Built Into the Platform: How Twitch Audiences are Primed to Give
Those unfamiliar with Twitch might find themselves completely bewildered and perplexed during their first visit to the platform. Twitch offers a continuous stream of video content including people chatting, flashy gameplay, and enthusiastic commentary, making it arguably one of the most exciting spectator experiences available for free.
While watching videos doesn’t cost the viewer anything, there is a tremendous amount of money exchanging hands on streaming platforms like Twitch, TikTok, and YouTube. Content creators, or individuals who produce original written and visual content, are agile entrepreneurs that have become the masters of monetizing their live or recorded content and engaging their online communities. This begs the question, how can charities engage these communities to gain new donors and raise more money for their cause?
Spofie, a content creator on Twitch, received a large donation of subscriptions from a community member as part of a “subscription train.”
For those unfamiliar, Twitch is based on three main areas of monetization that benefit creators — advertising revenue, direct donations, and monthly subscriptions. Audiences can choose to purchase what are called “bits” and then donate them directly to creators where every “bit” counts as $0.01. These are typically bought in bundles of 100, 500, 1000, and so on. While these offer audiences a quick, easy way to support their favorite creator, the main way that creators make revenue from Twitch is by encouraging their community to subscribe to them. A monthly subscription typically costs $5.00, of which the creator receives half while Twitch takes the other half, and allows community members access to certain privileges, cosmetic badges, and other incentives that content creators can set up for their community.
While the monetization benefits create a great flow of engagement and revenue for creators who effectively engage their communities, how does this setup benefit charities looking to break into digital fundraising? Although untraditional, Twitch’s system is set up to support and convert non-donors into new donors. Twitch communities are very comfortable with the idea of giving $5, $10, $100, or more to a creator in exchange for some form of recognition, incentive, or simply because they feel a connection to a creator and their community. What makes Twitch unique is that when a content creator decides to fundraise for a charity, they already know exactly how to engage their community and encourage donations. In turn, their community is already primed for these kinds of transactions!
You might be saying: great! Audiences on Twitch are already primed for charitable giving because of their communities and Twitch’s monetization, now what? Remember, as a charity, you are entering a space that is already established; Streaming is not a new phenomenon! To truly benefit from the community building and connections that content creators have made on the platform, it is important to adapt your organization for this space. Twitch operates from many micro-payments — a monthly subscription, a small donation, a t-shirt purchase — and causes need to take this into account when thinking about how they will convince a creator to fundraise for them, but also how they will translate that information to their audience.
Messaging should be tailored to your target audience and built out around the specified medium. Instead of a $5 monthly subscription, which most Twitch users are comfortable spending month over month, communicate to the Twitch community the impact of a $5 charitable donation. For example, a community member may decide to donate $20 so their favorite content creator can order in dinner during a fundraising stream. To encourage fundraising as a charity, think about how $5, $10, $20, or more increments can make an impact to your cause. These audiences are familiar with giving small amounts to multiple content creators simultaneously and often. Twitch has built up an economy of peer-to-peer support of community members supporting their favorite entertainers and content creators. Increasingly, content creators feel the drive and impact from their communities to do good. On the surface, Twitch may not seem like the best place for growing a fundraising program, however, when you look at how content creators can leverage their communities for a greater good, it is undeniable the impact they can have for charitable causes. Based on the preliminary groundwork of Twitch, a large community of individuals are eager to make a positive impact in the world. Fundraising online allows communities to donate to the causes they care about without the restrictions and barriers of more traditional fundraising programs.
