When Robin von Halle first opened her egg-donation agency, Alternative Reproductive Resources, 18 years ago, she was one of few. She knew of some businesses on the East and West Coasts, but says there were none even close to Chicago, the city she calls home.

But as infertility issues have come out of the closet, making egg donation a more socially acceptable option, von Halle has seen the industry explode. "Oh, my god! It's quadrupled," von Halle said.

In 1985, there were just 30 fertility clinics nationwide and only 260 babies were born. A decade later, the number of babies had jumped to more than 16,000. And in 2007, 430 clinics reported performing more than 140,000 cycles of artificial reproductive technology, or ART, which resulted in 57,564 babies.

Here’s another way to look at the popularity and reach of these fertility services: About 12 percent of women of childbearing age in the United States have used an infertility service, according to a December 2009 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While agency owners say first and foremost the joy of helping a family have a baby is the reason they are in the business, the money doesn't hurt. Nancy Block, who runs Center for Egg Options in Northbrook, Illinois, was an ob-gyn nurse for 17 years before she decided to open her own business. "I think there's a lot of people who do it for the money, and I can't say I wasn't intrigued," she said. "I knew how much agencies were getting to do this."

How well agencies like von Halle's and Block's do financially is difficult to determine. The vast majority are private businesses and don't disclose their financials. One owner also said that profit margins and costs for services can vary greatly from agency to agency and state to state.

On average, intended parents pay the agency a fee of around $5,000, in addition to medical and legal fees, as well as compensation for the donor. Every donation agency is set up differently, some have in-house people to handle legal contracts and psychology examinations, while others contract this work out. Most do not have doctors on staff, but have fertility clinics they work with and doctors they commonly refer patients to for the medical procedure. Regardless of how they are set up, they all have the same fundamental goal: to match prospective parents with their ideal donor. They end up serving as a go-between or a traffic cop of sorts, guiding both the donor and the prospective parents through the process.

It's not a hard industry to enter. Anyone can open an agency, a fact that makes John Weltman nervous. A commercial litigator for 15 years, Weltman opened the Boston-based Circle Surrogacy in 1995 after he had two sons using a surrogate.

Weltman thinks a background in a related field—like law, medicine, psychology, or social work—is an essential piece of owning an agency. And he says his experience going through the process didn't hurt either. "You can't just put up a shingle and say, 'Oh, I'm selling egg donors now,'" he said. "The notion that anyone could do this is terrible."

Agencies aren't the only way intended parents find donors. Most fertility clinics recruit their own donors as well. And some parents try to bypass clinics and agencies completely, opting instead to find donors using websites like Craigslist—something doctors and agency heads alike oppose. This trend represents a shift in the industry, Block said. "Ten years ago, parents were looking for the right agency, now they are just looking for the right donor—anywhere they can find it," she said.

Block saw an opening and created a companion business to her donation agency. Her Donor Network Alliance allows agencies to post prescreened donors into a nationwide database which prospective parents can peruse. Prospective parents can use the service for free, but agencies pay between $1,500 and $3,000 a year for a membership. Once they are members, they may list as many prospective donors as they wish. If they like a donor and want to move forward, parents must pay a $49 fee to find out which agency the donor is associated with. The database, which Block believes is the only one of its kind in the United States, currently contains more than 5,000 potential donors from 20 agencies nationwide.

For women considering donating eggs, there’s a significant financial benefit. The screening process is designed to weed out those women who are just in it for the money, but advertisements claiming to give a woman $10,000 (or more) for her time and the risks she takes on during the egg-donation process is a tempting offer. Since the recession hit, most agencies reported seeing an increase in interest. "Donors started flocking in," Block said. “It's just supply and demand. In the past we had fewer donors and more intended parents—now they have more to choose from and can be picky.”

Many prospective parents simply want a donor who is healthy and has certain features such as hair or eye color that blend well with their families. Others are a bit more selective and chase after those donors who fit a very specific appearance or ethnic requirement, or those who had high SAT scores or attend Ivy League schools. Donor agencies do the vast majority of their marketing on college campuses to find ideal candidates. According to a report in the March-April Hastings Center Report, of more than 100 advertisements placed in 63 college newspapers nationwide, 21 specified a minimum SAT score and half offered more than $5,000. One ad in particular sought a donor who was under 29 and had an SAT score of over 1,400. For this combo, the agency offered $35,000 in compensation.

But the American Society for Reproductive Medicine promotes guidelines that place $10,000 cap on egg donation, and higher offers give many agency owners pause. “Even if you pay your Ivy League donor $20,000, does it mean you are going to get pregnant?” Block asked. “Does it mean they are going to have those brains? Will your child be happy because 50 percent of them went to Yale or Harvard? In the end, you just want a healthy child.”

One repeat egg donor who spoke with Portfolio.com advised that women not use money as a motivation. "Sure, the money is great for college, but it is a lifelong decision," said Abbe E. "The actions I take right now will affect my future. It's not a decision you make today—it's a life-altering decision."

To read more about Abbe and her five cycles of egg donation, click here.