Originally published: May 2017
Updated: November 6, 2020

You already have enough on your plate trying to come up with an incredible campaign to fundraise money for a good cause. Now it’s on us to make it easier for you by sharing some tips that can help level up your charity streams.

Inform your community ahead of time

Use social media to let your audience know ahead of time about your fundraising event, the duration, the cause.

This could be done through Twitter, Facebook Page, Instagram post, Twitch Calendar, Twitch App, Discord, Youtube video, mentioning it on your stream. Repeat it often! Ask people to write it down.

BONUS POINTS if you make unique and funky art for your announcement.

When Hunter Wild does a special event, he goes all out with promotional art and calendar descriptions. This creates hype but most importantly it stays in people’s minds. With everyone always tweeting about their stream, their video, their complaints, Hunter’s events stay memorable.

You definitely won’t forget this. https://twitter.com/TheHunterWildTV/status/862253535626440705

For the next 3 hours, you own me. $ophisticated $ellout $tream is a go. I've never done ANYTHING like this.https://t.co/RVS82NeRx3 pic.twitter.com/9PLbovsfp8
— TheVoterWild (@TheHunterWildTV) May 9, 2017

Have amazing incentives and rewards

For every 20 dollar donation to X charity, I will eat a jellybean! We’ve all seen this type of incentive and it’s boooooring. Learn to make it fun.

Instead of giving away the same old postcard or letter, think of creative ways to entice people to hit those milestones

Sub Only chat? Offline talk session? Scary game played at X goal reached? Social Eating stream? How about, your audience gets to create your pizza – the catch is people donate for whatever toppings. The gross ones being extra pricey! How about what color to dye your hair?

One great way to get inspired is to browse through Tiltify.com. Content creators are constantly fundraising for many charities through this platform, with just a bit of research and creativity you can find a ton of great goals and spice them up with your personal touch.

BONUS POINTS If you contact industry folk you have a relationship with or wish to build a relationship with.

Do you have a previous working relationship with major gaming or hardware companies? Think Ubisoft, Square Enix, Versus Evil, Bioware, ASUS, Intel, Razer, Corsair, ORIGIN. Message your contact at those companies and tell them about your event! If you do not have a point of contact yet – find one! Ask around through your network or even message the companies themselves. You’d be surprised at how open the industry is to working with content creators.

Now you’ll have bonus goods to giveaway for incentives and milestones.

Please for the love of Internet Gods everywhere – give praise and thanks where it is due. Thank these wonderful companies publicly for leveling up your fundraising game.

You don’t have to do it alone

Support other content creators that are fundraising for these causes and make new friends.

We’ve all heard how stressful it is to network with other casters – but here you have a natural in. If a caster is fundraising for the same cause as you are, it’s an incredible time to raid and host them! You can safely avoid the dreadful waters of “self-advertising “ by helping others attain their fundraising goals. Tweet them out, send your audience there – they will do the same back to you, and then who knows? You might find new viewers and make some great friends!

BONUS POINTS If you create a fun competition with other content creators!

During their St Jude PLAY LIVE campaign Megan, Avery, and Jen played Uno. They were on voice communication and for that day the ladies made a mini-game – who could raise the most during THAT specific cast.

The caster who raised the most had to give a dare to the caster who raised the least.

Whenever a donation would come in for one of these ladies, the others would know about it and their communities would go absolutely nuts and donate themselves. This was an incredible change of pace from their typical fundraising casts: allowing for a relaxing and fun time while meshing their communities organically and engagingly.

TL;DR: Grew their respective streams by collaborating, raised more money that day then they probably would have a solo, had a fun change of pace, laughs… so so many laughs.

Time to do charity streams!

Go forth and fundraise, beautiful content creators! Thank you for helping make the world around you a little more beautiful.

If you’re planning to fundraise for charity, get in touch with us through our social channels @xsplit, or our contact form. We’d love to help out any way we can.

Anastasiya Bila