For December I decided to help give back to my community in the best way I knew how.

Donating To Charity

At the beginning of December, I set out to raise $100 in a month for the Boy Scouts of America through a streaming platform called Twitch. Within two weeks, I reached my $100 goal through the generosity of donors. With two weeks left in the month, I decided that I was going to challenge myself and do something I have never done. Organize a six-hour charity event with at least seven other Twitch streamers to fundraise $5,000 for the Boy Scouts of America, Wounded Warrior Project, American Red Cross, Helen Keller International, Breast Cancer Foundation.

What Is Twitch?

Now Twitch is a streaming platform for creators to show off their creations and interact with their audience. It is like having a live studio audience on your favorite television show. On Twitch you can do just about anything however it is geared more towards the gaming community.

Streaming For Charity 2018

On December 16th I put my plan into motion. During that first week, I emailed every streamer with a following of one thousand or higher and invited them to join in the charity event. In my emails, I explained what the event involved and I pushed that their channels would see a significant boost in new viewers from the positive publicity, more opportunities to collaborate with fellow creators, and that they would be volunteering their time for a worthy cause supporting youth, veterans, disabled persons, cancer victims, and those affected by disasters worldwide.

I contacted 102 different Twitch Streamers, Youtubers, and other Content Creators in one week. Sadly it would seem my messages fell on deaf ears even with follow up emails. I did get eight replies showing interest in the joining the event however when the time came to begin the six-hour charity stream I was the only one who did not bale out at the last minute. As they say in Hollywood “The show must go on.”

By myself, the event started on December 28th at 1:55 pm and ended at 8:06 pm PST. During those six hours, I interacted with 41 different viewers and raised $105 for charity.

I am disappointed that I was unable to reach the $5,000 goal and that I was unable to collaborate with my fellow creators. There is a silver lining to this. I managed to raise $205 for charity in one month. $100 in two weeks and then $105 in just six hours. I will be meeting with a representative from Boy Scouts of America to deliver $121, and Wounded Warrior Project, American Red Cross, Helen Keller International, and the Breast Cancer Foundation will receive $21 through their websites.

I really enjoyed organizing this charity event and I want to make this a yearly tradition in the streaming community.

Improvements To Be Made

For next December I will have to start sending out my email invites to streamers in October so that way I can get ahold of more streamers. This way I can have more people collaborating on the event, and if some people drop out at the last minute, I still have enough creators to make the event entertaining for everyone involved.

I would still need to work on my writing skills so that I can create emails that are more persuasive and improve the reply rate. This next month I will begin a new project called the 30 Day Blog Challenge where I will be writing a blog post every day for 30 days.

Thank You

As we end off 2018 I want to say thank you to everyone who helped out during my charity event. Whether you donated, helped spread the word, or participated in the event. Thank you. You are not only supporting the creators who make funny and engaging content for you the viewer to enjoy but you are also helping those who need it most. Whether it is the wounded vet, a deaf and blind child, those fighting off cancer, or preparing our youth to become the next great leaders in our communities.

Thank you for making the world a better a place for all of us.

Links To The Five Non-Profits

Wounded Warrior Project https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/

America Red Cross https://www.redcross.org/

Helen Keller International https://www.hki.org/

Boy Scouts of America https://www.scouting.org/

Breast Cancer Foundation https://www.bcrf.org/