TheBuzz Erika Engle

Aloha United Way turns to online auction to help raise funds

"We were at a national conference and the product was demonstrated and we just got really excited about it," said Susan Au Doyle, president and chief professional officer.

It will be the first time a Hawaii United Way has used an online auction to raise money. The auction will have more than 100 goodies, including dinners at Zippy's, a set of Korean dramas on DVD, a getaway to Universal Studios and Hilo Hattie donated "a special outfit-a-month for a year," Doyle said.

Setting the stage for the online event, AUW's parent organization, United Way of America, entered into an agreement with Massachusetts-based online auction services company cMarket Inc. a year ago.

"We have a big nationwide initiative to use technology in more ways than we have in the past," Doyle said. "The national folks found cMarket and decided to work with them."

CMarket's take is 9 percent of the net auction proceeds, for those who keep track of nonprofits' spending of money to make money.

United Way of Fresno in California was so happy with the results it has decided to do the auction more than once a year, said Shari Chang, AUW vice president of marketing.

Other items at the Hawaii auction will be artwork, tickets to the Brothers Cazimero May Day concert and car washes from donors including Hawaiian Airlines, Infiniti of Honolulu, ResortQuest and Honolulu Tan & Spa.

"We have lots of companies that we work with during the campaign and we asked them to kokua and they came forth," Doyle said.

The total value of items donated so far is $40,000, for which AUW hopes to raise $25,000.

The auction packages, creative and standard, inexpensive and fairly expensive, were rounded up by the marketing and campaign departments at AUW.

Donors can still contribute items for the March 21 to April 21 auction by contacting Chang at 543-2203.* Auction items can be viewed at www.auw.org and auw.cmarket.com beginning tomorrow.