The Rotary Club of Cadiz, Kentucky is a non-profit organization committed to providing funding for the community’s youth and Senior Citizens of Trigg County through its annual fundraiser “Rally for Rotary”.
This is no ordinary Rotary Club however. The organization, located in a county of 13,000 residents, hosts the single largest fundraising event per capita of any Rotary Club in the World.
Each year since 1967, The Cadiz Rotary Club, in partnership with local radio station group, The Edge Media Group (WKDZ radio), broadcasts a week-long auction, with local businesses and organizations donating hundreds of different items. These items run the gamut, from baked pies to tractors. With the help from the Rotary Club manning the phones for the week-long event and the radio station providing live programming highlighting items for auction, this proved to be a well-oiled fundraiser year in and year out.
Then life took a drastic turn in 2020. The pandemic shut down life as we know it including the world- famous Cadiz Rotary Auction. This is when Beth Mann, The Edge Media Group owner and active Rotarian, came up with a brilliant idea. She wondered if her Loyal Listener Big Deals e-commerce platform could host the auction, allowing the auction to live online during a time when in-person fundraising was impossible.
After a brief conversation with the owner of Big Deals Media, she had the green light to move everything online, and Big Deals offered her the platform for the entire duration of the auction free of charge. It was a great success; the 2020 Cadiz Rotary Auction raised $221,000.
The 2021 Rotary auction faced the same challenges as 2020, and once again Big Deals offered its e-commerce/auction software free of charge. The 2021 fundraiser was even more successful, raising over $320,000.
Mann graciously credited Big Deals Media with the ease of pulling off such a monumental event, “I just can’t thank Big Deals Media enough for their hard work. They had someone on standby the entire week to help us with any possible scenario. They even created new reports for us to make it easier for us to see what was being sold each hour. They are terrific partners!”
Big Deals Media provides an online e-commerce and auction platform for media companies, allowing for safe and secure gift certificate marketing programs. To learn more, contact Big Deals Media at 952.243.2678.