There’s no end of pitches seeking money brought to you by the Internet. Some even may be legit.
In February, for example, the Chicago-based National PTA held an online silent auction that offered $56,000 worth of items from 170 donors that attracted bids from 1,400 people.
The ease of raising money online proved so alluring that the PTA plans to do it again this year, said Tom Nguyen, development and sponsorship manager for the group.
“I feel confident we’ll receive more donations and increased bidding from more participants in our next auction,” he said. “It was pretty easy to manage.”
The PTA was among the first not-for-profit organizations to try a service from cMarket, an Internet firm in Cambridge, Mass., that caters to charitable organizations.
“Our business model is based on eBay, but it’s modified to appeal to non-profit organizations,” said Gregory McHale, cMarket’s founder and executive vice president. “We take a percentage of what the organization makes, but we take it at the back end, so they don’t need to provide money upfront.”
The firm supplies templates intended to enable people with minimal computer skills to set up Web pages to display items offered for auction, said McHale. The software makes it easy to display logos and Web links to firms that sponsor the auction or donate items to be sold.
Organizations supply membership e-mail lists to alert people to the auction. In the PTA’s case, electronic alerts were sent by cMarket to some 40,000 people. Information about the event also was included in a PTA magazine with a circulation of 26,000, Nguyen said.
The venture started early this year and so far more than 150 organizations have used cMarket, said McHale.
About half use it as the PTA did to hold a virtual silent auction unassociated with any physical event, he said, while others use it to boost the response to traditional silent auctions held in conjunction with dinners, dances and other fund-raisers.
“The highest online bid serves as the opening bid for the auction,” he said. “It helps drive the bidding higher.”
Some organizations list donations online as they come in, holding a continuous auction, he said.
“This is really changing the way that charitable organizations think about fundraising,” McHale said.
Jailhouse law machines: Wall-mounted computers with shatterproof touch screens were on display this week at the American Corrections Association conference at Navy Pier.
The equipment was created by LexisNexis US and Touch Sonic Technologies to provide legal kiosks that can be installed in prisons and jails to give inmates access to laws and cases. Many courts mandate that prisoners have access to such material, said Bill Carter, a LexisNexis vice president, and electronic access is cheaper and easier than supplying a library of law books.
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The technology is intended to be easily used, even by people who’ve never used a computer, said Jack Long, a vice president with Touch Sonic.
“To compensate for inmates who are not computer literate and not familiar with legal research, the kiosk features a simple interface and a beginner set of menus,” he said.
Another aspect of the technology intended to appeal to prison operators, Long said, is that unlike legal libraries, the kiosks can be placed well within cell blocks, keeping inmates well secured as they look for legal means to spring themselves.