Winning bids

One of the top prizes at a lively Internet auction last month was a week's vacation at Villa Coyaba, St. Croix. An opening bid of $775, by a woman named ''Kristin," jumped to $1,325 later in the auction, leveling a one-two punch that knocked out her chief competitor, ''NNCC."

Yet the winner wasn't ''Kristin," but the Massachusetts Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, which organized the event with assistance from cMarket, a Cambridge Internet company that specializes in auctions for charity.

It's the hottest tool in philanthropy: Internet auctions and fund-raisers.

Internet fund-raising garnered $2.6 billion of the $248 billion collected from all charitable giving last year, up from $1.1 billion in 2002, said Ted Hart president and chief executive of ePhilanthropyFoundation.org, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., that shows charities how to use the Internet to increase exposure and maximize fund-raising.

''The Internet for philanthropic purposes is now the fastest-growing segment in philanthropy today in the United States," Hart said. ''The tsunami was a broad based disaster that helped people understand how powerful a tool the Internet is. In the first couple of weeks after the tsunami, more donations were made online than by telephone or by mail."

Online auctions and other types of Internet-based giving began in a small way after Sept. 11, 2001, when people around the world started searching for faster ways to donate money. The effort gained strength last January after the tsunamis struck southern Asia, and US charities raised an estimated $350 million online.

In one online tsunami relief effort, ''Tonight Show host Jay Leno auctioned a Harley-Davidson on eBay for $800,000. The motorcycle was signed by more than 60 celebrities, including Jamie Foxx, Nicole Kidman, Matt LeBlanc, and Denzel Washington. Leno had auctioned a Harley-Davidson on eBay in 2001, raising more than $350,000 for the victims of Sept. 11. Among those who autographed that motorbike: John Travolta and Tom Cruise.

Founded in 2003, cMarket is among a handful of such ventures around the country, including eBay Giving Works, which collaborates with a site named MissionFish; BenefitAuctions.com; and Charity Folks, a New York company.

CMarket charges a fee of $695 and 9 percent of the revenue from each online auction it helps charities create. The fees are for training, access to a virtual consignment store, cMarketplace; and for the templates and behind-the-scenes support that allow nonprofits to run their own auction, send e-mails, monitor auction items, collect bids, set up an auction website, market the event, and securely process credit card transactions.

Participants log onto an auction page, register, and then scroll through a catalog of auction items before bidding. When they click the ''bid" button, the system automatically determines the minimum bid. The individual enters credit card information; the winning bid is charged to the card.

CMarket sets a $60,000 revenue cap on its 9 percent fee. So if a charity raises $100,000 online, cMarket will not charge for the last $40,000 raised, which means the maximum charge is $6,095. The cost of a banquet hall, catering, a bar, and music could be $10,000 or more, depending on the gathering's size.

''With the online auction, the nonprofit might choose to do printed materials, but most promotions take place online," said Lisa Stapleton, senior vice president of marketing at cMarket. ''Costs are minimal."

Greg McHale, cMarket founder and executive vice president, said the firm provides a Web service that has showed 700 charities how to set up 1,000 online auctions, raising more than $4.3 million.

People selling for charity on eBay, the country's largest online marketplace, have raised more than $45 million since 2000, said eBay spokesman Hani Durzy. Through Giving Works, eBay's fund-raising platform, users choose from 5,500 charities. EBay receives more than 50 million unique visitors monthly.

EBay sellers pay a listing fee of 25 cents to $4.80, depending on the item's value and a sliding scale fee, said Durzy. The company collects 5.25 percent of the first $25 earned, 2.75 of the next $975, and 1.5 percent of anything above $1,000. ''We allow people to choose what percentage of their proceeds will go to charity," he said. ''If they donate all the proceeds, then we will donate all of our fees from the sale."

Leah Kerkman, an assistant editor at the Chronicle of Philanthropy, said some nonprofits rely on eBay because it reaches so many people, while others prefer small firms that can design an online auction that uniquely suits their needs.

And some charities consider the online auction a marketing tool while others use it to reach donors who are far away. ''The online auction does not take as long as a gala to plan, and it's fun," said Kerkman.

At the auction sponsored by the Massachusetts Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, ''Kristin" and ''NNCC" were neck and neck, with ''Kristin" leading the online bids with an offer of $1,650. Between June 1, when the opening bid of $750 was noted, and July 20, more than 20 online bidders had vied for the getaway.

When Jane Lukoff, creative director of Siblime Affairs LLC, a Newton events planning firm, was hired to put together a gala for the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Boston last year, she used an online auction to publicize the event. Lukoff had only seven weeks to plan the gala.

''It created a powerful buzz and it helped the centers raise $100,000," she said.

Diane E. Lewis can be reached atdlewis@globe.com.