RKD Group
RKD Group is a Plano, TX-based fundraising and marketing agency serving North American nonprofits across animal care, food banking, health, humanitarian, missions, and Salvation Army verticals, combining proprietary AI-driven platforms (Velocity, SignalLayer, Bytespree) with full-service agency capabilities.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1970
- HeadquartersRichardson, United States
- Headcount501–1,000
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What RKD Group does
RKD Group (legal name Robbins-Kersten Direct, founded 1970, Plano/Richardson, TX) is a privately held, North America-focused fundraising and marketing agency serving nonprofit organizations across six core verticals: Animal Care, Food Banks, Health + Hospitals, Humanitarian Action, Missions, and The Salvation Army. The firm operates through a platform-plus-services model in which proprietary technology products (Velocity, SignalLayer, Bytespree) are delivered alongside full-service marketing, fundraising, data management, creative, and strategic planning engagements. Headcount is reported at 475–500+ marketing professionals, supported by a family of wholly owned subsidiaries — Data Management Inc., Heller Consulting, MDM Fundraising, and Summit Marketing — and PE sponsorship from BV Investment Partners since 2019.
The company's technology stack centers on three proprietary platforms. Velocity is an AI/ML-powered predictive intelligence ecosystem that scores donors for likelihood to give, lapse, renew, or upgrade, and powers the Mid-Level Giving, Monthly Giving, and Lapsed Giving solutions. SignalLayer is a purpose-built website personalization platform offering dynamic gift arrays, abandoned donation lightboxes, and adaptive content with GA4 integration. Bytespree is a data connectivity layer providing 30+ prebuilt connectors (Salesforce.org, Raiser's Edge NXT, Bloomerang, DonorPerfect, Virtuous, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Stripe, Snowflake, Redshift) that synchronize 21+ billion records and execute 86,000+ jobs annually. Service offerings span digital marketing, paid media, SEO, email, direct mail, major/mid-level/monthly giving programs, audience development, creative, data management, advanced analytics, and market research.
RKD generates revenue as a B2B agency through retainer- and project-based professional services engagements, priced via custom quotes rather than published rate cards. Customer acquisition is driven by direct enterprise field sales, industry partnerships (GivingTuesday, AWS Nonprofits), and referrals within the nonprofit sector. Long-tenured client relationships include Coast Guard Foundation (since 2010), Save the Children USA (since 2012), and The Salvation Army. In January 2026, founder Tim Kersten retired after 14 years and was succeeded by CEO Kevin Jones alongside a new C-suite, signaling a strategic inflection toward combining nonprofit specialization with Fortune 500 commercial marketing rigor.
RKD Group firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- RKD Group
- Legal name
- Robbins-Kersten Direct
- Website
- https://rkdgroup.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1970
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 501–1,000 employees
- Short description
- RKD Group is a Plano, TX-based fundraising and marketing agency serving North American nonprofits across animal care, food banking, health, humanitarian, missions, and Salvation Army verticals, combining proprietary AI-driven platforms (Velocity, SignalLayer, Bytespree) with full-service agency capabilities.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
RKD Group industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Nonprofit Fundraising and Marketing Services
- NAICS
- Advertising Agencies (541810)
- SIC
- Services-Direct Mail Advertising Services (7331), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)
- akta.pro primary industry
- B2B Demand Generation & Lead Nurture Agencies (BPAFAKAA)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Fundraising & Donor Acquisition Calling (Nonprofit) (BPAAADAJ), Developer Portals, SDKs & Documentation Platforms (BPAMADAG)
Keywords
Where RKD Group is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Richardson
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
RKD Group business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Marketing & Fundraising Agency Services: RKD Group generates revenue by providing comprehensive marketing and fundraising solutions to nonprofit organizations. Services include strategic planning, creative services, data management, digital marketing, direct mail, analytics, and machine learning-powered donor engagement. The company operates as a full-service agency with retainer-based and project-based engagements.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels7 records
RKD Group product offering
Product offeringCore offering
RKD Group is a full-service B2B marketing and fundraising agency that designs, executes, and optimizes omnichannel donor engagement programs for nonprofit organizations. Its core offering combines strategic planning, creative services, audience development, direct mail, digital marketing, data management, and analytics with proprietary technology platforms (Velocity, SignalLayer, Bytespree) to help nonprofits acquire, retain, and grow donor relationships.
Product overview
RKD Group operates as a nonprofit marketing and fundraising solutions provider with a platform-plus-services architecture. The core technology portfolio includes three proprietary platforms: Velocity (AI-powered predictive intelligence ecosystem for donor scoring, segmentation, and optimization), SignalLayer (purpose-built website personalization platform), and Bytespree (nonprofit-specific data connectivity through 30+ prebuilt connectors). These platforms are complemented by three focused solution packages (Mid-Level Giving, Monthly Giving, and Lapsed Giving) and delivered alongside a comprehensive suite of service offerings spanning marketing and fundraising, audience development, creative services, data management, strategic planning, advanced analytics, and market research. The integrated approach enables nonprofits to access data-driven donor engagement, predictive analytics, omnichannel fundraising, and personalization capabilities from a single partner.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Bytespree: Data connectivity platform that enables nonprofits to integrate and automate data collection across marketing, CRM, fundraising and analytics applications.
- SignalLayer
- Velocity
Products and services
- Velocity
Quantifiable outcome
- 15% lift in gross revenue for PanCAN
- +6 more outcomes
Companies that use RKD Group
Customer profileNamed customers18 records
Segments6 records
Ideal customer profiles6 records
RKD Group technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration30 records
AI capability8 records
Feature4 records
RKD Group partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
14 partnerships are on record, tiered key, core and strategic.
- Positive EquationkeyPartner in second annual Monthly Giving Awareness Week (May 11-15, 2026) to help nonprofit organizations develop sustainable recurring giving programs.
- American Diabetes AssociationkeySelected RKD Group as direct mail agency for nonprofit health organization.
- Humane ColoradokeySelected RKD Group as fundraising agency to enhance donor engagement and digital strategies for animal welfare organization.
- San Francisco SPCAkeySelected RKD Group as fundraising agency for donor engagement and digital strategies to support lifesaving impact and sustainable donor relationships.
- Tarrant Area Food BankkeySelected RKD Group as fundraising agency of record to support donor engagement, digital advancements, and revenue growth for North Texas food bank.
- GivingTuesdaykeyStrategic partnership to release the GivingPulse Field Guide, a comprehensive resource distilling data from GivingTuesday Data Commons quarterly reports into actionable fundraising strategies. Also co-launched Monthly Giving Awareness Week in 2025 and 2026.
- Data Management Inc.coreSubsidiary company of RKD Group providing additional nonprofit data management solutions. Part of RKD Group's family of companies including Heller Consulting, MDM Fundraising, and Summit Marketing.
- Heller ConsultingcoreSubsidiary company of RKD Group providing consulting services to nonprofit organizations.
- MDM FundraisingcoreSubsidiary company of RKD Group focused on fundraising solutions for nonprofits.
- Summit MarketingcoreSubsidiary company working alongside RKD Group to offer complete range of fundraising solutions, particularly for The Salvation Army.
- Bytespree ConnectorscoreBytespree enables nonprofit data connectivity with 30+ pre-built connectors including Salesforce, Bloomerang, DonorPerfect, Virtuous, Raiser’s Edge NXT, HubSpot, Mailchimp, ConstantContact, Snowflake, Amazon Redshift, and more. Synchronizes 21+ billion records annually.
- SignalLayer PersonalizationcorePurpose-built website personalization solution for nonprofits delivered by RKD Group. Enables real-time donor experience customization with dynamic content and first-party data capture.
- AWS NonprofitsstrategicAmazon Web Services nonprofit division providing cloud infrastructure and technology support. Hilary Noon, global head of strategy at AWS Nonprofits, appeared on RKD Group Thinkers podcast discussing data, technology, and analytics for nonprofits.
- Google Analytics 4 (GA4)coreIntegration with GA4 for advanced analytics capabilities and event-based donor interaction tracking to enable highly tailored personalization strategies.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
RKD Group competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- TrueSense Marketing: Full-service direct marketing and fundraising agency focused exclusively on nonprofit clients, offering direct mail, digital, and analytics services — directly comparable to RKD's integrated agency model for mission-driven organizations.
- Pursuant: Nonprofit fundraising and marketing agency providing strategic fundraising, creative, and donor engagement services; competes head-to-head with RKD across mid-level, major gifts, and direct response fundraising.
- The Lukens Company: Nonprofit-focused direct response agency specializing in multichannel fundraising, donor acquisition, and membership programs — a comparable peer across RKD's direct mail and digital fundraising offerings.
- Russ Reid: Legacy direct response fundraising agency serving faith-based and nonprofit clients with direct mail, digital, and media services — a long-standing comparable peer in nonprofit fundraising execution.
- Moore: Direct response and fundraising agency with a large nonprofit practice, offering creative, media, and data-driven donor engagement — comparable to RKD across multiple nonprofit verticals.
Broad incumbents
- Merkle: Large customer experience and data-driven marketing agency (Dentsu-owned) that serves nonprofit clients alongside broader commercial verticals; comparable as a larger incumbent with overlapping data, analytics, and personalization capabilities.
- Blackbaud: Dominant vertical software and services provider for nonprofits (CRM, fundraising, marketing); competes with RKD in donor data management, analytics, and increasingly in agency-style services, but at much larger scale and via software-led model.
Emerging players
- Bonterra: Nonprofit technology platform combining Network for Good, Social Solutions, and other giving/CRM products; an emerging peer that increasingly bundles donor engagement tooling that overlaps with RKD's Velocity/SignalLayer offerings.
- Funraise: Modern nonprofit fundraising platform offering donation forms, CRM, and donor management with built-in personalization — an emerging peer whose native tooling could displace portions of agency-led fundraising execution.
Others
- GivingTuesday: Strategic partner and sector convener for the global generosity movement; not a direct competitor but a closely adjacent ecosystem participant through co-developed Field Guides and Monthly Giving Awareness Week.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
RKD Group social profiles
Digital presenceRKD Group compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
RKD Group financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
RKD Group leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles19 records
RKD Group subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries4 records
RKD Group funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors2 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
RKD Group M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A7 records
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about RKD Group
What does RKD Group do?
RKD Group is a full-service B2B marketing and fundraising agency that designs, executes, and optimizes omnichannel donor engagement programs for nonprofit organizations. Its core offering combines strategic planning, creative services, audience development, direct mail, digital marketing, data management, and analytics with proprietary technology platforms (Velocity, SignalLayer, Bytespree) to help nonprofits acquire, retain, and grow donor relationships.
Is RKD Group a public or private company?
RKD Group is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was RKD Group founded?
RKD Group was founded in 1970. It employs 501 to 1,000 people.
Where is RKD Group based?
RKD Group is headquartered in Richardson, United States, in the North America region.
How does RKD Group make money?
One revenue line is on record: marketing & Fundraising Agency Services.
Who are RKD Group's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are TrueSense Marketing, Pursuant, The Lukens Company, Russ Reid and Moore. Broad incumbents are Merkle and Blackbaud. Emerging players are Bonterra and Funraise. GivingTuesday is listed as an others.
Does RKD Group have an API?
No public API is recorded for RKD Group.
What industry is RKD Group in?
RKD Group's product category is Nonprofit Fundraising and Marketing Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAFAKAA, B2B Demand Generation & Lead Nurture Agencies, with a secondary code of BPAAADAJ, Fundraising & Donor Acquisition Calling (Nonprofit). Its NAICS code is 541810 and its SIC code is 7331.