Fund-raiser for schools moves online

Worried about dwindling proceeds from its benefit events, the Community School Association decided to put a portion of the auction online, opening bids to anyone with Internet access. People who had never heard of Sherborn participated, hoping to get deals on sports tickets and weekend getaways. And that meant Sherborn parents felt a bit less pressure to contribute.

“It makes our parents feel better because they don’t feel as pickpocketed,’’ said Monica Pucci, a Sherborn parent who ran the online auction. “It was great to feel like we were taking a little pressure off our parents.’’

As economic woes facing local businesses and parents have sifted down to the smallest of school fund-raisers, volunteers are looking for new ways to bring in money. Some, like Sherborn, are turning to online auctions through such companies as cMarket Inc., a Cambridge-based business that helps nonprofits raise money online, partly by drawing outside bidders looking to support a good cause as they get a deal. The company charges a commission, starting at 9 percent, on the money raised by the event.

Jonathan Carson, chairman and chief executive of cMarket, said schools that have traditionally held auctions are struggling to raise as much money as they have in past years.

“If you think about today’s economy, it’s pretty unlikely that you’re going to do as well as last year, unless you do something differently,’’ he said.

According to Carson, cMarket has about 130,000 users, many affluent, female baby boomers. These bidders place between 15 and 30 percent of the bids in a given auction.

Carson also said research shows online auctions, rather than traditional silent auctions hosted by schools and other nonprofit groups, maximize behavior that leads to higher bids.

“If Sotheby’s was trying to auction off an expensive piece of art, they wouldn’t do it in the middle of a party,’’ he said. “You have to fight the crowd, you have the social distractions.’’

Pucci’s motto for the Sherborn auction, which raises money for things not covered in the school district’s budget, such as arts, science, and enrichment programs, was, “We’re not going deep, we’re going wide.’’

Last spring’s auction in Sherborn, including both the online bidding and a live event, raised about $111,000. That was about $6,000 less than the group’s previous auction in 2007, when the economy was still strong. But given the dramatically different economic climate, parents were happy to raise as much money as they did. Pucci credits the online auction, which brought in more than $40,000, for keeping profits relatively close to the prior year.

Moving part of the auction online and bringing in bidders outside Sherborn did not diffuse community spirit for the school, Pucci said.

“No, I think it actually brought our community together,’’ she said. “The fact that we were tapping other communities to support our community made people here feel like their own economic issues were being appreciated.’’

In past years at Pine Hill Elementary School, the auction was a single, live event. This year’s online auction, in which bidders could preview some items held in reserve for the live auction, helped build enthusiasm for bidding that night, Pucci said.

Pine Hill wasn’t the only school to take advantage of an online auction.

At Newton’s Mason-Rice Elementary School, parents raised about $27,000 through their auction, about $6,000 more than at the live auction in previous years, said Jordana Alford, former president of the school’s PTO.

As in Sherborn, parents still wanted a live auction, so organizers held some items until that night. But they reached more bidders online in the weeks before, people who might never have shown up for the live auction, Alford said.

“You make a lot more money because if you don’t do it online, you have a one-night event,’’ she said. “Everything you’re going to make from that event is based on who’s at that event.’’

Kathleen Burge can be reached at kburge@globe.com