Charity Streaming: Why CharityOrganizations Use Live Streams forFundraising

Ankit MittalNew Jersey Institute ofTechnologyUniversity Heights, GITC 5100Newark, NJ 07102 USAam2272@njit.edu

Donghee Yvette WohnNew Jersey Institute ofTechnologyUniversity Heights, GITC 5100Newark, NJ 07102 USAwohn@njit.edu

Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personalor classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made ordistributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this noticeand the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party componentsof this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.CHIPLAY EA ’19 , October 22-25, 2019, Barcelona, Spain.Copyright c© 2019 is held by the owner/author(s)ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-6871-1/19/10.https://doi.org/10.1145/3341215.3356280

AbstractCharity streaming is a novel and increasingly popular formof fundraising where content creators stream contentduring a fixed period of time to raise money andawareness. Many charity streams involve people playinggames for a prolonged period of time. In this study, weinterviewed charity organizations about what this newform of fundraising means for them and how it is differentfrom traditional fundraising efforts.

Author Keywordslive streaming; charity; fundraising; Tiltify; Twitch

ACM Classification KeywordsH.5.m [Information interfaces and presentation (e.g.,HCI)]: Miscellaneous.

IntroductionOn January 18, 2019, Harry Brewis, a Twitch streamerwho goes by the name HBomberguy, decided to streamthe entirety of the game Donkey Kong 64 to raise moneyfor Mermaids, a charity that supports transgender kids [4].While Brewis had raised $200,000 after 50 hours ofstreaming, his stream really exploded when U.S.Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) joinedhis chat and later called into his stream. AOC went on totalk about issues in the U.S at the time and to advocate

equal rights for transgender people. Brewis finished hisstream of Donkey Kong 64 after 57 hours and at the endhad raised over $340,000 for Mermaids.

Figure 1: In this Tweet,streamer Ninja publicizes hischarity stream, including someperks for those who donate.

Raising money for charity by playing and broadcastinggames on live streams is becoming an increasinglywidespread phenomenon. On platforms like Twitch, thecompany itself runs initiatives where cheering1 with acharity hashtag will donate a portion of the bits to charity.More common, however, are individual or groups ofstreamers who create events during a set time frame toraise money for the charity of their choice. Some of theseefforts are made by collaborations between the streamerand charity organization, or through charity events thatare organized by third parties.

We have an understanding on why people donate tostreamers from previous research. These reasons includepaying for the entertainment, helping the streamerfinancially and improving the content, compensation forlearning, emotional attachment to the streamer, desire forinteraction, and to help solve social issues [7]. However,while we have an understanding of why people donate tostreamers, we do not have an understanding of whyorganizations use live streaming platforms to raise money.In this paper we focus on why organizations are usinglive-streaming services as a method of fundraising andhow it differs from their traditional fundraising methods.The information provided in this paper may influence thecreation of better tools to support charity streaming. Itmay also serve as recommendations to other livestreaming services to better incorporate donation methodson their platform.

1Cheering is a form of virtual support where viewers buy a virtualcurrent called ‘bits’ with real money. They can then use these bits topurchase special emoticons to display in a streamer’s chat. A portionof the money used to purchase the bits is given to the streamer.

Background InformationTwitch is a live streaming platform where peoplebroadcast themselves doing activities such as playingvideo games. While Twitch is primarily focused on videogame content, it is expanding to other creative areas aswell such as music and art. Viewers can interact with thestreamer and other viewers through a chat. Viewers caneven donate or subscribe to a streamer if they really enjoytheir content or want access to exclusive perks a streameroffers such as chat emotes [6]. Twitch has over 15 millionunique daily viewers and 55% of Twitch users are in theage between 18-34 2.

Figure 2: Rooster Teeth, a collection of gaming a comedypersonalities, stream for 24 hours each year for the charityExtra Life. In between playing games, they also have varietyshow activities, such as a ‘Wheel of Vengeance’ where viewerscan pay money to spin the wheel and make the team membersdo undesirable things, like eating peppercorns.

Many broadcasters on Twitch host streams where theydecide to raise money for charities. Broadcasters will playgames or do other activities and encourage friends, family,

2Twitch.tv

and random viewers to donate money to charity. Thereare events such as Extra Life where gamers will all streamon a particular day of the year, sometimes for 24 hours,with the goal of raising money for people in need [8].Terminology

SpeedrunningSpeedrunning is a term that isused to describe when someoneplays a game from beginning toend as quickly as possible. Itis a popular activity for charitystreaming events.

Gaming MarathonA gaming marathon is whenone or more people play gamesfor an extended period of time.Unlike running marathons,there is no rule about how longa gaming marathon should be,but commonly they start at 24hours. Gaming marathons arecommonly used in conjunctionwith charity streams.

Other charity events include Games Done Quick, which isheld twice a year, where people attempt to beat differentgames as quickly as possible, often with challenges addedon. Their most recent event in January 2019 raised over$2.4 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. To date,Games Done Quick has raised over $19 million for charity[1].

Tiltify- Transaction Service for Direct Dona-tionsStreamers have the option of either working directly witha charity to raise funds or by using a service known asTiltify. Tiltify is partnered with a plethora of charities andallows users to safely and quickly donate to a charitywithout having to leave the stream the user is watching[3]. The service keeps track of how much money comesthrough the streamer, but since the streamer does notreceive any of the money, the viewers can also receivereceipts for their donation to the charity.

When streamers create a Tiltify account, they must selecta charity they want to support, the start and end date oftheir campaign, and the goal they want to raise. They canthen link their Twitch account, or any other streamingservice, include their schedule, add incentives for viewers,and add milestones the streamer hopes to achieve. Finally,the streamer publishes the campaign and they receive alink to a web page that includes their stream, a button todonate, the progress the streamer has made towards theirgoal, and the name of the charity the streamer issupporting. When donating, users enter the amount they

want to donate, their email, and can optionally choose togive their username or send a message to the streamer. Ifstreamers do not use Tiltify, they can contact a charityand partner with them to have their own landing pagewhere people can donate (cite: Tiltify).

Charity live streaming on Twitch has had huge successover the years. Between 2012 and 2017, Twitch has raisedover $75 million in donations for over 100 differentcharities [5] and 78% of Twitch users say they want morecharity involvement in Twitch (cite: Twitch Advertising).With the rise of monthly Twitch viewers and more charityorganizations using Twitch and partnering with bigstreamers, there is enormous potential in using Twitch forsocial good. Even with how massive Twitch is becoming,there has been little research on charity live streaming. Inthis study, we interviewed charity organizations that useTwitch with the following research questions:

RQ1) Why are charities using Twitch?RQ2) How is Twitch different from traditional fundraisingmethods?

MethodsThe information obtained in this study was from 10 to 20minute-long semi-structured interviews conducted atTwitchCon 2018. TwitchCon is a convention dedicated toTwitch streamers and fans. This was the optimal locationto collect data as many different charities were inattendance promoting their cause to people who streamand watch live streams. We interviewed 15 differentspokespersons and recruiters of charity organizations whoare deeply involved with Twitch (see sidebar). Questionsranged from ”Why did your charity start using Twitch toraise awareness for your cause?” to ”How big of an impacthas Twitch made in reaching out to more people? As the

convention floor was very loud, we could not record theaudio of the interviews. Upon completion of the interview,we quickly transcribed to the best of our ability.Charity Organizations That

We Interviewed:The AbleGamers Charity

Extra LifeChild’s Play

Doctors Without BordersTiltify

Stack Up

To Write Love on Her Arms(TWLOHA)

American Foundation for Sui-cide PreventionCall of Duty Endowment

Direct ReliefMake-A-WishSave the ChildrenSt. Jude Children’s ResearchHospital

PLAYER vs. HUNGERWounded Warrior Project

To analyze the data, we organized the responses to theinterview questions. We then went through all theresponses together and sorted the answers into differentcategories. Finally, we selected the best quotes that wouldmost accurately represent the categories.

Why Charity Organizations Use Livestream-ing as a Fundraising MethodFor RQ1, we wanted to know why charity organizationswere using Twitch.

Public Relations/ MarketingMost of the organizations we interviewed stated PR as themain reason they are using Twitch. Through Twitch,charities can spread more awareness to their cause, reacha younger audience, and recruit more people to supporttheir organization.

1. AudienceTwitch has millions of users from all around the world.These people range from little kids to elderly people, whocome from all sorts of cultures and socioeconomicbackgrounds. This type of diversity is very appealing tocharity organizations as their message can reach newaudiences that may not have been previously reachable.

Some charities are drawn to Twitch having a large amountof young users because reaching a younger audience iscritical to their organizations. This is particularly the casefor charities that were founded several decades ago. Forexample, according to a representative for Save theChildren, their traditional donor base is aged 60-70 andthey wanted to reach a younger audience. They tried

marketing through TV, mail, and email but those methodswere not effective in gathering new supporters. Theydecided to start fundraising through charity streaming onTwitch and were able to find success and are now hopingto grow even more. By attracting a new audience, thecharity can expand their supporter demographic. For themore established charity organizations, working withstreamers on Twitch was seen as a long-term plan,because the actual money raised through streaming stillrepresented less than 5% of their total fundraising efforts.

2. Spread AwarenessMost of the charity organizations that were interviewedsaid Twitch is a great platform to help spread awarenessof their cause. When asked about why they are usingTwitch, a representative from the American FoundationFor Suicide Prevention said that they used live streamingas a means of fundraising because the demographic thatwatches steams coincides with the type of people theywant to reach. ”We want to raise awareness and tacklethe stigma around discussing suicide. It’s a new way ofreaching out. In the age group of 15-34 suicide is thesecond leading cause of death. Awareness causes impacton perception, which is why we are trying to be moreactive on social media and streaming,” they said. Withteen and young adult suicide being a huge issue andTwitch having a predominantly younger audience, it is agood opportunity for organizations such as AFSP toconnect with the Twitch community and educate peopleon suicide and its ramifications.

Many people may not be aware of or know enough aboutthe issues people around the world are facing and nowthese organizations are leveraging the vast reach ofTwitch to bring these issues to light.

When speaking to a representative from The AbleGamers

Charity, the representative said their organization hasspent years trying to convince video game developers toconsider implementing options in their games that canbenefit disabled gamers.Case Study: Extra Life

Extra Life is an annual eventthat started in 2008 wherepeople stream for 24 hoursto raise money for sick kidsin Children’s Miracle NetworkHospitals. Thousands of peo-ple across the world take partof Extra Life each year andhave raised over $50 million.The money raised is used forresearch, training, equipment,new facilities for the children,and more.3

Case Study: Rooster TeethThe entertainment companyRooster Teeth gathers manyemployees for a massive streamwhere they play games and per-form silly activities based onhow much they have gatheredin donations. They have raisedover $5 million in the past sixyears. Some of the moneyRooster Teeth has raised wentinto the development of theRooster Teeth Healing Gardenin The Dell Children’s MentalHealth Unit in Austin, Texas.

The main issue for them was that many developers andpublishing companies did not know there are actually over30 million disabled gamers in the world. Creating videogames is expensive and it can take years to develop agame. Many companies do not want to spend time andmoney on features that most people will never use orneed. As AbleGamers was able to spread their messagearound the industry and more research had been done inassistive technologies.

3. RecruitmentMany representatives of the organizations we interviewedsaid they starting using Twitch as a method to connectwith and recruit other Twitch streamers to donate forthem. Through platforms such as Tiltify, streamers whowould like to contribute to a charity would be able tomake a profile where any donation they get would godirectly to the charity they are representing. By recruitingmore people, there could be a network of streamers whodo charity broadcasts on behalf of the organization. Thiscreates exposure to new audiences.

Low CostDue to the cost of streaming being relatively lowcompared to other methods, charity organizations areadding Twitch as an extra avenue for spreadingawareness. They are able to potentially reach a largeamount of people with very little monetary cost to theirorganization. For example, To Write Love on Her Armssends a representative to many concert festivals across thecountry. This is a fantastic way to engage with people butit adds a huge transportation cost and limits the amount

of people you can reach to the size of the venue. WithTwitch, there is no such cost as they can stream fromanywhere and they have a reach of Twitch’s 15 millionunique daily users, much higher than that of a concert.

How Charity Streaming is Different From OtherFundraisingFor RQ2, we wanted to know how Twitch was differentfrom the charities traditional fundraising methods. Thetwo main things that charities mentioned was how muchcharity streaming was initiated by the streamers (ratherthan the charity organization) and the ability to reach alarge number of people.

User InitiatedSome charities such as St. Jude Children’s ResearchHospital said they actually started getting involved withTwitch because people reached out to their organizationand asked them to. Traditionally, a charity would have togo around and promote their message on their own to getdonations. Through Twitch, streamers across the worldcan decide to assist a charity and raise money on theirbehalf. Instead of the organization going out on their ownto spread awareness, the community of streamers are outspreading awareness. With more streamers raising moneyfor charities, it is likely others would follow suit and alsodecide to start raising money.

ReachMany of the charities that were interviewed said Twitch’straffic of millions of viewers allows them to reach far morepeople than their traditional fundraising methods. Theamount of people and diversity inside the Twitchcommunity gives a better chance of someone discoveringand supporting a charity they might connect with in somecapacity. A representative from the AFSP said, ”It’s

amazing how many people streaming can reach. A walkcan be thousands of people but Ninja can reach millions.”Case Study: Ninja

Richard Blevins, who goes byhis online name Ninja, is awidely popular streamer whohad over 14 million followersand an average viewer count ofover 27,000 viewers on Twitchbefore moving exclusively tothe streaming platform Mixer inearly August. Blevins uses hishuge popularity to host char-ity streams or compete in char-ity video game tournaments.He raised over $300,000 forSt. Jude Children’s ResearchHospital during a charity livestreaming event at Guardian-Con 2018. At E3 2018, Blevinscompeted in a $3 million char-ity tournament with his part-ner Marshmello, a famous DJ,where they won the grand prizeof $1 million. Blevins do-nated his half of the money tothe Alzheimer’s Association [2].These are just a couple of hismany charity stream events.

DiscussionDespite the positive aspects of charity streaming, thereare some limitations. From the perspective of theorganizations, they have little control over the charitystreams, since most streams are put together and run bystreamers. While this is positive in that the organizationsdon’t have to put in the effort, it also means they do nothave control over the content that is being streamed, aswell as who chooses to host a charity stream, which couldbecome problematic if someone who represents oradvocates values that are counter to the organizationdecides to stream in the name of the charity. Anotherlimitation is that because charity streams are organizedaround the streamers and viewers donate to the charitybecause of the streamer, it is unclear if the donors wouldstill donate if it were not for the streamer. Charitystreaming is such a new phenomenon and still a relativelysmaller portion in terms of the total amount of moneyraised for many charities that they have not been able tolook at metrics of donors across the years. Another factorrelated to the streamer-centric aspect of charity streams isthat there are currently few ways for viewers/potentialdonors to search for stream by charity unless the stream ispart of a larger event that is promoted by Twitch.

To better understand the phenomena of contributing tocharities via live streams, future studies could conductinterviews with donors and charity live streamers tounderstand their motivations. Furthermore, more researchcould be done on understanding what makes a successfulcharity live stream. Our research about charity livestreaming was very broad. Future research can narrowdown the types of charity live streams to see what

connects more with viewers or raises more money.

ConclusionCharity streaming is a relatively new but growing methodof fundraising. In interviews with charity organizations, wefound that streaming represents revenue that did not existbefore and the cost for organizing charity streamingevents is minimal for the organizations.

AcknowledgementsThanks to John Scott Siri and Juan Rios

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