Photo: ©Aleh.prod
From the 17th to the 19th of January 2025, the streaming world rallied to support Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF France) at the Stream for Humanity charity event, organised on Twitch by content creator AmineMaTue.
For 48 hours, more than 25 streamers, including Squeezie, Michou, Gotaga and Maghla, brought their communities together to raise money online for the charity.
All the money raised was donated to Médecins Sans Frontières to fund its work in four conflict zones: Sudan, Palestine, Lebanon and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
An Outstanding Achievement: Over €3.5 Million Raised
A Weekend of Purpose-Driven Gaming
Our 5 tips for a successful online fundraising event
An Outstanding Achievement: Over €3.5 Million Raised
Like the best-known charity gaming marathons such as ZEvent and Games Done Quick, Stream for Humanity raised an exceptional €3.5 million in the space of a single weekend.
The event attracted over 560,000 spectators at its peak, generating over 230,000 unique donations in support of MSF's humanitarian aid missions.
A Weekend of Purpose-Driven Gaming
Throughout the weekend, streamers engaged in challenges, gaming sessions, and mini-tournaments, all while highlighting the impactful work of MSF.
The event ended with a football match between web personalities and professional football players at the Jean Bouin stadium in Paris, broadcast live on Twitch.
The dedication of streamers, spectators, and donors was remarkable throughout the 48-hour event, with a peak of 2,400 donations per minute and an average donation of €15.
Your charity can also harness the power of online streaming and digital tools to maximise fundraising for your missions. Keep reading for practical tips on organising a successful virtual event!
Our 5 tips for a successful online fundraising event
As a charity, organising a virtual event, whether it's a gaming marathon or another online initiative, is a fantastic fundraising opportunity. These events can bring together a large audience, engage passionate communities and collect donations while raising awareness of a cause, even from a distance.
To ensure the success of such a fundraising campaign, two elements are essential: meticulous preparation and a solid fundraising platform. Discover our 5 key tips for organising a successful online event:
1. Engage key voices that resonate with your audience (content creators, influencers, streamers, etc.) to rally as many participants as possible.
During Stream for Humanity, streamers such as Squeezie and Inoxtag (with 5.2 million and 1.5 million subscribers respectively on Twitch) played a key role in the success of the initiative.
By teaming up with content creators or influential online personalities, your charity can gain access to a wider audience, maximising the opportunities to raise more online donations.
2. Create compelling moments
To engage your audience, create unique challenges. Not only will they spark interaction, but they’ll also drive audience surges, and could help to boost donations!
During Stream for Humanity, streamers set themselves ‘Donation Goals’, taking on challenges based on the amounts collected. For example:
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€25,000 raised = I eat a larva,
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€50,000 = I eat a spicy scorpion,
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€120,000 = I handcuff myself to another streamer for 3 hours, etc.
These live-streamed moments amplify spectator excitement and inspire others to join in and witness the challenges unfold.
3. Establish an effective communications strategy
A well thought-out communication strategy is essential to ensure the success of your online fundraising event.
To establish your communication plan, consider setting up targeted communications via several channels, such as: email, social media, sponsored advertising, newsletters, telephone calls, etc.
For your event, leverage the talents of the content creators you collaborate with by entrusting them with key aspects of the communication, especially on social media.
We also recommend using email to connect with your supporters and donors. To help you, we’ve put together a fundraising guide: 25 Ready-to-Use Email Templates For your Fundraising Events. It offers ideas for virtual events and ready-to-use email templates for every stage of your fundraising event, including:
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Event announcement and invitation to participate
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Engagement strategies for streamers and their communities,
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Post-event communication, etc.
4. Ensure a smooth user experience at the event
To encourage contributions to your event, you need to be able to offer a simple, fluid and engaging user experience. Here are some best practices to help you achieve this:
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Create a dedicated donation page to the event that is easily accessible. During the Stream for Humanity event, viewers were able to donate with just a few clicks by following the link to the donation form shared in the chat.
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Track and update donations in real time. By updating the total amount of the prize pool and per streamer in real time, you can foster a spirit of friendly competition. This dynamic enhances gamification, making it more engaging and motivating participants to contribute even more.
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Instantly displaying donations, the names of donors, and their messages encourages other viewers to follow suit.
5. Test your fundraising platform and streaming platform in advance
Finally, the success of a virtual fundraising event depends to a large extent on the reliability of the technical infrastructure of your platforms. During peak periods, the volume of simultaneous connections can cause slowdowns or even interruptions.
To avoid these problems and ensure an optimal user experience, it is essential to test your streaming platform and donation forms before launching your event.
Would you like to start planning a fundraising event for your charity, but don't know where to begin? Whether your event is face-to-face or online, don't wait any longer to discover the keys to a successful fundraising event. Read our article: 5 steps to get started with your fundraising event!