Last month, Charitybuzz and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights launched the 8th Annual RFK Center Spring Online Auction, featuring the chance to join Apple CEO Tim Cook for lunch at Apple’s Cupertino, CA headquarters.
After a frenzied three weeks of bidding, the auction to meet Tim Cook will close on Tuesday, May 13, at 2:00 PM EST at www.Charitybuzz.com/TimCook.
Currently, the high bid on the Cook experience is $180,000 with twenty-seven bids placed since the auction launched on April 24. This is the second time one-on-one access to Cook has been offered on the auction block. Last year, Cook offered a 30-minute coffee meeting which resulted in more than eighty-five bids and $610,000 to the RFK Center. Charitybuzz anticipates this second auction with Cook will join the prestigious list of top 10 highest grossing auction lots since the company’s inception in 2005, alongside Bill Clinton, Bono and other remarkable luminaries and brands.
Although the Tim Cook auction close time is currently set at 2:00 PM EST, Charitybuzz uses a feature called “extended bidding” for its online auctions to replicate a live auction process. If a registered bidder places a bid during the last 10 minutes of the auction, the auction close time will automatically extend by 10 minutes to give competing bidders a chance to place their bids. Charitybuzz has seen extended bidding continue for up to an hour or more past the official close time for high-profile auction lots in the past.
Cook joins hundreds of cultural icons offering intimate experiences to support the RFK Center, including Judd Apatow, Jenna Bush Hager, Mindy Kaling, Cyndi Lauper, Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, Allison Williams, Sally Field, Ben Bernanke and many more. All 128 auction items to benefit the Center can be found at www.Charitybuzz.com/RFK.
Last year’s auction experience with Tim Cook still holds the record for Charitybuzz’s highest grossing auction along with a 2013 Lamborghini Aventador Roadster, which was auctioned in March 2013 to benefit One Drop also for $610,000.
“Tech stars have become the new rock stars of the digital age,” Coppy Holzman, founder and CEO of Charitybuzz, told Mashable. “It’s a sign of the times that nothing is in higher demand than access to industry titans like Tim Cook. In fact, the power meeting with Cook last year brought in more money for the RFK Center than experiences with some of Hollywood’s A-list celebrities.”
