Customer Spotlight

USA Basketball Foundation launches all-access portal with RareCircles

RareCircles is proud to announce its collaboration with the USA Basketball Foundation, the official charity arm of USA Basketball.

RareCircles is proud to announce its collaboration with the USA Basketball Foundation, the official charity arm of USA Basketball. The Foundation faced the challenge of differentiating itself from other programs to create a true community for donors supporting youth/minority basketball in the US. RareCircles solution offered flexible tools to power digital experiences that transformed USABF’s approach to donor engagement.

“One of the biggest challenges non-profits face is communicating their value to stakeholders. RareCircles allows brands to not only share their impact directly with stakeholders, but turn this impact into valuable marketing and engagement opportunities.”

Their branded All-Access Portal allowed the Foundation to cultivate a dedicated community of highly engaged supporters. The strategic focus on these avid fans has helped drive retention, amplify word-of-mouth marketing, and convert one-time givers into steadfast monthly donors.

Building an Engaged List

The Foundation's strategy centered on leveraging the All-Access membership portal on RareCircles as a primary touchpoint for fan engagement— a place where supporters could interact with the foundation directly. Members can provide feedback on the foundation’s initiatives, start discussions with other supporters as well as claim rewards and benefits exclusive to the community.

By offering a streamlined, user-friendly sign-up process, the portal was designed to attract enthusiasts with exclusive content, insider information, and a sense of belonging to the USA Basketball family. The business objective of this free program is to convert casual visitors into registered members, thereby building a robust CRM of engaged fans, and prospective as well as existing donors.

Driving Donations with Rewards

With a growing membership base, the next challenge was to upsell these members to become monthly donors. Prior to RareCircles, the organization promoted recurring donations through their Charity Stripe program managed across a fragmented ecosystem of tools. With RareCircles, the Foundation was able to introduce a tiered rewards system within the portal, offering a range of incentives—from merchandise discounts to VIP event access— with certain high-value benefits reserved exclusively for Charity Stripe donors.

This freemium approach to donations encourages a shift from one-time gifts to sustained monthly contributions, thereby ensuring a steady revenue stream for the Foundation's programs and initiatives.

Increasing WOM and UGC

Word-of-mouth (WOM) endorsements and user-generated content (UGC) are invaluable for non-profits. The All-Access Portal has also emerged as a key hub for engagement, prompting members to share their experiences and create content that could further the Foundation's reach. Features such as discussions, challenges, and surveys were implemented to foster a vibrant community atmosphere, turning members into active promoters and content creators for the Foundation.

The All-Access Portal stood as a beacon of the USA Basketball Foundation's innovative spirit, significantly growing the CRM and converting subscribers into monthly donors. The foundation has grown its monthly donor list by over 15% in 3 months. By harnessing the power of rewards and community engagement, the Foundation set a new precedent for how sports non-profits can expand their donor base and cultivate a passionate community eager to support and promote their cause.