Rugby Against Cancer
We are a charity that uses 7-a-side rugby as a platform to raise awareness of who we are. It gives visibility in a way that we wouldn’t be able to by entering and performing at some of the biggest 7s tournaments through the summer. This means our mens and womens teams help us grow our audience and presents to opportunity to help and support more people within the rugby community affected by cancer.
We have several high profile and high calibre players that represent our charity 7s teams. Partnering with us opens the opportunity for those that come on board to be affiliated with one of the best up and coming teams on the circuit whilst also gaining affiliation and recognition with the charity, Rugby Against Cancer.
We have a fantastic social media following with interactions peaking during the months of the 7s. We regularly promote and thank our partners on our platforms as well as ensure that posts include pictures that accommodate their logos that are on our garments.
Target Audience
Due to the nature of us being a charity we appeal to a wide demographic. That said, we look to support those within the rugby community affected by cancer so while the age range is wide, the demographic is within the rugby community.
The Elite 7s specifically again covers a wide range of demographic as people of various ages attend the events. The players themselves and their followers range 15 – 35 but we are conscious that at some of the tournaments we pick up many new followers as we go through he tournaments.
The demographic are all rugby fans, hence they are at the events, but we also have others that follow who the charity is due to the fact that we are a cancer charity.
As a charity we have supported several people within the community by offering care packs, vouchers towards memory activities, weekend stays at our static caravan based in Poole (The RAC Shack) and donations on behalf of our professional playing ambassadors.
Key Dates and Timings
The sponsorship of our Elite 7s Programme is required by March 2026.
This would then allow us to include and recognise any potential partners in as many social media posts, their branding on our off field apparel, as well as the possibility to meet and have a more formal introduction.
The opportunity is available from March – August but can be extended if revenue generated offers larger opportunities.
Specific Opportunity Details
The opportunity to partner with Rugby Against Cancer Elite 7s Programme provides a platform to be involved with one of the best and fastest growing 7s teams on the circuit. We regularly have international players wearing our shirt which helps raise the profile of who we are and what we do.
Players of this calibre also allow us to perform well within the tournaments we participate and in the 4 years we have been running have won the Bournemouth 7s twice (2023 and 2024, runners up in 2025), the Wimbledon JF7s (2023), Edinburgh City 7s (2024 and 2025) and have also been runners up and Plate winners at the London Floodlit 7s (2022, 2025) and 3rd placed in the British Invitational Elite 7s Tournament (2025).
With this success comes visibility for the charity which in turn gives visibility for our partners. We have circa 13,000 followers across our social media platforms and during the summer our interactions across Insta alone was greater than 900,000.
The partnership opportunity is to help us in entering and travelling to these events whilst also making it as comfortable for our players in terms of providing playing and off-field kit, accommodation (where necessary) along with team building such as team meal and match day energy food and drinks.
Features and Benefits
As a sponsor / partner of our charity and its &s programme, we would guarantee high exposure of their brand on our social media platforms which are also shared by others on their personal platforms.
We would have the opportunity to offer tickets to come to one of the tournaments we take part in and meet the team and support staff.
We also offer the partner one of the bespoke Elite 7s garments that they can keep and display to and shows their support of Rugby Against Cancer.
Other Partners
This season we had sponsorships and partnerships with OPRO Mouth Guards, Confidas People, Nightingale Care Home, Spraywall Interiors and then others that are more local to our base in Hampshire.
Our main kit supplier is Akuma and we are 1 year into a 3 year deal with them.
Investment
We are looking for any of the above opportunities. At the current time any shortfall we have from sponsorship in relation to the Elite 7s is made up by the use of the charities marketing budget. We are very conscious of this and would like to reduce this shortfall or even make the 7s self sufficient.
Cash investment is best to help this to happen and we would be looking for a figure of £30,000 to cover both mens and womens squads for a summer. If this was to be achieved through one large sponsor, that would be amazing but we are also open to speaking with others that could sponsor small amounts that would help us achieve this end goal figure.
Part of the long term strategy is to take our Elite 7s overseas to feature in prestigious tournaments abroad. This would further raise our profile and allow us to help more people still. For this to happen we would be looking at sponsorship from partners to total approx £45,000 per tournament due to requirements of needing flights and accommodation.
With all the above said in relation to cash investment, if there were product or promotional support available to help offset the budget then we would be open to these discussions also.
We believe we have a really strong product, brand, cause and ethos and that partnering with us would offer a fantastic platform for those who are interested and could visibly see the passion we and our players have for the charity. We would welcome anyone to view our platforms where this passion is very visible.
Other Info
We have a passion for what we do in terms of supporting people within the rugby community affected by cancer. We enjoy raising money to support these people and we regularly pinch ourselves with how far we have come especially as we are 5 volunteer trustees. We are ready to go to the next level but this will involve the sponsorship of partners that will allow us to grow and spread our message further.