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Community Development

& Fundraising Through Streaming Overview

Marie Shanley, �Spring 2026 Internship

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Report Purpose

This report offers an overview for best practices in live stream fundraising, with a focus on understanding best practices of streaming as a source of funding for gaming nonprofits.

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Defining Goals for Streaming Engagement

  • Raise funds efficiently (cost per dollar)
  • Determine the role of community building and management
  • Understand how much spend is needed and what income can be expected
  • Evaluate whether Twitch is the best resource for consistent fundraising or if other channels are more viable.

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2026 Landscape Overview

The most successful charity streaming campaigns share a pattern:

  • Large creator names
      • Other creators are compelled to join and fundraise because they are now aware of the cause and prestige it’s earned.
  • Compelling causes,
  • Strong platform relationships.
      • YouTube is behind most creators who bring in the most funds, although the overall conclusion is that raising platform-agnostic best (offer tools, creators decide where their following is)

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Overview:Notable Campaigns

Jacksepticeye’s Thankmas for Crisis Text Line & Samaritans raising $3M in 2024 mostly on Youtube

Ryan Trahan raising $11.6M for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital on Youtube

Mr Beast + Mark Rober raising $41M for WaterAid with other creators mostly on Youtube

Other notable campaigns:

  • John & Hank Green’s Project for Awesome raised $1.9M+ in 2025 on YouTube.

​

  • Ludwig and The Try Guys raised $1.8M+ for LA Wildfire Relief mostly on YouTube.

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Overview: Platforms

  • Twitch’s ethos revolves around community building. Fundraising works best when the process gives streamers something in return and is relevant to their community’s focus.

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  • The exception to this rule is St. Jude, which succeeds across all categories due to its early entry into the field, cultural resonance, and brand recognition.

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  • Charities that do well on Twitch tend to have large names and offer prestige back to creators.

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  • To hedge bets, it’s easier to create packages that creators can implement where they see fit with branding, mission and best practices

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Stream Fundraising Tiers

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Tier Comparison

TIER 1

TIER 2

TIER 3

HIGH INPUT /

HIGH OUTPUT

MEDIUM INPUT /

MEDIUM OUTPUT

LOW INPUT / LONG-TERM COMMUNITY

BUILDING OUTPUT

STAFF

$$ EXPECTED 1st year

LEAD TIME

1 PT

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3-4 months

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>3K

1 FT, 1 PT (+Volunteers)

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6-9 months

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>100K

2 FT, 2 PT

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6-9 months

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>500K

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Input/Output Expectations: 3 Tier System

Tier 1: LOW INPUT / LONG-TERM COMMUNITY BUILDING OUTPUT

Summary:

  • Low spend. Low Cost. Low Reward.
  • Some money upfront to make money. Longer term rewards (partnerships, community marketing).
  • Goal is not significant immediate income — but a permanent brand community presence and tertiary small revenue stream

​

Needs:

Meaningful time investment required from present staff

Consistent upkeep of Community space

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Tier 2: MEDIUM INPUT / MEDIUM OUTPUT

Summary:

  • Some money upfront to make money. Longer term rewards.
  • Around $10K raised per campaign to start
  • High-profile partnerships add to creator interest, building long-term benefits

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Needs:

Meaningful time investment required from present staff

Additional contractors or full time dedicated staff

Resources for consistent engagement with creators

Building out brand relationship for creators

Input/Output Expectations: 3 Tier System

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Tier 3: HIGH INPUT / HIGH OUTPUT

Summary:

  • Invest lots of money to make more money
  • Around $1M raised per year after 3 years
      • If you have HUGE fundraiser, 1M upfront, with diminished, still impactful funds as you go
  • High-profile partnerships add to creator interest

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Needs:

High profile creators

Dedicated time investment required from present staff

Additional contractors and full time dedicated staff

Social media/marketing spend

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Best for maximum fundraising and awareness and long term impact.

Risk: costly and resource-intensive.

Expectations for Output: 3 Tiers

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Tier 3: Case Studies

The OceanCleanup, Starlight, Urban Arts

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T3 Key Example. The OceanCleanup 2021

Finance Report Link

EUR 30 million raised by Mr Beast’s #teamocean – was split equally between The Ocean Cleanup and Ocean Conservancy. Given by the end of 2021.

Cause: Every dollar raised equates to a pound of trash being removed from rivers, beaches, or oceans, with The Ocean Cleanup’s contribution being fully committed to rivers

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T3 Key Example. The OceanCleanup 2022

Finance Report Link

Their profile went up, awareness and donations all went up the following year

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T3 Key Example. The OceanCleanup 2024

Finance Report Link

The numbers evened back out in a few years without continuous high-profile fundraising but they do sustain a decent amount of funding

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T3 Key Example. Urban Arts

2025 Report/Yearbook

Summary:

  • Invest lots of money to make money - paid GSA Speedrun Summit
  • High-profile partnership add to raise awareness with other creators – 2 high profile speedrunners, 4 mid tier speedrunners

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Needs:

High profile creators ✅

Yearlong single campaign (started in 2025) ✅

Ongoing (annual event since 2021) ✅

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T3 Key Example. Urban Arts

6 Ambassadors 2024-25

Up to 21 Ambassadors 2025-26

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Events:

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2026

1 Annual Campaign- ongoing – $46,335.00 raised as of 4/29/2026

Majority outsourced

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T3 Key Example. Starlight

Aka Realistic T3

Annual Campaigns:

  • Mario Day (Mar 10)
  • May the 4th upcoming
  • Play week June
  • 12 days of streaming in Dec

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Tier 2: Key Example

To Write Love on Her Arms

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Tier 2: MEDIUM INPUT / MEDIUM OUTPUT

T2 Key Example.

Summary:

  • Some money upfront to make money. Longer term rewards.
  • Around $10K raised per campaign to start
  • High-profile partnerships add to creator interest, building long-term benefits

​

Needs:

Meaningful time investment required from present staff

Additional contractors or full time dedicated staff

Resources for consistent engagement with creators

Building out brand relationship for creators

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Example: To Write Love on Her Arms

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  • Engaging with brand partners to build incentives
  • Connecting with creators and building a community space for them to continue being engaged with us

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  • Build a creator management pipeline for both top-tier and nano-creators
  • Build a themed event(s) with co-sponsors to engage all levels of streamers
  • Tap into creator communities with similar goals (ambassador program).

T2 Key Example. TWLOHA Effort Required

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T2 Key Example. TWLOHA 2024

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T2 Key Example: To Write Love on Her Arms

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  • 1 FT, 1 PT staff
  • Community moderators (volunteer)
  • 2-4 Ambassadors (regularly engaged streamers for year with TWLOHA SWAG and partner SWAG)

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T2 Key Example. TWLOHA 2024

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2024 Tiltify Campaigns Total: $61,920.52 (known)

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Frostgiving 2024 – ?? no public info

Suicide prevention month– $51,560.52

Mental health isn’t scary– $2,235.00

May Mental Health Month– $3,200.00

Valentine’s doesn’t have to suck– $4,925.00

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T2 Key Example. TWLOHA 2025

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2025 Total Campaigns Total: $125,000 (campaigns below, plus outside efforts)

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Other Campaigns (Twitch Together) – $44,643.32

December. Frostgiving 2025 – $3,979.61

October. Mental health isn’t scary – $2,235.00

September. Suicide prevention month – $50,300.69

May. Mental Health Month – $18,406.69

Feb. Valentine’s doesn’t have to suck – $5,434.69

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Tier 1

Summary:

  • Low spend. Low Cost. Low Reward.
  • Some money upfront to make money. Longer term rewards (partnerships, community marketing).
  • Goal is not significant immediate income — but a permanent brand community presence and tertiary small revenue stream

​

Needs:

Meaningful time investment required from present staff

Consistent upkeep of Community space

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T1->T2->T3 Effort Recommendations

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T1->T2->T3 Effort Recommendations

We do have the cause and brand connections to offer incentive for big(er) names to join us.

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In order to raise big we need to go big

  • Commit to finding big names and finding the value we offer back
    • and/or commit to more staff and staff time
  • Commit to finding co-sponsors/partners or adding as an incentive for current partners, which will build out giveaways
  • Commit to recruiting enough of a variety of size of creators

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Enhancing Tier 1

  • TwitchCon networking with booth ($5K), printing materials, shipping (1K), 40 hrs per event (2 people and 1 volunteer)
  • OR Other event presence (SXSW, PAX)
  • + Giveaways with partners
  • + Additional Staff for fundraising
  • List building, outreach for partnerships, creators

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Expected Fundraising: 10K in first year

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Best Practices

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Lessons Learned

Partnerships helps offer a streamer’s community something in return: swag, game display.

Find creators who are genuinely close to the cause, esp the campaign — game makers, speedrunners, and indie devs will naturally speak to both the G4C conference and game jams.

Working closely with platforms accelerates efforts: they sometimes contribute to fundraising, recommend streamers, and amplify reach.

After each stream, review your own stats AND check how the games played performed in their categories to understand true reach.

Avoid deleting VODs — make them protected instead to preserve detailed metrics. Create Clips soon after streams while interest is high to reshare and keep interest in future fundraising.

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  • Be clear about what funds will be used for.
  • Show creators how their participation creates change.
  • Build a case with real numbers: connections made, jobs placed, grants given, students engaged, communities reached, and sponsors involved.
  • Connect with any creators who have already benefited from G4C events — they are your most passionate advocates.
  • Ensure creator diversity across gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.
  • Build a general volunteer page on the G4C site for year-round community presence.
  • Do NOT imply moral high ground or suggest funds go to G4C salaries.
  • Do NOT recruit creators already loyal to competing fundraising causes.
  • Do NOT push for creators without first building a relationship.
  • Avoid overextending staff�*TakeThis is an example model of one liaison unsustainabley running everything.

Best Practices: Connecting with Creators

What To Do

Creator Community

What To Avoid

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Best Practices for Content

No Matter the Tier

Safe Fundraising Ideas:

Stickers on body, milestone-based challenges, collab streams, giveaways, playing with devs of the games being streamed, speedrun events

Build out live-stream-specific messaging kits, content templates, and fundraising-specific branding to prevent miscommunication about what your brand does and where the money goes.

Create web page to make it easy for any creator to contribute

Manage a space within the community Discord for fundraising