Rally.org is an American social online fundraising platform for use by a wide range of individuals and organizations. It allows users to set up their own fundraising page, through which supporters can find information about their campaigns and make donations through Rally.org's proprietary

payment system A payment system is any system used to settle financial transactions through the transfer of monetary value. This includes the institutions, instruments, people, rules, procedures, standards, and technologies that make its exchange possible.Biago ...

. The platform is best known for its use by causes including the

Make A Wish Foundation The Make-A-Wish Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in the United States that helps fulfill the wishes of children with a critical illness between the ages of and 18 years old. Make-A-Wish was founded in 1980 and headquar ...

and

Jon Bon Jovi John Francis Bongiovi Jr. (born March 2, 1962), known professionally as Jon Bon Jovi, is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor. He is best known as the founder and frontman of the rock band Bon Jovi, which was formed in 1983. He ...

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...

relief effort, filmmakers including the director of '' Buzkashi Boys'', and political campaigns in the United States 2012 election cycle. In May 2012, Rally.org closed the largest

Series A round A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

ever raised online. The company was founded in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

, as Piryx, in 2009 by Tom Serres, Brian Upton, Jonas Lamis and Naveed Lalani.

Background

Rally.org is a free online social

fundraising Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

platform with a built-in proprietary

, which is used by individuals and organizations to raise money for their causes. The platform may be used for ongoing fundraising as well as for one-time initiatives. Rally.org can be used by organizations and individuals including charities, entrepreneurs, filmmakers, students, political campaigns, and social causes. Fundraisers can use the platform to create a page about their cause, which the site refers to as a "Rally", and collect money through the platform's payment-processing system. They can also share their story through content including photos, video and blog entries. Through a feature called Covers, Rally.org allows fundraisers to embed a link for donation into their videos and images. These can then be shared via social media, allowing fundraisers to promote their campaigns. Additionally, Rally.org's platform analyzes how users respond to individual posts and provides

data analytics Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data. It also entails applying data patterns toward effective decision-making. It ...

tools for fundraisers to analyze their campaigns' effectiveness. The proprietary payment system developed by Rally.org processes payments directly, rather than needing to use a third party payments platform such as PayPal or Amazon. Additionally, the system offers one-click payment functionality, which allows individuals donating through Rally.org to make multiple donations to different causes and campaigns without having to re-enter their payment information. Although the platform is free to use by fundraisers, the company takes 5.75 percent commission from each donation made through the site. This commission includes Rally.org's payments to credit card companies. Fundraisers do not need to meet a predetermined goal to receive their donations and are able to raise funds on an ongoing basis if they choose. In addition to the fundraising platform, Rally.org offers space within its San Francisco headquarters for rent at a subsidized rate to non-profits and socially conscious entrepreneurs. The incubator is called RallyPad, and includes mentorship and other benefits. The company also operates a similar

startup A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

incubator in Berlin. , the site had approximately 4.6 million total users, including donors, charitable causes and political campaigns. The company is based in San Francisco and is led by chief executive officer Jon Cole. It also has offices in New York City and Berlin, Germany and has approximately 23 employees.

History

Piryx

Tom Serres developing the precursor company, Piryx, in 2009 with co-founders Brian Upton Jonas Lamis and Naveed Lalani, originally as a platform to help political campaigns raise money online. According to Serres, the company's initial aim was to provide a service similar to

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...

, but customized for political fundraising. It was developed as a nonpartisan fundraising platform to be used by political candidates at all levels. The platform allowed donors to make payments directly to a campaign's bank account, and included an app that tracked donations and reported them to the

Federal Election Commission The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is an independent regulatory agency of the United States whose purpose is to enforce campaign finance law in United States federal elections. Created in 1974 through amendments to the Federal Election Cam ...

. It also included features that campaigns could use to set up a webpage or fundraising tool via a

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

group.

Relaunch and venture funding

In June 2011, the company announced that it was rebranding as Rally.org and widening the scope of its platform to a broad range of organizations and individuals, such as charities, filmmakers and students, in addition to political campaigns and candidates. Prior to the relaunch, the company moved its headquarters from Austin to San Francisco. In June 2012, the company announced that it had raised $7.9 million in its first Series A round of venture capital funding. The funding was raised online through

AngelList AngelList is a U.S. website for startups, angel investors, and job-seekers looking to work at startups. Founded in 2010, it started as an online introduction board for tech startups that needed seed funding. Since 2015, the site allows startup ...

and was the largest round of Series A venture capital ever raised online. Investors included

Greylock Partners Greylock Partners is one of the oldest venture capital firms, founded in 1965, with committed capital of over $3.5 billion under management. The firm focuses on early-stage companies in the consumer, enterprise software and infrastructure as wel ...

, Mike Maples of

Floodgate Fund Floodgate Fund is a venture capital firm based in the United States created by Mike Maples Jr. and Ann Miura-Ko. It was originally named ''Maples Investments,'' but was renamed ''Floodgate Fund'' in March 2010. It is focused on investments in tech ...

, Michael Birch,

Tim Ferriss Timothy Ferriss (born July 20, 1977) is an American entrepreneur, investor, author, podcaster, and lifestyle guru. He became well-known through his ''4-Hour'' self-help book series—including ''The 4-Hour Work Week'', ''The 4-Hour Body'', and '' ...

Eric Ries Eric Ries (born September 22, 1978) is an American entrepreneur, blogger, and author of ''The Lean Startup'', a book on the lean startup movement. He is also the author of ''The Startup Way'', a book on modern entrepreneurial management. Early l ...

and

Google Ventures GV is a venture capital investment arm of Alphabet Inc., founded by Bill Maris, that provides Seed investment, seed, Venture capital financing, venture, and Growth investing, growth stage funding to technology companies. Founded as Google Venture ...

. Investing in Rally.org was

Kevin Rose Kevin Rose is an American Internet entrepreneur who co-founded Revision3, Digg, Pownce, and Milk. He also served as production assistant and co-host at TechTV's ''The Screen Savers''. From 2012 to 2015, he was a venture partner at GV. Earl ...

's first investment as a partner at Google Ventures. Serres stated that the company would use the funding to scale the business, hire more engineers and expand into Europe. In 2012, during the U.S. presidential and congressional elections, the non-partisan platform was used by Governor Mitt Romney's presidential campaign in the general election as its only fundraising platform, as well as by Mayor

Julian Castro Julián Castro ( , ; born September 16, 1974) is an American lawyer and politician from San Antonio. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the youngest member of President Obama's cabinet, serving as the 16th United States Secretary of Hou ...

and Senator

Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann Warren ( née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the senior United States senator from Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party and regarded as a ...

. Rally.org was also the platform used for

’s hurricane relief campaign raising funds to rebuild New Jersey communities following

. The company announced the launch of its platform in Europe in February 2013. The global payment system will process transactions in 17 currencies, starting with donations in euros. It also established a new office and startup incubator in Berlin. Also in February 2013, Rally.org introduced a new feature called Covers, which allows fundraisers to add a video link or image about their cause to their donation form. The new Covers feature was used by film director Sam French to raise money for the two Afghan actors in his film '' Buzkashi Boys'' to attend the

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

Recognition

''Campaigns and Elections'' named Piryx in 2011 and Rally.org in 2012 as the "Best Online Fundraising Tool". Also in 2012, the magazine named Rally.org the "Most Innovative Product of the Year" and named Tom Serres one of its 2012 CampaignTech Innovators for creating Rally.org. In 2013, ''Forbes'' included Rally.org in its list of "America's Most Promising Companies".

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

Rally.org website
American fundraising websites Companies based in San Francisco