Hello Everyone -
Goodbye, June. Big plans for July 4th?
To the task at hand.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Charitybuzz CEO, Ben Erwin. CharityBuzz is an asynchronous online auction marketplace that allows charities to auction off items or experiences which directly benefit a charity’s beneficiaries.
Traditionally, charities and causes run various fundraising efforts throughout the year — renting out a hotel ballroom for instance — as moments in time. Charitybuzz is allowing these same charities to unlock deeper value with their staff and board of directors to find opportunities throughout the year to raise money.
Check out this exclusive Alicia Keys concert experience which benefits Green Side Up Foundation. Green Side Up Foundation is an Asheville, NC-based non-profit organization providing support for local pediatric cancer patients. You’ll see on the auction listing that this experience was donated by a friend of the foundation.
Charitybuzz is using a for-profit model to drive maximum yield which directly benefits the beneficiaries of these charities and causes.
“Like go to the Oscars, hang out with this celebrity, go backstage to this concert, but’s only being offered to a room of 3, 4, 500 people which 5% are bidding. So you’ve got these opportunities that have global demand, global desire, but just in this really samll group. So why not bring those online, distribute them, more people that see them, if you target correctly, more people bid, more money raise. So that was really the impetus of CharityBuzz. But as we knew, the only way to really grow and scale the business was to create more of a platform or marketplace.” - Ben Erwin, CEO, CharityBuzz
Charitybuzz was founded in 2005 and was acquired by entrepreneur, Todd Wagner (founder, Broadcast.com) in 2016. At the time, Todd, Ben, and the team created the Charity Network as the parent company with CharityBuzz and Prizeo, an online giveaway platform, operating underneath. CharityBuzz has grown its marketplace to offer vertically integrated experiences and merchandise in addition to its curated auctions from outside charities and causes.
“…leading up to the Super Bowl, we know there’s, we could probably move upwards of a hundred different packages to have a really like a really fun, unique Super Bowl experience. But through our charity partners, we’re only able to secure 10. Well, we have to fill that void because it’s what our customer want and that’s our commitment to them. So we’re more and more going out and we’re putting together these experiences ourselves.”
Ben shared his perspective on driving innovation within the charity / cause fundraising sector, which starts with educating and removing any misconceptions about charity.
Ben and Charitybuzz are only adding incremental value to existing charity fundraising efforts.
“Let’s focus six months opposite your event. Let’s focus on opportunities you’re not going to include in your event that will do really do well on our platform. We got to understand your goals. Like everything that plays into your existing fundraising efforts. And then we just need to figure out where we fit into add incremental value. We’re not taking anything away from what you’re already doing. Keep doing that. What if we can find 20%, 50% more money over there?”
Links:
Watch the full conversation on YouTube
Ben Erwin's Linkedin Profile
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