July 16, 2013 (Park City, UT) – The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, the national governing body for Olympic skiing and snowboarding, has announced a multi-year alliance with the online fundraising platform RallyMe.com as the Official Crowdfunding Platform for the USSA, U.S. Ski Team, U.S. Snowboarding, and U.S. Freeskiing. The innovative program is designed to help athletes raise funds to offset travel and training costs over and above the $20 million the USSA invests each year in athletic programs.

HIGHLIGHTS
• The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association has entered into a multi-year alliance with RallyMe.com to become the Official Crowdfunding Platform for the USSA, U.S. Ski Team, U.S. Snowboarding, and U.S. Freeskiing.

• The RallyMe partnership is designed to help the USSA’s national team athletes close their personal funding gap for travel and other expenses beyond the $20 million the USSA invests each year in athletic programs.

• RallyMe.com is an online crowdfunding platform for athletes, teams, and organizations that may be utilized by USSA athletes to raise personal contributions.
USSA athletes who raise funds on RallyMe will be featured on a special team partner page, allowing funders to easily access elite team athletes. They will also have a customized widget integrated into personal bio pages on their respective national team website, so supporters can easily contribute.

• RallyMe’s safe and secure online platform provides sophisticated tools and templates to help USSA athletes or “Ralliers” easily share their personal stories and fundraising message across social media venues.

• Crowdfunding has fast become one of the most efficient personal funding venues today, allowing the fund seeker to ask many people for support at a small amount.

• The entire crowdfunding industry is expected to raise $5 billion in 2013, according to Crowdsourcing.org‘s annual report.

QUOTES
Luke Bodensteiner, Executive Vice President, Athletics
As a Best in the World Olympic sports organization, we focus on providing our U.S. athletes with high performance services – the best coaching, access to training facilities like the Center of Excellence, competition support, sport science and sports medicine. With nearly 200 athletes in the USSA’s elite teams, a number of those athletes continue to fund some or all of their personal travel expenses. RallyMe provides a turnkey opportunity to assist athletes in funding those costs over and above the investment USSA makes each year in athlete performance and development.

Bill Kerig, CEO & Founder of RallyMe
We’re honored to form this special relationship with the USSA and help further its Best in the World vision. USSA athletes have amazing personal stories that we can help them hone, share, and monetize. We created RallyMe to give athletes, teams and organizations a simple, yet powerful online tool to achieve their fundraising goals. Working with the USSA we can support more athletes achieving their dreams.

About RallyMe
RallyMe is an online funding tool that empowers athletes, teams, and organizations to harness the power of the crowd to fund their goals. RallyMe helps athletes monetize their personal and social media network through crowdfunding, or asking many people for a small amount of financial help to achieve a clearly stated goal. Learn more or start a Rally at http://rallyme.com.

About USSA
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) is the national governing body of Olympic skiing and snowboarding. It is the parent organization of the U.S. Ski Team, U.S. Snowboarding and U.S. Freeskiing. Developed to facilitate participation in national and international competition, the Olympic sports organization provides structure for competitive skiing and snowboarding. From grassroots programs to governance of sport, management of rules, competitions and athletic rankings, the USSA oversees athletic pipelines for development in the sports. With a vision to make the USA the best in the world in Olympic skiing and snowboarding, the USSA provides leadership and direction for tens of thousands of young skiers and snowboarders who share an Olympic dream while maintaining a strong adherence to core values. The USSA, established in 1905, operates out of the national training and education facility, the Center of Excellence, in Park City, UT.