SweetieGames

Streaming has been a popular method of fundraising for many years now, and it makes sense why; fans get plenty of content of their favourite games from their favourite content creators, there are rewards for donating, and the money goes to a good cause. It’s a win-win.

Some content creators have set up stream teams on Twitch to raise money alongside other streamers for causes close to their hearts. One such stream team is Cosmic Hearts, set up by Ellie and Shanodin back in 2021. In just under 4 years, the team has raised over $60,000 for global causes such as the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, the It Gets Better Project, Safe In Our World, Special Effect, Cool Earth and many more. Now, Cosmic Hearts’ members are giving insight into the world of charity streaming; the work they do, how they choose a charity and what they love about it, as well as advice for those who want to start fundraising through streaming themselves.

Stream teams have become a fantastic way to connect streamers who are working towards a common goal, which is what drew a lot of the Cosmic Hearts team towards the group. Silver (he/him) is a variety streamer and member of Cosmic Hearts, who has been streaming for nearly 18 years. What started out as streaming games for friends who didn’t have access to them built up into raising money for a huge range of causes: “I joined Cosmic Hearts a little over a year ago. I’ve always felt great joy when raising funds for charity.

“Cosmic Hearts fundraises for charities of all sizes, local and global. From charities focused on disaster relief, to helping fight for equality, [and] helping to ensure mental health and wellness.”

Jamie (she/her) is another member of Cosmic Hearts; she is a part time streamer as well as a full time psychotherapist and social worker. As she looked up to various streamers who did charity work, Jamie decided to take part in charity streaming herself: “I was very new to charity streaming, and was looking for a space that I could connect and collaborate with other likeminded charity-oriented streamers and strengthen my fundraising skills.”

It can be tough to choose a cause to fundraise for. The Cosmic Hearts team vote on causes they would like to run group fundraisers for, which allows the group to raise funds for organisations that they have a deep connection with. Cosmic Hearts Team Lead Joe (he/him) has been a part of the group since its launch in 2021. Since the beginning of Cosmic Hearts, the team has always worked with charities that are important to its members: “We’ve raised funds for a lot of charities, but primarily those focused on social justice and LGBTQIA+ community support, as well as some environment and sustainability charities.

“We pick charities based on discussions within our team Discord about causes that matter to folks on the team, and there’s always an open call for team members to set up “side quests”; if someone is running a fundraiser that isn’t an official team event, they can invite other folks to join in and either participate or promote it.”

There are also members of the team that work with charities in a different way. Hannah (she/her), another member of Cosmic Hearts, has been part of the team for nearly 4 years. Alongside fundraising and streaming on Twitch, Hannah is a charity consultant, working with the charities themselves to build campaigns, find the perfect streamers for their campaigns and provide educational workshops: “Educational workshops start with the very basics of what content creation is and run all the way through to support with building toolkits and websites, as well as explaining “unexpected” parts of the content creator space, such as VTubers or furries. Sometimes, charities encounter these areas and don’t know what to do, so they just avoid an entire group of creators, instead of learning about them and investigating fundraising potential.

“My entire ethos is to teach the key skills and information to be able to make informed choices about hiring support or working with creators; far too often, I see them at the mercy of marketing or PR agencies, often carelessly and without a respect for creator boundaries. I also heavily prioritise messaging about creator bandwidth and being respectful of folks’ time and energy. There’s no sense in adding more pressure on top if someone’s having a stressful or busy time already; it’ll just result in that creator getting upset and having a bad association with the charity.”

Work like Hannah’s has shown charities that gaming is a great way to educate audiences about global issues. In 2023, Cosmic Hearts ran a fundraiser for Cool Earth, and utilised the popular simulation game Planet Zoo to replicate the habitats of endangered animal species. The challenge opened discussion amongst viewers about the important topic of climate change, and the builds were uploaded to Steam for players to use.

Using streaming to raise money for charity is extremely rewarding for the Cosmic Hearts team. For Joe, combining his hobby with donating to a charity that is important to him is very fulfilling: “[Streaming] is an incredibly fun way to merge what someone is already doing with their content or their hobbies with supporting a cause that they care about. There are also some great platforms (Tiltify primarily) that make it really easy to integrate streaming and fundraising, and support you with ideas on how to make it successful, all at little to no cost to the organisation(s) you’re supporting.”

Silver finds introducing his audience to new ideas and charities to be emotionally beneficial: “Raising funds for charity on stream can be one of the most rewarding things I do. It can help bring you joy, and can be emotionally uplifting to see so many people. In many cases, it helps people become aware of charities they never did before, or [help] them realise that even $1 can help. From a “Streamer” side, it can also help you meet new people and gain a new audience.”

However, as the causes are close to the streamers’ hearts, it can be hard when goals aren’t met or able to be fulfilled. Jamie emphasised that bringing attention to the charity is the goal; any amount of money can make a difference: “Despite the engagement from a community, some incentives or milestones might be difficult to accomplish or follow through on, especially if you’re newer to charity streaming. However, I think taking some of the pressure off yourself to focus on highlighting an important mission is ultimately the goal over the challenges of streaming.”

With streaming becoming more and more popular, many creators are turning to it to raise money for important causes. As part of her charity consultant work, Hannah helps with vetting charities to check their authenticity. She gave her advice: “There’s no universal way to check them out; you have to sort of navigate on ‘vibes’ as much as anything else. For US charities, you can look at Charity Navigator for a rough idea of how legitimate they are, but there isn’t really anything else that does this. For UK charities, you can look at places like Companies House to see if they’ve paid their taxes, but that’s about it! This can make it challenging.

“Look at their website and social media to see if you can spot any problems; for example, have they partnered with controversial people, companies or creators historically or presently? I do also tend to chuck out a quick keyword search for AI, NFTs and crypto when I get approached, as those are areas that I don’t want to be associated with in general, so that would instantly fail a charity for me.”

Joe encourages those who are considering fundraising streaming to give it a try: “If you’re thinking about trying it, just try it! Like streaming overall, you’ll really only know if you enjoy it by doing it. Any amount that you raise for a cause will help them, so don’t feel discouraged if you raise less than you expect to. Tell your friends (IRL and otherwise) and you’ll be surprised how many people will tune in to help if you let them know how much it means to you. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from another streamer that does fundraising. Most people who have done it want to see others try it and succeed!”

Silver also highlighted that while you’re raising money for a good cause, you should also only do things you’re happy to do: “For donation incentives, don’t go through anything you’re not comfortable with, and set realistic limits. I made the mistake of having a “donate X dollars and I’ll do 10 push-ups”, and not only didn’t set a limit on it, I didn’t set a maximum redemption per donation on it. I then did 100 push-ups in about 10 minutes because two donators realised they could keep redeeming it. Worth the donations in the end, but my arms were very upset with me afterwards!”

Streaming as a fundraising method will not be going anywhere; it’s bigger and more successful than ever. Viewers get clip-worthy moments, interactions and prizes in exchange for money going to worthy causes. All that’s needed is passion for the cause you’re supporting. As Jamie says: “If you are engaging, then people will tune in and care too!”