Facebook Rolls Out Fundraising Feature for Video-Game Livestreamers

People who broadcast themselves playing video games on Facebook can now raise money for charity at the same time.

Livestreams on Facebook Gaming, the social network’s video-game streaming platform, will now include a donate button that viewers can click while they watch. Gamers can choose a charity from a list of approved nonprofits and set a fundraising goal. Viewers, including the recipient charities, can see donations come in in real time and can chat with gamers as they play. Thanking viewers for their donations in real time “creates this kind of virality effect,” says Brittni Liyanage, product manager at Facebook Gaming, and that can inspire more viewers to give.

If nonprofits are already using Facebook to raise money, they’ll also show up in the charity livestreaming tools. The social network says the tools will be available to around 30,000 people now broadcasting themselves playing video games on its gaming platform.

Bright Prospects

Gamers have proven their fundraising prowess in recent years, and some experts predict that live video will become a bigger part of charitable giving in the years to come. Since 2013, the technology company Tiltify has made software that gamers and nonprofits use to raise money from viewers of online video feeds hosted on platforms including Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube. In 2018, gamers and nonprofits raised $80 million through streaming events using Tiltify’s software.

So far, viewers on Facebook Gaming are responding to fundraising appeals during livestreams. After Facebook announced the new fundraising feature at an event on Thursday, one user launched an hour-and-a-half-long charity livestream for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital that raised $15,000.

The event kicked off the lead-up to Giving Tuesday, the fundraising marathon on the first Tuesday following Thanksgiving. Facebook also announced that it will match the first $7 million raised for U.S.-based charities on the platform that day.

Since April, nonprofits have been able to raise money on Instagram by adding a donation sticker to their stories, temporary posts that expire after 24 hours. On Thursday, Facebook announced it would supplement this feature with a new donate button that can be permanently displayed in a nonprofit’s Instagram profile page. Facebook users will also now be able to use a donation sticker, similar to that unveiled for Instagram stories in April, to raise money through Facebook stories.

Correction: A previous version of this article said that Facebook Gaming has 30,000 streamers over all rather than 30,000 with access to the charity’s livestreaming tools.