Run the auction.
Raise more.
Smart online auctions that engage supporters, raise more funds, and make fundraising easier for PTOs, museums, and nonprofits.
Everything your auction needs.
Built for volunteers, not IT departments — ready in under an hour.
Silent auction bidding
Bid from any phone — on the web or by text. No app, no download, just a link.
Max bids & reserves
Auto-bid up to a maximum. Reserve prices and Buy Now.
Fund-a-Need
Guests give from their phones, or you enter paddles raised in the room.
Your brand, every auction
Logo, colors, banner and sponsors by level.
Settlement & payments
Stripe, invoices, PDF receipts and refunds. Bidders can cover the card fees.
Live totals & reports
Goal pacing, busiest bidding hours, price vs. value, and every supporter's history across auctions.
Email + text blasts
Send now, or schedule around the start and end.
Card-on-file before bid
Card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. Winners pay without the chase.
Bid by text, too.
Once they've signed up and saved a card, bidders can text your number with an item number and an amount. CausIO places the bid, confirms it, and texts them back the moment they're outbid.
42 250Bid $250 on item 42INFO 42Current bid on item 42MYBIDSEverything you're winningCOMMANDSThe full list
- Outbid alerts arrive by text, with a short link straight back to the item.
- A texted bid works as a max bid: CausIO bids for them up to that amount. NOMAX 42 cancels it.
- Text or email every bidder, or just a group (outbid, no bids yet, winners), now or on a schedule: 30 minutes before close, at the start, or a set time.
- Opt-in at sign-up, a confirmation text, and STOP to opt out. Registered for US carrier delivery (10DLC).
Run the whole night.
Tickets, the door, the tables and the live auction, in the same place as your silent auction.
Tickets
Sell ticket types online with card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. Comp your guests and collect their names.
QR check-in
Guests show their code at the door. Walk-ins, name badges, and a card saved on the spot so nobody waits at checkout.
Tables and seating
Drag tables onto a floor plan, seat your guests, and email everyone their table. Print the seating chart and door list.
Live auction
A clerk page to record each winning paddle, a spotter view, and Live lot mode on the big screen.
Big-screen display
Live totals, Fund-a-Need progress, top items and fundraiser leaderboards on the projector.
Sponsorships
Sell sponsor packages with tickets included, collect logos online, or send an invoice and mark the check paid.
Fixed-price items
Wine pulls, T-shirts or drink tickets at a set price, with quantities and a buyers list.
Raffles
Ticket bundles and a random draw, where your state allows.
Giving, beyond the auction.
Not everyone wants to bid. Give them a way to give, with every gift counted in the same totals, reports and receipts.
- A Donate page for gifts without bidding, including gifts in honor or memory of someone.
- Monthly, quarterly or yearly gifts. Donors change the amount or the card, or stop, from their own link.
- Supporters start their own fundraising page, form teams, and climb the leaderboard. Invite ambassadors to lead the way.
- Matching gifts from a sponsor, and Donate to Vote, where every dollar is a vote.
- Text-to-give: supporters text a keyword and get a link to give.
- Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or bank account, and a year-end giving statement for every donor.
AI that drafts. You decide.
Less typing for volunteers. Nothing is saved or sent until someone on your team presses Save or Send.
A whole table of items, from photos
Drop in photos of every donated item at once. AI drafts a title, description and category for each, and they wait as drafts until you add them. Touch up any photo too: brighter light or a plain background, with the item itself left as it is. Need more items? AI writes the donation request letter or email to local businesses from your auction's details. Not sure what to charge? AI suggests a starting bid, increment and Buy Now price from what similar items sold for.
Messages to bidders
Drafts a reminder or last-call text from the live auction, with each bidder's name filled in at send.
Board-ready recaps
Turns your auction report into a short summary for the board or newsletter.
Help when you need it
Ask how to do anything in CausIO. The assistant answers and takes you to the right page.
Bidder names, emails and phone numbers are never sent to AI. Admins can turn AI off for the whole organization in Settings.
One platform. Three portals.
Everyone who touches your auction gets a view built for their job.
Organization Portal
Add items, brand your event, text your bidders, and watch results live — all from one dashboard.
Bidder Experience
Browse, favorite, and bid from any phone, on the web or by text. Set a max bid and let CausIO do the rest.
Giving Pages
Donate, buy tickets or a sponsorship, or start a fundraising page, all in your colors.
And the details that save a night.
Run it your way
- Open and close on a schedule, or by hand
- Soft close, pause and extend
- Every time shown in your time zone
- Several sessions in one event, like a golf day and a gala
- Save an auction as a template and start the next one from it
- Add your own pages to the bidder site, like a schedule or FAQ
Items made easy
- Import items from a spreadsheet or Excel file
- Edit many items at once, or step through them with Previous and Next
- Categories, photo crop, printable certificates
- Print a catalog with a Scan to bid code on every item
- Pick your own bid numbers
- Show fair market value only where you want
Before and after
- Duplicate last year's auction in one step
- Bring in your supporter list from a spreadsheet
- Reset a test run before the real thing
- Automatic payment reminders, then offer the item to the next bidder
- Refunds with a reason, from the invoice
- Export to QuickBooks and your donor CRM
- Reports on busiest bidding hours, each item, and price vs. value
Your team
- Owner, admin, manager and volunteer roles
- Passkeys and two-step sign-in, required for your team if you like
- Help on every page, plus a setup checklist
- Message templates for last call, outbid and thank-you
- Email alerts when an item sells or a payment comes in
- Chapters: see each chapter's totals in one place
- Connect other software with the CausIO API and webhooks
From sign-up to first bid, in four steps.
- 1
Add your items
Drop in your item photos and let AI draft the listings. Set starting bids, reserves and Buy Now.
- 2
Make it yours
Drop in your logo, colors, banner and sponsors so it feels like your event.
- 3
Invite bidders
Share the link or QR code. Guests sign in with a magic link, or just text a bid.
- 4
Get paid
Winners pay with the card on file. Invoices, receipts and settlement are handled.
Simple pricing.
Nonprofits pay as they go or once a year. Other organizations pick a monthly or yearly plan. Stripe processing fees apply.
Plus a $200 one-time entry fee. No monthly or yearly charge. 3,000 texts included per auction. Add AI Item Studio to an auction for $99.
One yearly price covers every auction you run that year, with AI Item Studio and 5,000 texts a month included. Ask us for a quote.
Plans for other organizations
A monthly or yearly plan, plus a platform fee on what you raise. Save 20% when you pay yearly.
- Unlimited items & bidders
- Web and text-to-bid
- Email and text messages, now or scheduled
- Stripe payments, invoices & receipts
- Live reports & insights
- 500 texts a month included
- 50 AI drafts and 100 help questions a month
- Everything in Starter, plus:
- Custom branding (logo, colors & banner)
- Sponsors with levels
- Priority email support
- Multiple team members
- AI Item Studio: drop in item photos, get drafted listings
- QuickBooks and donor CRM export
- 2,000 texts a month included
- 300 AI drafts and 500 help questions a month
- Everything in Pro, plus:
- Multiple auctions per year
- Dedicated account manager
- Phone & email support
- 6,000 texts a month included
- 3,000 AI drafts and 5,000 help questions a month
Coming soon.
What we're building next, shaped by the organizations running auctions on CausIO today.
- Catalog check before you go live
- Bidder page copy written for you
- Bid by text in plain words
- Answers to bidder questions
- Your own web address
- Bidder pages in Spanish
Run your best auction yet.
Nonprofits pay as they go, or once a year with no platform fee.