St. Thomas University

St. Thomas University

St. Thomas University asked supporters to "Bid for the Future"...and that's just what they did - helping to raise over $75,000 for the school.

With the success of their first auction in 2007, St. Thomas University returned to cMarket to run their second annual "Bid for the Future" online auction. Their goal was to raise more money for scholarships and forward their mission of "developing leaders for life". Once again, the university took charge of their online fundraising efforts by taking advantage of several features and services that cMarket offers, and ran another successful auction on the web.

In preparation for their 2008 auction, St. Thomas University promoted sponsorship opportunities on their catalog site. They sold 19 spots to national companies including American Airlines and Carnival Cruises, and to local businesses such as Miami-Dade County and Bank United. With sponsors in place, they began to build their catalog and solicit donations from their community. In 2007, they found success using cMarket's online donation capabilities and received several items directly through their auction site. They also featured more than 40 items from cMarket Place, our online consignment store to attract bidders and boost sales.

Apart from the consignment items and local contributions, St. Thomas University offered a category of "STU Cool Stuff" for their students, families and faculties to bid on. They presented the chance to "Be the Honorary Coach of the STU Basketball Team" and the opportunity to have a "Wine Tasting with Dean Al Garcia" from the law school. Over 35 bids were placed, and close to $2,000 raised from this creative school category.

Rounding out their auction efforts, St. Thomas U. opened their online catalog to a broader audience by opting into BiddingForGood.com, cMarket's web auction portal. They also used our email tool to promote their fundraiser and sent their constituents several email blasts about items and the auction's progress.

By combining what they learned from their first online auction in 2007 with the additional features and services that they employed in 2008, this is one university that was able to take full advantage of cMarket and successfully graduate to the next level of auction fundraising!