It's. A question if, you owned a videogame one that you could play with your friends whenever you wanted why, would you watch someone else do it and pay for the privilege, over. The last 10 years high-speed. Internet has made it possible to watch somebody play any sort, of game anywhere. In the world on, sites, like YouTube, and twitch streamers. Have been able to make a living make, a fortune some. Of its shared with charities, from playing games. Fortnight. Is, the gaming world's, latest trend but, online there's, an audience for just about anything. If, you spent some time searching around on Twitch you can find people playing the top tier triple. A fortnight, down, to one. We just discovered in the head fun within the office for a couple days before we left people who are streaming their chicken farm video. Games have been blamed for everything, from school shootings, to rickets. Gamers. Have been fighting against stereotypes since the beginning the, pastime, of the insula, the lonely they, were told that their interest, what, they used to escape from the world was, turning them violent, so some of them said fine. Why. Don't we show them the good that we can do the money that we can raise for good causes just through being good, or. Spectacularly. Bad at games. During. The Dance Marathon we, got donations, left and right and ended, up emptying. Like I think two, full clips of Nerf darts, at these people, both while and after they were dancing, I broke eggs over my head I had, people Buy in for and pick a number one through twelve and some of them were boiled, and some of them were not and I would break them on stream this, is a lot. Like traditional sponsorship, you know just in the same way that we, would ask somebody to do a marathon and they, would go out and say right today I'm gonna dress. Up in this silly costume, if you donate to me in the same way you've seen lime streamers, do. Online charges. Engaging, with their community and asking, people to spawn. This. Documentary is about the past present and future of. Gaming for good exploring. The people who use games as a game-changing. Platform, to promote good causes. How. Did a group of motivated. Gamers turn one truckload, of children's toys into, a multi-million. Dollar charity drive, who. Raises money for children, in war zones by playing war games without, violence, and how. Far would you go to, raise money for charity from. Tucson, to Las Vegas half. A dozen times, from. Salesforce, org, this. Is gaming. For good. The. Gaming and nerd community is, much larger, than people give. Us credit for because. It seems like it's just a bunch of people that don't have money and don't have passion which. Is the a hundred percent opposite, and. It's amazing, what nerds can do when. Nerds are given a chance and it's. Amazing how much money nerds have. That. We like to spend on things. I'm will. Bond and every, year on May the fourth I, am. A Jedi I wear the robes I swing, the lightsaber around and people stare and occasionally. Smile but. I'm also a pop-culture, podcaster. I've, been studying the various ways in which people show their appreciation and. Dedication. To the nerdy things they love I know. Firsthand, that games are a brilliant way of building communities, joining. Parties and online role-playing games, and showing, the world that gaming, can be a force for good for. Me video, games have been an essential, part of how I define, myself and a, charity, that has been a constant, source of inspiration and, who, use games to improve the lives of young people in need his. Child's, play. Child's. Play the, charity not the film about killer doll began. In 2003. As the brainchild of micro, Alec and Jerry, Hawkins who, had already made names for themselves from their webcomic, Penny Arcade. Spawning. Dozens, of imitators, and a yearly pop culture convention packs, the, web comics characters taiko and Gabe were some of the Internet's, first viral, stars and it, all began with a simple comic, strip defending, the gamers rights to sit on the sofa for hours, at a time the. Suggestion, that video games cause violence though made, them stand up and take notice, it. Wasn't an image of their hobby that, penny arcade took to be accurate so, they set their readers a challenge, and child's.
Play Was born when. People were really starting to talk about gaming in a negative way that, it, promotes violence or, shooting, and they. Kind of did this little stunt that said like hey no. That's not what it's about we're, a community that cares and so they asked people to donate a ton of games that's, Kirsten Carlyle the charity's philanthropy, and partner, experiences, director. Now. The charity, operates across dozens of states in the US and around the world and it, all started with one hospital. And a, lot of toys, Travis. Erickson executive, director of child's play they, worked with Seattle Children's and, Amazon and made a wish list so that people could go online and buy toys and they invited their fans to go buy toys and, then two, weeks later they. Donated. A giant. Truckload a quarter-million dollars worth of toys to Seattle Children's Hospital. Child's. Play took a simple concept game, is using their passion to campaign for good causes and prove, that it could work on a massive, scale. Gamers. Are inspired by the cause because, they remembered, the escapism that their hobby provided, them with child's. Play is about paying that feeling forward literally. And now, sixteen years later now we've got over, 180, partner hospitals all across the globe we. Work. With getting, close to 200, domestic violence shelters right now that we have game, systems, in as well. So we've really in, 16 years taken what started as much a publicity stunt as anything else into, a, pretty. Serious. Charity. That's that's taking care of a lot of kids. That. Charity is partly built on the success of what is now the biggest, earning sector in the entertainment industry, expected. To be worth over a hundred, and eighty billion, dollars, by 2021. According. To market researchers, music, I feel like games are being, more accepted, now as, a.
Entertainment. Medium, more. Along the lines of movies. And TV shows and things like that I think part, of that probably. Comes from just. Aging. Out right it's sort of those, of us who grew up with games are now in the positions, to be writing news stories about games so. Now we say games are great because they've been great for us I think, also with. Advances, of it just to be able to see, how. Engaging it can be across the board it reaches, beyond, just sort of that nerdy. Kid sitting at a basement. Gaming. Stereotype. That it began with - everybody's. Playing games your mom is playing, candy crush right now while she listens to this podcast right like it's happening, in, everybody's. Hands. And your. Mum could be one of the reported, 9.2. Million people, who play candy crush for more than three hours a day, every. Single, day. It's. Travis again child's, play is actually from. The get-go really empowered, the community to do that fundraising after that first fun toy. Drive, that was organized. And coordinated by Penny. Arcade Penny. Arcade as a staff wasn't big enough to. Focus its time on the charity they were running you know the actual business running the for-profit, business so. Very early from. The very beginning it gave the community the chance to do fundraising set, up a PayPal. Account gave. People the ability to sort of set up a little button on their website that just says donate. Here and it goes straight to the PayPal account it cut out sort of the the worry of the middleman of well. If you say you're doing this thing and I give you this money is it getting to the right place. The. Technology, allows charities, to hand some power over to gamers it's something, they've been doing three years with community, coffee mornings, and sponsored runs but, in the streaming world it can be immediate. Live, and often, no-holds-barred. The. Technology, is also agnostic. Organizations. Like child's play and our streamers to raise money in whatever way, they decide, here's. Kirsten : again we're, allowing our donors to be who they are with, the groups of people that support them and that raised the money and that's. Different than a lot of the other national. Or international nonprofits. Like us that they might have more rules around that I think that's also what's made child's play so successful, is we have not. Really created a barrier to them raising funds if you want to use tilta fie if you, want to use twitch or YouTube or if you want to use our platform our mobile cause, platform, and do texting, to give if you want to do a pub crawl we're, really open to how the, donors want to support us and feel good the, tilta Phi that Kirsten mentioned is a fundraising, platform designed specifically, for gaming campaigns.
Think. Of it like charity. Activity. Pack sent through the post complete, response of ship forms it's. One of the initiatives that helps in the work childsplay, does, spreading. Engagement, offering, incentives for donating and integrating. Fundraising, on every platform. 100%. Online. I. Think. The reason that internet. Gaming marathons, have really, taken, off over the past decade is that, the, best new ideas are, actually old, ideas, improved. By modern. Technology and this is what we tell local. Media. Like when the newspaper, comes and we go oh it's an internet fundraising, video game marathon, where. We play this video game called desert bus on the Sega CD and, they just sort of glaze over they have absolutely no frame of reference what we say is it's, a telethon and they. Go oh. Graham. Stock is one of the founding members of loading, ready run a Canadian. Comedy troupe who regularly stream on Twitch, every. November since 2007. They drop everything and dedicate, themselves to playing the game Desert, Bus the, child's play desert. Bus for Hope started, in 2007, so we're just about to have our 13th. Marathon. This coming November and, as, near as we can figure, no, one's refused this yet we, were the the first internet. Fundraising. Video game live. Stream, marathon, thing. Never. Officially, released Desert. Bus the game is part, of a prank compilation cooked, up by The Magicians Penn & Teller it's regularly, cited as the most. Boring. Game ever made a team. Of dedicated drivers. Are put on a shift pattern throughout the stream to ensure the bus doesn't they're off the road the, cause is important, but so is not spending too long in front of a screen an important. Consideration for gamers in general but, why such a boring, game so. We picked as our bus because the concept. Of. Driving. A bus on a perfectly, straight featureless, road for, eight uninterrupted. Hours where you have to interact with the controller the whole time and then when you get to the other side you get a single point and turn around and go back was, funny, we just thought that would be you. Know an entertaining, thing, to keep us sort of trapped in the room but, that alone wouldn't keep you as coming back day after day to donate, which, is why desert bus for hope is not just a bunch of people sitting around on their couch playing bus driver. As. It grew and grew desert. Bus for Hope has featured dramatic, readings, improvised, sketches, musical. Numbers and mesh, nerdy, auction, fees and that's, part of the fun when it comes to charity streaming it has to have enough content, for both viewers to keep watching and donating. And for, the streamers to keep going. It's. People. Like. You and I out. There live streaming, anyone can do it you can flip, a switch and, be like hey this. Is the entertainment I'm giving you an in exchange, please give money to this charity, I think. It's successful. Because it's an idea that everyone immediately, gets, they're like oh yeah I would like to do that we. Specifically, have hit on a wonderful mixture of generosity, in spite which is. That people. Feel, good about giving to charity, and then, they also get to make us suffer so. It's, it's great for the viewer. Jon's, play has grown exponentially. In the last 16 years and its commitment to helping children has inspired many, individual, groups across the world to, find ways of helping people donate, in the, case of Desert Bus for hope their. Expectations. Were exceeded from. The start we, had figured. That we'd flip the stream on. Try. To raise some money maybe, nobody, would watch and that. Would be our weekend, and we, talked about what we were gonna sort. Of set our goal at because it's good to have a goal, when you're doing a fundraiser and I think, someone was like you know like I like a thousand dollars and I'd said no no let's let's like shoot for the moon let's say five thousand. We'll never get there but let's let's say you.
Know That we want to raise five thousand, and. Then. The, first year we raised over. $22,000. It. Was just sort of like okay, that got out of hand I guess. We're doing that again next year. Desert. Bus for hope is, now just one of hundreds. Of charity, streams that orbit around child's, play donors. Come back year after year and what began as penny arcade's way for gamers to redress, the balance following, criticism of their hobby is now, a fully, fledged. Charity. Overall. Child's, play is getting close, to the 50 million dollar mark raised in in 16, years and they are 10%, of the funds that degrades. People, look at that and then they ask us how do we do that and we go we have no idea we just turned, it over to the to the community and, they started this for us they. Do it we, we, show up now to. Be. There and help out if needed but we are. Almost as much in the way as anything else for. Charities, understanding. The game of mindset and harnessing. Their joy is essential. To, building a successful drive. What. Inspires, people not just to play games for hours on end but, to engage with others doing the same thing for charity even. If it is the most boring game ever made we. Spoke to lacier Finley who was put in plenty of streaming shifts for child's play. The. Emotions, that's going through as the charity stream is happening you're gonna go through a whirlwind, it's, gonna be so, exciting, it's going to stress you out you're probably not going to sleep but at the end of Sunday when we more than doubled, our goal I was. On such, a high. Especially. When I saw the joy and Travis's, email. Getting. To hear, where that money went, was amazing, and the, fact that you were able to pull, off something so good for someone else I think that whole week I had it looked like I slept with a hanger in my mouth I had a smile for me here to ear the whole time is just a really great feeling. Delirium. Is a common emotion for gamers who do marathon streams it's, an exhausting, feat but, even with a game as dull as desert bus there, is a drive to press on to offer increasingly. Outlandish, rewards. For reaching an important milestone like. A regular marathon, the, push to keep going is strong, because, they know how much difference, even a small contribution can, make. We. Had a kid this morning in Evelina's who was. Recovering, from spinal. Surgery and had. Been reluctant. To get down and move or anything else yesterday his mom said he couldn't even make it past the elevator walk sort of from his bed to the elevator and that was it and came. Out this morning and played. Probably. 15. Songs of beat Sabre in a row beat. Sabre is a virtual reality game a bit like Guitar Hero where players use two controllers, as light sleepers to hit the beats on the screen we, get kids, who are, reluctant to you know sort, of leave their room there they're in sort of that depressed. State of attends, hospital for a long time and bringing, games and especially. VR, games that are kind of a new a new exciting, thing for them that they don't necessarily have in the hospital bringing it to, them gets them excited and makes them want to come in and it's, also a chance for us to really show the staff that, it's not that complicated to set up VR and look. At the impact it had on this kid's life. This, is gaming for good at its best. Transporting. Children who'd rather be anywhere but, the hospital, into another, world. Child's. Play was rooted in gamer culture from the beginning, while other charities, have approached gaming for good from the outside and found success like. War child their. Work provides support and a safe space to children, who've lost everything to war in their countries, they started. In 1993. When, the big cultural battles were between Mario, versus, Sonic and for, the charity's founders, blur. Versus. Oasis Nick. Scott is head of partnerships, of water offers. Big, big. Fundraiser, was called help it, was an album at least in 1995, and I, have no idea how they managed to do this but they galvanized. The, pretty much the entire Britpop industry, they. Came together they, organized, recorded. And got an album out in six days and, it went on to become the biggest selling charity. Up in the whole time. So. How does the charity evolve, from making hit records to, reducing hit points and video games, Nick. Credits, Mars Jacobson, studio, director at sports interactive, the makers of football manager who used to be in the music industry and worked, on the help album, miles. Championed. War shot when he moved into gaming, here's. Nick again and that. Was our real entry point at. That stage we knew nothing about gaming we, didn't. Have, a case, for them to support as they were literally, just there as individuals. Who who. Cared about, the. Issues, that affect, children, in conflict zones so. That's how he initially got into it Nick credits to people within War Child who really pushed for the charity to get involved with gaming in a serious, way Elizabeth.
Little Nick's predecessor, and meanness, of fury the fundraising, director both. Understood, the scope and scale of which War Child or indeed, any charity, can use gaming, as a means for greater promotion, and fundraising. They. Recognized, that it wasn't enough, to set up a fundraising page and hope for the best, understanding. The potential audience and working, with people who knew what made them tick helped. Them develop a strategy and, to. Do that they, brought in specialists. One, of them was Wayne Emanuel, now, head of gaming at War Child he. Wasn't just a gamer. He knew business, as well, there's. A number of ways that we work with, the gaming industry, in sector so we've. Been working in the sector for just over 10 years and. For. Us it's another. Way of reaching people and talking. About the. Challenges the vulnerable, children face a gaming. History is worth. Over. 137. Billion, now I think so. It's a big industry that we can also potentially fundraise, from so it's. The reach and the fundraising capabilities. Of the industry that make. It a really. Important. Sector, for us to be investing in and to be working with and we've had success by, making bold decisions, being, bold is actually one of our values and, however you interpret that and, we've. Had success at, committing. To innovation, and trying, new things out and and, trusting. In the people that support us to help them try new things out to supporters, Nick. Told us about the decision Warchild, took before he joined one, they didn't, take lightly to. Work with games that featured, death conflict. And war. What. Are the big things that they really did them a really big piece of work called real, war is not a game and this. Was the campaign it kind of set out the rulebook for which. Games. We would work with them which ones we wouldn't and the. Two big, early, conflict, games that we worked with were. World of Tanks and this, war of mine, both. Of them, fantastic. Games fantastic, communities, who've been supporting, us for many many years this. War of mine is a game where you play as a civilian, in a fictional, war-torn, City trying, to survive days and nights during a siege until a ceasefire is declared, war. Child and the games developer, 11-bit games collaborated. On a dlc or downloadable. Content the. Dlc costs only $0.99. Get, it raised over. $500,000. For war child, Wow. Working. With game companies, that specialize, in playing at war as a charity, that promotes peace was. A risk but. Nick feels it paid off people. Are intrigued by it people want to hear more about why, we work with conflict games but we've, not had complaints, about it and War, Child are unique in the way they've worked closely with game studios. If. You think about gaming, simply, as interactive, entertainment and, if you think about the gamers themselves as, consumers. Of that entertainment, fans of that entertainment, we're. Simply, looking, to work with studios, and create more and more interesting. Ways that we. Can do. Some really good work and raise some money one. Way they achieve this is through their Armistice, Campaign we're, very, happy to say it's just won the, iof Award for innovation for the second time which is something.
We're Really really proud of an, armistice. Is really really simple, it's about, games. That have some form of conflict in which is a lot of games there's, a lot of battle games a lot of fighting games and it's. About pacifying. Them in some way shape or form, it's. A really simple concept some, games have really taken. Quite. Severe steps to pacify, their games and other, ones are quite simple, but. Ultimately it's about getting that message out there and. Effectively. Saying that this. Community of gamers who. Like to play battle, games they, can actually be a real. Driver for change and for positive outcomes for children in conflict zones. War. Child's armistice, campaign is an example of how an innovative, gaming challenge can generate buzz for a charitable cause and it's, not just a challenge to gamers, war child work with studios to include content in their games that encourage players to think differently, about conflict. This. Includes in-game, incentives, that can be purchased cosmetic. Items for your character or mechanics. That make their games play differently, and the, proceeds goes straight, to war child here's, Wayne Emmanuel. And. So. We've worked well. With well over probably 30 different Studios on various armed. Suspects, of content we've. Worked for like wargaming, who've created, in-game. Items, kind of mascot items, that you can purchase more recently, works with the developer, who, have a VR game called dick wild which is like a hunting game and. What they did was they added Cupid's. Bow and arrow to the game so every time you shot an arrow it would instead, of kind of like killing the animals they would kind of burst into hearts, basically, which, is like a really, cool creative inventive, way of pacifying. That that, game and tied, into armistice, creative. Microtransactions.
Small Purchases, that enhance a game on top of its regular value, have, become an intrinsic, part of gaming, culture in recent years they're. Controversial, in, some countries they're legally classified as gambling. Some. Studios though guarantee. Rewards, in exchange, for a charitable donation it's. A win-win for gamers looking. Good in game while, doing good in real life. Another. Example of creating extra content for games called, on war child's connections, to the arts world through. Bonus content in the game we mentioned earlier this war of mine which, puts players in the role of innocent, civilians caught, up in the middle of a war and we ended up getting together a series of street. Artists, to allow us to use their, work within the game and, players. Could pay to unlock in, this kind of section. Of the game where they'd go and actually find these pieces of art and it would actually help their mental well-being as, they were guiding, these characters, through it's. Just a great story it's, a great thing, that we can then talk about and share with other people so there's the fundraising element, the fundraising side of it but. There's also the creative side of it which lends really well to, conversations. Which then create awareness, for. How. Many different types. Of media are going to get people to really. Concentrate on something really grab people's attention for. Such. An extended period of time, gaming. Can be quite a personal, experience and. You've. Got this audience that's very much captivated, if. Those players can feel like they have some form of empathy for. Children. In conflicts as great, fantastic, and I think that adds real strength to it. With. War child's knowledge of the industry they're able to create campaigns, that both help their cause and inspire. Positive change in an industry that isn't always open, to all, day. Of the girl is another, of their annual campaigns connected. To the United Nations International Day, of the girl a worldwide. Effort to, increase awareness of, gender, inequality. Proceeds. From game sales made, through the campaign go to helping, women and girls in conflicts, and Wayne, also, sees an additional benefit in encouraging, diversity in, games. Loren. Radford is part of the Yogscast, a gaming, channel with their own slate of charity streams including. The Christmas, jingle jam, which. In its seven years of existence has, raised over fourteen million dollars, for good causes including. War child she. Worked with the day of the gull campaign last year I'm. Already, quite, vocal about. Issues, with the quality and, so, the, International, Day of the girl thing, actually, spoke, to me quite heavily and it also gave, me an opportunity to.
Play A game with a really cool. Female lead character I mean, I'm not like one of those people that cares. Whether. The protagonist is male or female but it's always so fun playing, someone have been like yeah I relay. The. International, Day of the girl returns. This October, the 11th. So. You. Now know some. Of what's possible when it comes to working with streamers and Game Studios as. Someone, who, both, loves, video games and streaming, alike it's, honestly. Incredibly. Encouraging, to, see that there are people out there willing, to make time spend, time and sacrifice time, to making their passion, for play, intertwine. With their love of a good cause. Nick. Scott of Warchild says taking, the dive into such a big, and diverse community. Requires, preparation. But, yields, rewards for charities willing to put in the time it's. Not something that you should expect, a quick fix for, us it's quite strategic it's, quite long term and, and we've gradually grown that. But. It's, a huge industry it's the by far and away the biggest, entertainment. Industry now and. There. Are lots of people connected to it who like. Everyone else want to support, good causes, you've, got Studios, you've got gamers. Themselves who come in all. Sorts, of shapes and sizes you know there is there is a game for every single demographic so, there. Is a lot of people out there to engage with and a lot of people out there who if, approached, in the right way would. I've no doubt want to support a myriad, of different causes out there. Kirstin. Carla from child's, play is a relatively. New and somewhat accidental gamer, who says that in streaming, one, ingredient, is key, authenticity. I got, on Twitch for the first time and I don't really have any followers but I'm following people and I'm trying to host people and, try, and understand, the commentary, making a comment here and there and and watching, I spend about an hour a day on Twitch just learning, about it going to YouTube REE watching videos if, you can't speak the language it's. Difficult, to come in and act like you know what you're talking about so I've also, been very transparent, and honest and, I call myself the accidental gamer because I'm gonna I'm, gonna get there and I'm gonna know more than playing candy crush on my phone right and so learning. And playing and playing out in my comfort zone. When. You're in the early stages of working in the industry partnerships. Are there to be made with gamers like yogscast, lauren who we heard from earlier in the show many. In the community are, extremely. Approachable and just. Because they play games for a living doesn't, mean that unprofessional. Nick. From Warchild tells, us how best to approach the gaming community to work on campaigns, but. First gamer, gaming. Advocate, developer. And charity. Fundraiser Neal, Bauer, there's. 30, to 50. Years depending on how you look at it of history. That you have to get involved with most people on charities don't have the time so, find people that are very passionate about games. And getting, connected to this group and try to entice them to come into the charity and be part of it instead, of like hey we want your donations, just say hey we would love for you if you were evolving games that, kind of help be our ambassador. And our flagship, going into these spaces gaming. ISM has become this massive industry but it's still run. By. People. Who ultimately like.
Playing Games like making, games there. Are creatives. They love. This world, so. Bear. In mind that you. Are talking to a lot of people who love what they do and they, want to help you but, just. Be a little bit aware of that, when you're going to talk to these people and do your homework you know you're, going to approach, a streamer then watch the stream because. It might be that actually, you've, seen the figures and think wow this streamer can really support but, you may go onto the streaming thing actually it doesn't fit with our brand and. Likewise. When you approach that streamer you. Should you, know be good to know a bit about them and really demonstrate some, form of enthusiasm, for the product that they're they're putting out there of. Course there, are some things you shouldn't, say when, approaching gamers for support, Lauren. From yogscast, again it's. The trying, to get down with the kids oh hey. I love you content I particularly like that one stream you did oh man, that, was, lit yo like, don't go there. Earlier. We, heard about the concept of handing over some responsibility. To streamers fundraising. In the name of a charity this. Can be a great thing as it helps the stream of remain authentic to, themselves and their, audiences, but. Of course some. Charities, might be skeptical about being involved with a group that's more. Laissez-faire. With, their communication. Custom. Carlyle explains, how child's play deals with the spontaneity of their donors. When. I first came in you know you do hear a lot of profanity or you do hear a lot of colorful. Analogies. As people stream and game and do things and that's just part of the industry and they've, embraced that we're, not saying that we promote it or that, children. Should or shouldn't be listening we're, allowing our donors to be who they are with, the groups of people that support them and that raised the money and that's. Different than a lot of the other national. Or international nonprofits. Like us that they might have more rules around that the. Authenticity of streamers can sometimes, mean mistakes, are made but, the drive is always, there, Lauryn. Radford from the yogscast again because. We. Are just. People who. Are just creative content, and. Having. Fun with their and trying to do good things raising money things like that we're. Gonna have our good days and our bad days there's gonna be some days where if we're tired or we're sick or we. Make, a slip up with something that we say like, a joke might come out wrong or, you might read a name wrong on a screen and it sounds funny. Just, little human. Mistakes here and there happen because it's life if a. Company is concerned, about. People. Saying. Things that. Aren't inherently bad but don't necessarily, reflect their, message then disclaimers, are a great thing to have the, most simple way of putting all of this advice would. Be to. Tread lightly. Charities. Need to be really careful, when, they're approaching, gamers, streamers. They're. Ultimately, approaching. People and asking them for money. And they. Have to try and be aware. Of how it effects that. Studio, or that streamer. You. Know if you ask a streamer to do. Something. For. You you're probably asking them to stop doing their day job for a day and work, for you instead for a day that's, a big consideration that, people need to take into account. Large. Campaigns, aren't the only way to use gaming for fundraising but, whether it's a small or big, part of your work, integrating. It with your existing fundraising. Strategy is crucial. As Kirsten. From childsplay explains. Understand. The business like we would in any other way for fundraising so, before. I started, working. With Costco, as a national, partner and a fundraising partner back in my first day I had to understand, their business what, was their philosophy how. Our employees treated, how did employees feel what was their mission what. Are the things they measure, financially. And how are we going to help. Align with that with them and I think that's the same thing with gaming.
Unbend. From frag Falls an employee led group within Salesforce, has. Some advice on connecting, that business strategy it's, a long-term engagement. You. Need to engage an audience you need to broker connections. Keeping. A regular schedule is, something, that if you're doing the streaming game is something. That you need to do because otherwise you, lose viewership, and viewership drives, donations. So it is something that you need to do, regularity. Is what helps draw the crowds, hosting. One event and raising, a few dollars $20. $100. $1,000 10,000, it doesn't matter that's, a wonderful thing but it what is even more wonderful is getting, people to come back getting people to engage over, and over again and that, comes with creating. A environment. Where people, are, engaged, because you are engaged and if you're engaged everybody, else is engaged and they want to come back and that's the whole point and as, a charity, you're, looking to get the biggest possible returns a new campaign. To, do that you, need data. Places. Like twitch and YouTube, have, already. Massive. Data analytics, platforms, to show how, many people are engaging how often, they're watching, how often, they're, they're donating, and then of course you combine numbers like those with the numbers that are coming directly from your charity, processing, systems, and you can see as things. Grow as things, change, where, the donations, are coming from you, can see directly, the correlation. Between. Viewership. Increasing. And changing, and adjusting in times of day if you want to get really specific and, the, amount of donations that are coming in and you could probably, if, you had enough data you could start drawing, which games draw, more more, money for your charity. I'm. On twitch right now and in my top top. 10 categories I, have of. Course fortnight is the charity still, not sure how they can work with streaming or if, video games are even the right thing for them the, streaming world is about, much, more than gaming, errs however. Next, to that you have just, chatting, you, have science, and technology, and you have art, maybe. Your charity has nothing to do with video games, streaming. Is so much more than that now so. Let's say your charity, is donating. Food to, the homeless you. Could probably find, a, cooking. Streamer, because, this is a thing that would, create a dish from start to finish that takes two to three hours to talk about your charity, maybe. You donate clothes, to women's shelters, you, could find a cosplayer, streamer. Who creates, their costumes, live on stream, with. Streaming being so new people, are doing such unique creative live streams so, I almost, could, guarantee whatever your, charity, is working, towards, you, could probably find some sort of live medium, that falls in line with the, content, that you would like to present, your. Brand. Professionally. The. World can be an upsetting place and. So can the internet sometimes. Just, the right thing to make you feel a bit brighter it's. A stream of someone walking their dog or trying, to unlock the final achievement on a game they've spent 10 years trained, to complete, for. Gamers the challenge, is what keeps them coming back and this, fundamentally. Is why charity, gaming drives works so, well the. Instinct, to complete one more level upgrade. This piece of gear then that piece finished that side quest helps, motivate fundraisers. To go the extra mile, or the. Extra hour, it's. An enthusiasm. That can be captured by charities, with big ambitions or, individual. Gamers who want to support a cause close, to their heart. If. There are just a few things for you to take away from a look into the world of gaming for good it's these. Integrating. Gaming into your existing business strategy, is vital, you can, build an engaging and successful, campaign using, close involvement, with incredibly, open, gaming communities, that are out there don't. Be afraid to, let them take the reins and push, campaigns, and exciting, and unexpected, directions. And, most. Of all always. Look out for player. One, I've. Been Wilfong for. More information, about gaming, for good and to hear from inspiring, fundraising. Trailblazers, visit. SF d c KO, /, fundraising. Guide. We'd. Like to thank the charities, and streamers whose insight, and knowledge make, this podcast, possible, Travis.
Erickson Eric, Blandon Kirsten. Carlile Graham, Stark Wayne, Emanuel and Nick Scott, Ben, gray Shane, Porter, Loren Radford, Hannah Rutherford, Neal Bauer lacier. Finley and Laurie Williams. This, documentary has been brought to you by salesforce.com. It's, a sounds fancy and field work production. Written. And presented by me will bond with research, and additional writing by Curtis, James Alex, Reece and Simon. James, music. By Neil Hale and Simon James, editing. Production and mixing by, Simon James.
2019-10-18