What Is Charity Streaming?
In the past decade, gaming has gone from purely being a source of entertainment, an escape from reality or a way to hangout with friends to being a viable career path, thanks to the growth of live streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube. Today, it has become much more than that. Streaming has become more about building communities, sharing memories and making a difference in the real world.
One of the most powerful and impactful trends in streaming in the past decade is charity streaming. But what is charity streaming and how have creators turned their platforms into the next generation of fundraising?
How Creators are Giving Back
Charity streaming is when a streamer uses their platform to support causes they believe in and their like-minded, highly supportive community comes together to donate live during the streams to contribute. Charity streams happen in various capacities. It ranges from a small streamer rallying their tight-knit community to support a local cat shelter, all the way to global fundraising events like the Jingle Jam campaign in December, where Make-A-Wish has been named as one of the charity partners for 2025.
What Makes Charity Streaming Effective?
There are certain factors and qualities of charity streaming that come together to make it an effective way to fundraise.
- Power of community: A streamer’s audience is more than just numbers on the screen. It is a loyal, supportive community that is filled with like-minded individuals. When the streamer showcases genuine support for a cause, the community comes together to showcase their enthusiasm too.
- Interactive and entertaining: Unlike traditional charity drives, stream viewers are more deeply engaged through custom donation alerts, shout outs, donation goals and fun challenges like “Every $10 donation equals 10 push-ups”. This unique quality of streaming turns fundraising into engaging entertainment and allows for viewers to see their donation have an immediate impact.
- Easy-to-use and seamless technology: Platforms like Streamlabs and Tiltify have made it incredibly easy for streamers to integrate donations links and buttons directly into their live streams. Lesser barriers mean more people are up to streaming for charity. With charity streaming becoming more and more prominent, even the streaming platforms are developing their own tools like YouTube Giving and Twitch Charity.
Make-A-Wish Canada and Charity Streaming
For us at Make-A-Wish Canada, our connection to gaming and streaming goes beyond fundraising; it is part of the wish experience itself. Gaming related wishes are the second most popular wish type in the world with over 160 gaming wishes fulfilled in the past two years. One powerful example is James, whose wish was granted in 2024. James wished to be a voice actor, and that wish came true when the team behind the popular game Wareframe created brand new mini game and character, Ollie, just for him. Today, James is a celebrity in the Warframe community and even has his own plushie! James’s experience shows just how powerful a wish can be, turning dreams into life-changing memories.
Interested in Streaming for Us?
If you’re interested in hosting a charity stream in support of Make-A-Wish Canada, or just interested in learning more, you can contact us HERE.
