OneCause, Auctria, Handbid and GiveSmart: US auction platforms for a UK charity

I built a fundraising platform for UK charities myself, so I read other people’s pricing pages more closely than is probably healthy. I am not here to knock anyone, just to turn the lights on. Every figure below comes from each company’s own pages in October 2026, in the currency they show, and the question I am asking is narrow: what does a UK charity give up, or have to work around, with a platform built for the American market?

What is OneCause?

OneCause is a US fundraising platform for auctions, events, online giving and peer-to-peer campaigns. Its home page says it was founded in 2008, has raised over $8 billion, and has “joined forces with Bonterra”.

The event side covers mobile bidding, ticketing, event admin, virtual fundraising and golf events. Text2Give and donation forms sit alongside. It is a broad suite. The auction is one part of it.

The other three are similar in shape. Auctria sells an annual licence for auctions and events. Handbid sells auction software with what it calls concierge-level service. GiveSmart, part of Momentive Software, claims over $5.3 billion raised and covers events, auctions, ticketing and donor management.

How much does OneCause cost?

OneCause does not publish a price. Its pricing page lists three plans in October 2026: Professional, shown as “Pay As You Go” with a “Get Pricing” button, and Enterprise and Nationals, both by custom quote.

Payment processing is listed as included in all three, with no fee given. The separate OneCause Payments page offers card rates starting at 2.0%, with Stripe or Deluxe as the processor, and lists Venmo, ACH and donor-advised fund payments. Those last three are American payment methods that a British room will not use.

So the OneCause pricing question has to go to their sales team. Ask for the platform fee, the processing rate on UK cards, and whether either is a percentage of what you raise.

What does Auctria cost a UK charity?

Auctria is the only one of the four with a full public price list. Its pricing page sets an annual licence by how much you track through it each year:

The Auctria card fee is on top of the processor’s own fee. Setup help, Auctria Launch, starts at $499 per event, and extra texts are $25 per 1,000. The free plan caps each event at 250 guests, Emerald at 750. Licences run for 12 months and do not auto-renew.

On currency, the same page says prices are in US dollars for everyone outside Canada, and that the platform supports currencies “including USD, CAD, EUR, AUD & JPY”. Pounds are not in that list. That may only mean the list is short, but it is worth an email to Auctria: can you run the auction in GBP and settle into a UK bank account?

How does Handbid charge?

Handbid charges a licence fee rather than a cut of what you raise. Its pricing page says licences run for a term, “typically a year”, are quoted after a conversation, and renew automatically unless you give written notice.

Every licence includes unlimited items, guests and bidders, silent and live auctions and the paddle raise, and a live person on the phone during your event. Onsite staff are an optional extra.

The guest side is where the percentage sits. Card processing is 3.5% plus $0.30 on Visa and Mastercard, 3.95% plus $0.30 on American Express, and 1.5% on ACH. Handbid says organisations that prompt bidders to cover it see take rates “north of 80%”.

For comparison, Stripe’s published UK rate is 1.5% plus 20p on standard UK cards, with 2% more where currency conversion is needed. The Handbid page uses dollar signs throughout. Get the UK rate, in pounds, before you compare.

What does GiveSmart charge?

GiveSmart offers two plans and publishes no figure for either. Its plans page lists an Annual Fee Subscription, a fixed yearly fee with no per-transaction fees, and Pay-As-You-Go, “$0 to get started”, with a per-transaction percentage “disclosed at signup and in your agreement”.

Both plans include unlimited events, 24/7 customer support and an assigned client success manager. Supporters can be offered the chance to cover the transaction fee at checkout.

The annual plan is the one to ask about. A fixed annual fee is the only one of its options where the platform’s share stays put as your total climbs.

Do these platforms work in pounds?

Possibly, but none of the four says so on the pages I read in October 2026. OneCause, Handbid and GiveSmart show dollar signs and name no currency. Auctria names five currencies, and GBP is not one of them.

That matters for two reasons. If any payment is converted, Stripe’s UK pricing adds 2% for conversion. And from the stage, I want a London room thinking about the lot, not converting dollars in their heads while the bidding goes quiet.

Can a UK charity claim Gift Aid through OneCause or its rivals?

Not through anything I could find on their pages. None of the four mentions Gift Aid on the pricing, plan or payments pages I read, which is no surprise for software built for US tax rules.

On the auction itself, it rarely matters. HMRC treats a winning bid as a purchase, and only allows a split payment in narrow cases where the bidder knows the item’s retail price when they win.

On gifts, it matters a great deal. Gift Aid adds 25p per £1 from a UK taxpayer. Each claim needs a declaration with the donor’s full name, home address and a statement that they want Gift Aid to apply, and HMRC expects you to keep records for six years.

That is why the paddle raise, which I call the pledge, is the moment to get right. Ten lots in a room of two hundred means ten winners. The generosity is already in the room, and the pledge straight after the auction lets everyone else give. Because it is a gift, it carries Gift Aid. At the Jigsaw Trust gala, the auction raised £27,000 and the pledge after it raised £30,600, a total that belongs to their team as much as to me. If your platform cannot capture a declaration on the pledge, you are leaving a quarter of it unclaimed or chasing it on paper afterwards.

What else a UK charity has to work around

Fees that move with the total. GiveSmart’s Pay-As-You-Go percentage, Auctria’s card fee and Handbid’s guest processing all scale with what the room gives. OneCause’s Pay As You Go plan may too, so ask. Since 1 November 2025, the Fundraising Regulator’s Code has required platforms that take a fee to show donors how the fee is calculated and how much the charity receives, before they pay. Any vendor should be able to show you a checkout screen that does.

Donor data in the US. Your guests’ names, emails and home addresses will sit with a US provider. Under the UK-US data bridge, in force since 12 October 2023, a UK charity can send personal data to a US organisation that is certified and listed under the UK Extension. Check that before you upload a single guest list.

Support on a British Saturday night. OneCause’s support page offers live support Monday to Friday, alongside its onsite and virtual event teams. Handbid includes a live person during your event, and GiveSmart lists 24/7 support. Ask who will answer if bidding stalls at 10pm in London.

Where these platforms are stronger, I will say so. They have run US galas for years, they offer onsite event staff, and their suites reach well beyond the auction. If you run events in both countries, or need peer-to-peer campaigns at scale, that is a genuine advantage.

Where the Generosity Works platform fits

I built the Generosity Works platform for the British gala, so the gaps above are the ones it was designed around.

• Payments run through the charity’s own Stripe account and settle straight into it. The only deduction is Stripe’s standard rate.
• No percentage of what you raise, and no tip prompt.
• Gift Aid capture on the pledge, the HMRC split for auction lots, tiered pledges and regular giving.
• Live auction and silent auction bidding, ticketing, cards held from registration, and an offline event server for when the venue wifi gives up.

It is free when a charity books me as auctioneer and host, and my fee is the only money Generosity Works takes. The platform is not sold on its own; our pricing page explains why.

Do the sum before you sign

Whichever platform you choose, ask four things in writing: what you pay in pounds, whether any fee is a percentage, how Gift Aid declarations are captured, and where your donors’ data is held. Then apply the answers to the total you expect to raise, and write down what the charity keeps.

If you have a number to hit this year and want the platform, the plan and the night designed together for one fee agreed up front, book a discovery call. Let’s talk about your number.