01
Federations and governing bodies
Regional and national sport organizations with seasonal fundraising built around competition calendars and athlete development cycles.
Performance Marketing
Built for the waysport powers a mission.
Rally & Cause is the first digital marketing agency built exclusively for nonprofit organizations powered by sport. Whether sport is the hook that draws people to a bigger mission in health, education, or inclusion, or the whole of what you do, we build the systems that grow your donors, your community, and the work.
Google Ads Management & CROSEO & Domain AuthorityEmail & Donor RetentionBrand & Website DevelopmentSocial Media Management & Content
The funding gap between for-profit marketing and nonprofit marketing is wider than most people realize.
- For-profit companies invest 7.7% to 9.4% of revenue in marketing.
- Among U.S. nonprofits that advertise, the median spends just 0.66% of total expenses on it.
The result is predictable: underfunded campaigns, inconsistent donor pipelines, and missions that don't reach the audiences they deserve.
Rally & Cause exists to close that gap. We're building a new standard for what digital marketing looks like for nonprofit organizations powered by sport - built around the calendar, the culture, and the way these missions actually grow.
Sources: Gartner 2025 CMO Spend Survey (7.7% of revenue, surveying 400+ CMOs at large enterprises). Deloitte/Duke CMO Survey 2025 (9.4% of revenue, surveying US companies of varied sizes). Whole Whale 2024 Nonprofit Advertising Benchmark Study with CauseIQ (median 0.66% of total expenses among nonprofits that advertise, from 7,000+ U.S. nonprofits studied). The for-profit figures measure total marketing as a share of revenue; the nonprofit figure measures advertising as a share of expenses, so the comparison is directional, not like-for-like.
Who we serve
Nonprofit organizations powered by sport.
Some are sports organizations. Others use sport as a vehicle for health, education, youth development, or inclusion. The common thread is that sport drives the mission, and we build around how that mission actually operates.
Swipe to see all five
01
Federations and governing bodies
Regional and national sport organizations with seasonal fundraising built around competition calendars and athlete development cycles.
02
Community and adaptive sport organizations
Youth athletics, adaptive sport, and recreation nonprofits that need sustainable donor systems and consistent community visibility year-round.
03
Athletic foundations and booster organizations
School and college athletic foundations with fundraising built around the academic and athletic calendar.
04
Athlete-led foundations and charities
Personal charitable foundations led by current and former athletes, with year-round donor relationships that compound between news cycles and appearances.
05
Sport-for-impact organizations
Nonprofits where sport is the engagement engine for a broader mission - health, education, youth development, social mobility, disability inclusion, or community building.
Your calendar
We build around your calendar, not ours.
Generic fundraising playbooks run January through December. Nonprofit organizations powered by sport don't. Your year is shaped by registration windows, competition seasons, championship weekends, and planning months that determine next year's roster and budget.
Pre-Season
Build your donor pipeline before the season creates momentum. Google Ads, SEO, and email sequences running before attention peaks.
In-Season
Amplify events, convert emotional moments, and turn spectators into supporters with paid media and content while attention is highest.
Post-Season
Lock in recurring giving, reactivate donors, and capture goodwill before it fades through targeted email and retention campaigns.
Off-Season
Build the sponsorship pipeline, strengthen your brand, and plan the infrastructure for next year's growth.
The sector trend
Donor counts have fallen every year since 2020.
Donor counts have declined for four straight years, down 4.5% in 2024 alone. Without a deliberate digital strategy, the trajectory continues. With one, it doesn't have to.
Donor count decline
-4.5%
2024, fourth straight annual decline
Retention rate (2024)
42.9%
Down from 43.6% in 2020
New donors lost
-7%
Year over year in 2024
Sector average (no strategy)With a managed system (example)
Sector line indexed to a 2020 baseline, illustrating the four consecutive years of donor-count decline reported by the Fundraising Effectiveness Project (Q4 2024 Report). The orange line is a directional example of what a managed donor acquisition system can produce, not a guarantee.
How we work
Engagements start with a conversation.
We don't take on work we haven't earned. Here's how it starts.
Step 01
Diagnostic call
We talk for 30 minutes about your organization, your season, and where you currently stand. No pitch deck. If there’s a fit, we move forward.
30 min, no commitment
Step 02
We get to work.
Every engagement starts the same way. The first month is dedicated to understanding your organization - your season, your donor history, your existing channels, and what’s been tried before. That research shapes everything that comes after. It’s not a separate process. It’s just how we start.
Month-to-month or annual engagement
If it's not the right fit after the diagnostic call, we'll tell you.