GivenGain users now have a new way to raise money for charity: live streaming! Streamers can now add our Live Widget to their broadcasts to earn donations – and get viewers hyped up with a real-time fundraising progress bar and live donation notifications.

For those out of the loop, live streaming means recording and broadcasting in real time, online. Viewers around the world tune in to watch streamers doing all kinds of activities – mostly gaming, but also creating art, holding Q&As, or even putting on musical concerts from their living rooms. And it’s quickly becoming a huge source of income for charities. Streaming platform Twitch estimates that between 2012 and 2017, its viewers donated more than $75 million.

Now the potential is greater than ever. Live streaming was on the rise even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. But with ongoing lockdowns still keeping people indoors more than usual, viewership is off the charts. Figures from April showed that the sector has doubled in size year-on-year. Twitch viewers alone now consume over 1.6 billion hours of live streamed content per month.

Training mode

Before we could release the widget to everyone, we had to see it in action – which is why we asked pro video gamer and streamer Grant Hinds to take it for a test drive. With 13.5K subscribers on Twitch and 36K on YouTube, we knew he’d be just the right person to put it through its paces.

And how! Grant decided to try the widget out on one of his biggest streaming events of the year – his 12-hour birthday fundraising marathon. In half a day of gaming, he rallied his supporters to raise more than ZAR 40,000 for Cape Town homeless shelter New Hope SA.

His verdict?

“Every streamer should use GivenGain when gaming for charity – because more causes will be able to earn more money”.

We look forward to gaming for good with Grant again soon!

Round 1. Fundraise!

Are you thinking of getting into live streaming – or already a seasoned Twitch veteran? Make it count that much more by using the GivenGain Live Widget to earn donations for your favourite charity.

Launching your own live streamed fundraising event on Open Broadcaster Software or Streamlabs OBS couldn’t be easier. While logged in to your fundraiser account, go to the livestreaming tab on your settings page, copy the link to our Live Widget, and then add it into the overlay on your streaming service of choice. For more detailed instructions, visit our support page.

Happy streaming!