During a charity livestream linked to the Thankmas campaign led by YouTuber Jacksepticeye, the content creator raised over $1.4 million for child poverty in his biggest livestream so far.
Many YouTubers use their large platforms for good causes. Much of Markiplier's foundation and goals are geared towards donating to charities. In the past, he's donated both his own money and the contributions from his viewers to Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, and Living Beyond Breast Cancer. Recently, Game Theorists MatPat and his wife Stephanie raised over $3 million for St. Jude, easily surpassing their original goal of $1 million in a 10-hour livestream.
Just a couple of days ago, Jacksepticeye launched a livestream on his own platform for the Thankmas campaign, an annual event that the YouTuber hosts to give back. This year, due to COVID-19 and the impact it's had worldwide, Thankmas teamed up with Red Nose Day to help vulnerable children and families in need. The Thankmas event started on December 12 and runs until December 20.
In his YouTube livestream on December 13, Jacksepticeye promised viewers that if they were able to match his $500k in donations to Thankmas, he would dye his hair green on camera. Shortly after, he announced via Twitter that they had hit their goal in just 2.5 hours, meaning he would be dyeing his hair live on camera. But the contributions didn't stop there; the donations from Jacksepticeye's community have led to a new fundraising record of over $4 million dollars. At the time of writing, Thankmas donations have surmounted to nearly $4.5 million.
On Jacksepticeye's charity livestream, he collaborated with creators PewDiePie, Valkyrae, who won Content Creator of the Year at The Game Awards, Corpse, Sykkuno, and others in Among Us, a game that has swept the livestream community this year. He also did a number of giveaways for his fans, including 10 Stadia Premiere Edition consoles and over 20 access codes to redeem free games on Stadia, including the newly released and controversial Cyberpunk 2077.
Following the highly successful Among Us charity livestream, Jacksepticeye noted that his community has left him "speechless," highlighting that, despite the difficult year 2020 has been for people and families globally, he is "beyond floored seeing the amount of support put behind this fundraiser for Red Nose Day," he said in a press release. "Being able to raise awareness for such an important cause is an honor and I have no words to express the gratitude for the time, effort, and donations from everyone involved."
Thankmas isn't over yet; anyone who wants to donate to families in need can visit Tiltify, a platform that Jacksepticeye has collaborated with in the past for his charitable content, for more information on contributions and the organization Red Nose Day.
Source: Tiltify