than I projected.
No marketing-speak. Just the truth about how the platform actually works for online auction fundraiser.
How is an online auction fundraiser different from a Facebook fundraiser or GoFundMe?
Different mechanic entirely. Facebook fundraisers and GoFundMe ask donors to donate directly — they're optimized for sympathy giving against a single goal. An online auction fundraiser sells items (real or experiential) for the highest bid, which typically extracts more from each donor (because bidders pay what items are worth to them, often above retail) and engages a different psychology (competitive bidding vs charitable giving).
Can I require bidders to register or restrict who can bid?
Yes. The platform supports flexible privacy settings on every auction. Open auctions let anyone with the link bid. Restricted auctions limit access by email domain (useful for company internal auctions — only @yourcompany.com emails can bid). Approval-required auctions let the organizer manually approve each participant before they can bid. Pick whichever fits your event.
Does the platform handle international bidders or multiple currencies?
Multiple currencies are supported. International bidders can participate and bid, with the caveats that text notifications are only available in certain countries (full list in Help docs) and payment processing through Stripe/PayPal follows their international support. For most fundraisers, international bidders are a minor share of the audience, but the platform doesn't artificially exclude them.
How do I promote an online auction effectively?
Email is consistently the highest-converting channel — typically 5-10x social media for auction promotion. The cadence that works best: a launch email when the auction opens, a mid-auction email about specific items, a 24-hours-left email, and a final-hour email. Cross-post on social media but don't expect it to do the heavy lifting. Drop the URL in every group chat you have access to. If your organization has a physical presence (school, church, office), print the URL on physical materials.
What happens if the auction doesn't raise as much as I hoped?
The platform tracks everything that happened — page views, registered bidders, items with bids vs without, total raised. Use that data to diagnose. Common patterns: too few items got promoted (next time, individually promote the high-value items mid-auction), the email list was too small (next time, prioritize list-building before the event), or the timing was wrong (most successful close times are Sunday evening 7-9pm local). The platform is designed to make next year's auction better than this year's.
Is the platform secure for payment processing?
32auctions doesn't process or store payment card data — Stripe and PayPal do. Both are PCI-compliant out of the box, and they're the same payment processors used by most major e-commerce sites. We never see or store the donor's full payment information; it goes from the donor's browser directly to Stripe or PayPal's secure systems. This is the same security model used by virtually every modern online platform.
Can I run multiple online auctions at the same time?
Yes. You can run as many concurrent auctions as you want on a single account. Each auction has its own custom URL, its own branding settings, its own item list, its own start and end dates. Pricing is per-auction (so two simultaneous events with the Most Popular package would cost about $340 total in upgrades), but there's no penalty for running them in parallel.
Name it now. Set it up tonight. Share it tomorrow. Free base auction. No credit card. No commitment.