Rally.org, a US-based social fundraising platform, has raised $7.9m in its series A round from a consortium including search engine Google’s corporate venturing unit.
Alongside Kevin Rose of Google Ventures, in his first deal since he joined the team at the start of the month, the A round included venture capital firms Relay Ventures, Mike Maples of Floodgate Fund, Reid Hoffman of Greylock Partners, Craig Shapiro of Collaborative Fund, and angel investors: Michael Birch, Tim Ferriss, Eric Ries, Josh Spear, Scott Belsky, among others.
Rally had raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding at the end of 2010 from Floodgate Fund, Greylock Partners and SV Angel.
In a blog on Rally’s website, Rose said: “For my first deal as a partner at Google Ventures, I chose to invest in Rally.org. Rally has the potential to be a transformational company.
“Rally is an online fundraising platform, which optimizes the fundraising experience for non-technical users and provides tools for those who know what they are doing. Rally serves people like Rev. Oliver White, a pastor in Minnesota raising money to save his church from foreclosure (you can see the CNN clip of him here) or Ruthie Goodman of Olive Tree Yoga Foundation who chose to, ‘bring unity, strength and possibility to Israelis and Palestinians through the practice of yoga’.
“The causes on Rally are fascinating and hint at a huge untapped market of people fundraising for not only traditional causes, but also for those making up their own causes or seeking ways to fund college tuition, sporting events, memorials, trips, and more. Rally is open to anyone passionate about a cause.
“With this open giving platform, Rally learns about people’s donation habits and in turn discovers what they value. Rally knows that content drives donations, so they built an easy-to-use storytelling platform. It is working. Over 1.5 million people have experienced the Rally platform and over 20 million stories have been shared around the world. With support from Google Ventures and others, Rally will continue to expand and be on its way to having an impact on the cause-based landscape.”