It never ceases to amaze me about how technology is transforming the way we go about doing things in our daily lives. From the smart phones to applications we literally learn about some new advancement in technology that is going to change our life.
Many of us do everything we can to help out charities during the course of the year. This may be donating money or clothes to a local religious organization. Perhaps you give some money back to your alma mater or some other charity within your city that you feel to be worthy of a generous donation. Generally, during the course of the year I will attend four to six charity events filled with silent and live auction items to bid on during the evening. Before the normal 9:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. final call on the silent auction items, people will scurry around the piece of paper in front of the item they want to win trying to get in their last minute bid. It's been going on this way for many years at charity events.
On Saturday night I attended a charity event where I saw Bid Pal for the first time. Essentially, when you check into the event the staff checking you in will take your credit card (just swipe it) and your phone number. In exchange, they hand you a device that looks like a smart phone itself with Bid Pal labeled on the phone. The smart phone screen has six buttons which include item number, merchandise you have bid on, and even alerts when someone as outbid you on your item.
My first move during the charity event evening was to see how others liked this unique device. I could see people getting excited about the ease of clicking an item and putting in their bid feeling like they have already won before the auction ended. Bid Pal almost given you this gambling like effect since you don't ever have to put pen to paper or stick up a paddle when you are bidding on items. During the evening, I would simply click the item number button, type in the item number I wanted to bid on, and then the system would tell me the last bid. In an almost poker like way, the smart phone made me increase the original bid by $20 (or more) to be the leader for bidding on that item. Needless to say, I find myself bidding on more sports memorabilia than I'd like to every time I go to one of these charity events.
If your charity is trying to raise money at a larger or gala type event, perhaps Bid Pal (www.bidpalnetwork.com) could be right for your event to make it some fun. Technology is changing all of our lives and perhaps this technology can help your charity change the lives of others!
Written by:
Ted Jenkin, CFP®, AAMS®, AWMA®, CRPC®, CMFC®, CRPS®
Co-CEO and Founder of oXYGen Financial, Inc - The Leaders in Gen X & Y Financial Advice and Services
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