Our Story
Dauction started with a disappointing night at a fundraiser, not a business plan.
It was a warm, well-attended community event — the kind with real generosity in the room — built around a traditional silent auction. Item after item sold for a fraction of what it was worth. Everyone there clearly cared about the cause. The support was real. What was missing was a system that could turn that goodwill into the result the cause actually deserved.
That gap turned out to be a known problem, not just a bad night. Economists have studied charity auctions for two decades, and the finding is consistent: a traditional auction, where only the winning bid counts, quietly discourages generosity — every dollar a runner-up isn't willing to lose outright is a dollar the cause never sees. Formats where every contribution counts toward the cause regardless of who wins consistently raise more, because no one's generosity goes to waste.
That's not a new idea, and Dauction doesn't claim to have invented it — it's closer to what a raffle already gets right, dressed up as an auction. What was missing wasn't the economics. It was a way for an ordinary community club, school, or charity to actually run it — without an event, an auction house, or a research team. Just a link people can donate to.
There's a second part worth just as much attention. A platform like this doesn't only help a cause raise money — it gives local businesses a genuine reason to donate products and services, because a well-run campaign gives their contribution real visibility and promotion in return. Done well, it's a three-way win: the cause raises more, the donating business gets real exposure, and the community benefits from both.
Dauction exists to put a proven fundraising idea directly into the hands of the community organisations who need it most — the ones still running raffles off a spreadsheet and bid sheets on a clipboard — and help them raise more, with less admin, using tools that actually work.
Goeree, Maasland, Onderstal & Turner, "How (Not) to Raise Money," Journal of Political Economy, 2005.