CONNECTING AMAZING PEOPLE TO MAKE AMAZING THINGS HAPPEN.

One of Rally’s founding principles is that we want to drive change at a scale that is bigger than our size. And that central to creating change is exposure to new ideas and partnerships. So we are always keen to be generous with our knowledge and network, helping make connections to spark change that otherwise wouldn’t happen. This is a story of one of those moments.

In January 2020 - back when being out and about was ‘A Thing’ - we spent three fantastic days touring the coffee shops, charity meeting rooms and lunch spots of London with one of our favourite people in the whole world. 

Meet Adrian. Adrian is a Dublin based pal of ours, he’s a brilliant thinker and all round Facebook fundraising genius. We love him.

Adrian.

He’d been developing a new approach to virtual challenge events that was delivering mind blowing results with his clients in Ireland, achieving both scale and huge returns on investment. He does it all on Facebook and it’s transformational. Honestly. Transformational. 

We could see the results and knew the UK needed what Adrian was doing. Thankfully Adrian also believes in being generous with knowledge and was keen to share the approach beyond Ireland.

Back to our tour of London.

Adrian was keen to meet people who were smart, agile, open to new ideas and able to make decisions quickly. So with that brief Rally set Adrian up with a load of meetings with the right people at the right organisations. And we accompanied Adrian to make the introductions and show these clients, who didn’t know Adrian, that we really believed in him and his model. 

In those two days we generated a lot of inspiration, some excitement and a lot of enthusiasm to try new things. We had 8 meetings in three days. Adrian got back on the plane to Ireland with connections that turned into 6 charities testing his approaches. Over the next few weeks and months, as the pandemic hit, we set up Zoom sessions that turned into another 5 relationships.

And the point of this story? 

Well it’s the impact our collaboration has had - especially at a time when events fundraising has been severely impacted by the pandemic and many charities have experienced huge challenges in income generation, just when their services are needed more than ever.

We’re delighted to have helped inspire charities with new ideas in the most challenging of fundraising and working environments. And to have enabled them to access expertise to test and roll out a new approach to virtual events. 

One year on we are incredibly proud that those introductions have turned into millions of pounds raised for the charities who chose to partner with Adrian. When we checked at the end of January they’d made £4,611,084 from an investment of £550,301. Which blows our mind.

And we know there are already a couple more million (yes, MILLION) pounds to be added to the income total - as some of those organisations have virtual events live right now. 

And it’s honestly more than the money. The clients who’ve worked with Adrian have started applying his methods to other elements of their digital programmes and are seeing incredible results. And the eyes of organisations have been opened to the true potential of creating, engaging and empowering digital communities, whose members share values and passions with each other and the charities themselves. 

All of this means that in the course of a year - because of COVID which has forced charities to act quickly to innovate and diversify - those meetings back in January have helped change the way digital is done across the whole sector.

---

Main photo by Nastya Dulhiier on Unsplash

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU...

It was our second birthday recently.

To mark the passing of time we decided to send some post to all the people who inspire, support and work with us. And then this happened!

Which made us feel warm inside and very proud to be part of the community we are in.

We’ve got some stickers left if you want some.

RALLY IS TWO.

We’re now two years old.

Which means we’re on our way to becoming part of the establishment right?

Nope. 

We’re just as committed today as we were two years ago to help our clients attract the public’s support at scale and convert that support into action.

We're still committed to challenging the status quo and being a positive force for change in how the sector approaches the challenges it faces.

We’re still convinced that the sector needs radical change in the way it seeks to attract the public's support in order to remain relevant. We recognise that change is unsettling and for some it’s an uncomfortable process. But it’s a necessary one. As Saul Alinksy said. ‘Change means movement. Movement means friction.’

We know we’re really lucky. We’re lucky to be a part of a brilliant community of people, clients and partner organisations who share our values and ambition.

So we want to say a HUGE thank you to our amazing clients for putting their faith in us and equal thanks to our AMAZING partners who help us make it all happen. We are immensely proud of the collaborations we’ve created and the impact that has come from them. And we’re honoured to work with such an inspiring group of radicals, rebels, agitators, activists and troublemakers.

Being part of such a badass community brings us real joy.

And before we go... Keep an eye on your letterbox. You might get a little something from us. 

---

Header photo by okeykat on Unsplash