About bidding, sponsoring a room, where the money goes, and the project itself. If your question isn't here, write to us — we would rather answer it than have you guess.
It works the way eBay does. If you have ever bid there, you already know this.
You enter the most you would pay — your limit. The site then bids for you, going only as high as it must to keep you in front, and stopping at your limit. It never goes a rupee or a dollar over.
An example. Bidding is at $100 and you enter $180 as your limit. Later someone else enters $120 as theirs. Your limit is higher, so you stay in front automatically at $140 — one step above them. The lot closes there and you pay $140, not the $180 you entered.
If you would rather not think about limits at all, just enter the exact amount you want to bid. It then behaves like any ordinary auction.
No. Your limit is a ceiling, not a promise. It is the most you could ever be charged, and you will usually pay less. What you pay is one step above whatever the next person was willing to go.
The only thing a high limit does is stop you being quietly beaten while you are asleep.
Nothing at all. Only one person pays on each lot — the winner. Everyone else walks away owing zero. Being outbid costs you nothing, and there is no fee for taking part.
We email you the moment someone passes your limit, so you can decide whether to raise it.
Only if you win, and only after the lot closes. Nothing is charged while the auction is running — a bid is an offer, not a payment.
As the auction nears its close we ask leading bidders to put a card on file. It is not charged — it is saved, so that when the auction closes the winning bid is charged automatically and the item is yours, with no chasing afterwards.
Early in the auction you can bid without a card at all.
No password, no account to create. You enter your email, we send you a six-digit code, you type it back. That is the whole sign-in.
Your email is used to send your code, to tell you when you have been outbid, and to tell you if you win. Nothing else. Card details never touch our server — they go straight to Stripe.
The bid history shows initials and amounts, so people can see the lot is live. Your limit is never shown to anyone — only the price the bidding actually reached.
That the site raised someone's bid on their behalf, inside the limit they had already set. It is not a robot bidding against you — it is a person who told us their maximum in advance.
No. Any bid in the final two minutes pushes the closing time out by two more. The lot goes to whoever valued it most, not to whoever happened to be watching the clock.
We will email every winner after the close to arrange collection in Houston or delivery. If a collection event is held, you will hear about it first.
Seventeen spaces in the building, from the entrance to the computer lab.
You fund a specific, named space in the building — a bedroom, the computer lab, the kitchen, the entrance — rather than giving to a general pot. You can sponsor in your own name, your family's name, or in memory of someone.
Yes, in one place. Near the entrance of the home there will be a donor wall of engraved bricks and plates. Each reads "Recite Fatiha for …" followed by the name you choose: your family, or someone you have lost. Every child who walks in passes it.
Every room sponsor is on the wall, whether you took a whole room or one share, and so is anyone whose single gift is $3,000 or more. There are no plaques on the rooms themselves; each space is dedicated in the name of one of the Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) alone. You can also ask to be honoured privately, without a name. See the wall →
Most rooms are divided into shares. A bedroom, for example, is four shares. You can take one share, several, or the whole room, and the room is credited to everyone who contributed to it.
Yes — a six-month plan is available. It stops on its own after the sixth payment; there is nothing to remember to cancel.
Sold-out rooms show a waiting list. Plans change and shares occasionally come back, and if a space you wanted opens up we will contact you before it goes public.
SHARE International, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The Houston committee organizes and raises; it does not hold funds. Money goes from you to SHARE International and from there to the construction in Karachi, carried out by SHARE Pakistan Charity — a registered trust since 2011, PCP-certified and FBR-registered.
Donations to SHARE International are tax-deductible in the United States, and SHARE International issues the receipt.
Auction purchases are different. When you receive goods, only the amount you paid above the item's fair market value is deductible. If a banner's fair market value is $120 and you win it at $300, the deductible portion is $180. Each lot page states its fair market value so there is no guesswork.
Into the building: cement, steel, bricks, wiring, windows, doors, fans, paint, and the fitting out of the computer lab. The campaign page tracks progress milestone by milestone, and every release is tied to a stage of construction rather than a lump sum handed over up front.
Bank transfer, Zelle, PayPal and Venmo are all listed at the bottom of the campaign page. For Zelle, use info@sharefunds.org.
The questions that were put to SHARE Pakistan at the start of this campaign, and their answers.
Something more. Thirty boys will live here, but the building also holds the Multitech Center — a computer lab and skills workshop open to young people from across Jafar e Tayyar Society, a neighbourhood of more than 70,000.
The idea is that a child who leaves this home, or a neighbour who takes the evening class, leaves able to earn: computer and AI skills, design work for local businesses, freelancing, and a vocational skill. SHARE Pakistan's zero-markup LIFT loans and job-placement service then help graduates buy tools and find work. What will be taught →