Nonprofits are seeing that charity streams on Twitch might be the best new way to help reach their fundraising goals.
With recent headlines of staggering fundraising records in a few short hours and knowing younger demographics are tuned in, there are already compelling reasons to look closer at fundraising on Twitch. To be successful, nonprofits need tools to integrate their current fundraising system with the Twitch user experience well and DonorDrive is taking the lead to design and develop the tools to best serve nonprofits, streamers and donors alike. Content creators want a smooth fundraising process so they can focus on streaming while supporting their charity. Charities want to give content creators a high-quality fundraising experience while providing donors with transparency so they know exactly where their donations are going.
Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals (CMN Hospitals) recognized this need early on when charity streaming was more in its infancy. They wanted to give charity streamers who fundraise for Extra Life an easy way to connect their fundraising page with their broadcast on Twitch. They consulted DonorDrive - the fundraising platform they have used for 10 years - and asked for a few key things. They wanted to let streamers connect their fundraising pages to their stream, they needed to clearly display Extra Life's brand and the local hospital being benefitted, and assure donors that funds go directly to the cause and minimize the viewing interruption when clicking to donate.
Taking all of this into consideration, DonorDrive created Live Fundraising as an new function of DonorDrive’s platform. This feature lets streamers connect their fundraising pages, allows nonprofits to brand the stream, and assures donors that the money is going directly to the cause. Live Fundraising makes charity streaming an interactive experience. Donors are able to quickly give without navigating away from the stream and streamers can thank donors live and through chat.
This released in the fall of 2018 and it was an instant hit with their audience. Before the end of the year, the 15,000 gamers who connected Live Fundraising raised $5.3 million. That boost helped Extra Life become the first gaming event to break into the Top 30 Peer-to-Peer Fundraising programs in the nation by raising $13.5 million that year.
As the nonprofit, it's important to make it as easy as possible for these streamers to integrate our cause into their content. The Live Fundraising feature on DonorDrive makes it easier than ever for content creators to raise funds for their local CMN Hospital and we couldn't be more thrilled to see it making such an impact already!
- Mike Kinney, Managing Director; Digital Fundraising & Extra Life
Other organizations are taking advantage of Live Fundraising. Stack Up uses gaming to support U.S. and Allied active duty service members around the world and is rapidly growing.
I enjoy using DonorDrive for charity streams. They really make it easy to use and operate as a streamer. With the addition of the new Twitch Extension, the ease of use to Twitch streamers will be expanded upon yet again. We look forward to going into the Veterans Day fundraising season with this new tool for our supporters to use.
–JonsAtWar, Stack Up charity streamer on Twitch,
DonorDrive is building on the foundation they set in 2018 with Live Fundraising to remove even more barriers. By collaborating with content creators, through DonorDrive's research lab, they've been able to hone in on useful features to make the fundraising process a smooth one. In 2019 DonorDrive released custom branded Twitch Extensions for their clients make it even easier for streamers to direct donors to an intuitive donation experience inside of Twitch. Additionally, DonorDrive launched a new integration with Facebook Fundraisers, giving creators even more ways to collect donations where ever their fans catch their activity.
