New Charity Page: “You do what you can.”
I added a new charity information page to my site today. One of the benefits of having my own website is I can put up pretty WordPress or basic HTML pages anytime I like, and this seems important right now.
Plans on charity fundraising for Black History Month (and likely each month after) are still forming, but I wanted to compile a list of charitable organizations to help year-round. Especially those with a focus on mutual aid. The highlighted charities right now are all Black- or Trans- led.
On Twitch, charity streams can sometimes ride a fine line between trying to do some good and trying to hit some metrics of fundraising. As nice as it is to get a pin or a shirt or a gaming chair (yes, really) for fundraising, that shouldn’t the be main focus. Especially for stream communities that have a lot of overlap in viewers.
We can ask for donations every stream, but it’s easy to get disheartened when the charity donations stop coming in. No matter how much you remind yourself that that money you raised is money they didn’t have the day before. Honestly, I’d rather people donate as per their own time, capacity and conscience, and I don’t need to see a receipt for it.
I also encourage others to create pages like this for charities they want to highlight. Some parts of the web still work in the old ways. Links from pages to other pages can help them pop up in searches.
You also don’t necessarily have to have your own domain, here are some other options:
- Notion – I see they’ve recently started adding more AI features, but you can still make a simple page, list or table with links.
- Google Docs and Sheets – Either of these can be public, but they’re also great for sharing mutual aid links that may contain private information, so be mindful of the sharing permissions.
- Linktree and Caard – Both these sites let you make easy single page link lists. Usually meant for social media, but the link can be to anything.
If you stream, set up commands to link to charities, or a randomized “Good Cause” command. If you have a newsletter, devote regular posts to raising awareness of charities that align with your–and hopefully your readers’–values. Use social media that doesn’t penalize external links–which doesn’t leave that many, I know.
One piece of advice I will give is make sure that you link to a charity organization’s donation page, or a Tiltify campaign, GoFundMe, etc. Don’t collect the funds yourself via tips with the intent of making your own donation. While it’s nice to have a banner and alerts to generate excitement, it’s not great to have to cover fees, potentially report the income for taxes, and worry about having to post accountability.
I know it goes against the sort of self-promo attitude around charity streams, but the important thing is that the aid is getting to the charity. Optimally directly as that guarantees they get the maximum of the donation, but at least through a recognized platform that keeps the financial concerns out of your hands.
The way things are heading, it’s going to get a lot worse for the most vulnerable among us before it gets better, and while we may not always be able to open our wallets or volunteer our time, we can at least use word of mouth to raise awareness for good causes. 💖
