TWO-WAY SMS TEXT BIDDING

The first and still only way to increase total auction bids per item by 370% using SMS text.

Starting in 2009, nonprofits and organizations across the U.S. began seeing extraordinary gains from their silent auctions and events, doubling their profits by thousands of dollars in the blink of an eye. What changed? It was the year that Qtego introduced Two-Way SMS Text Bidding.

This is the innovation that first put Qtego on the map, showing the fundraising world how text bidding and giving — not just text notifications — could drive up the total number of bids per item from 1.5 bids per item using bid sheets to 7 bids per item using Two-Way SMS Text Bidding! And as every fundraiser knows, more bids equal higher profits.

Spencer Zimmerman

VP of Operations

Spencer Zimmerman, Qtego’s VP of Operations, remembers being asked to lead the project 15 years ago. “At first, I thought it was a salesperson’s silly request, but it was fun as a tech guy,” he says.

Zimmerman showed up every day and did what he does best, building a technology that no one had built before, chasing answers through trial and error until he figured it out.

Then the true test came: Would Qtego Two-Way SMS Text Bidding help customers drive fundraising? Validation came quickly. Customers loved how they began multiplying their profits threefold or more.

Shawna Kolb was an early adopter. Now Qtego’s Regional Director of Fundraising Services, Kolb heard about Qtego’s Two-Way SMS Text Bidding in 2011 as a volunteer for her children’s school fundraisers. At the time, she was familiar with paper-and-pencil bid sheets that had to be collected and counted.

She knew there had to be a better, simpler way, so she advocated for her school to switch to Qtego. “I thought it was amazing! It didn’t take long to know it was the right move.” She believed in it so much that she joined the Qtego team.

“We can’t control how well an item will perform or what guests will do, but we can make it easier for our customers to raise money,” Kolb says.

Qtego is still the only provider of Two-Way SMS Text Bidding. When we began, it was a long shot, backed by a desire to upend organizations’ underestimated expectations of their fundraising efforts. Today, 15 years’ worth of Qtego auctions have proven its effectiveness.

Shawna Kolb

Regional Director of Fundraising Services

“We are so much more than a SaaS,” Zimmerman says. “I don’t want that as a company. Our software is the foundation, and our people and customers are out front. When our system works perfectly, people don’t even think about the technology.”