Streamlabs, the leading provider of live streaming tools for platforms like Twitch and YouTube, has announced its new native fundraising platform. What's more, the new platform will be baked in and comes without any added fees. This is good news for the problem child that is Twitch streaming.
When streaming, doing more than just sharing your screen on Twitch requires additional tools, especially on PC. There are various ways of finding and implementing these tools, but Streamlabs is a company that has streamlined this process. This includes features that allow for better engagement with fans, grow the streamer's audience, and even improve their monetization without having to constantly jingle the old tip jar, which is a huge boon for streamers that haven't quite made it to contract levels with Twitch.
Twitch doesn't have a charity function built-in. So before this new Streamlabs integration, streamers looking to raise money for charity would have to find an additional program to raise money. This made the process messy, longer, and potentially buggy. Other platforms would also tack on addition fees (usually around 5%) per donation, which really ate away at the net gain, especially when compounded with PayPal's processing fees. Streamlabs doesn't impose any additional charges. Once PayPal takes their processing fee, all the money donated makes it to the bank.
According to a press release from Streamlabs, the company is already working with several charities to kick-off the program. The first notable charity is the Arbor Day Foundation behind the #TeamTrees movement. “Streamlabs’ partnership and unique charitable structure allows every dollar donated through #TeamTrees to go directly towards tree planting,” said Dan Lambe, president of Arbor Day Foundation. “We are thankful to be able to be a part of their launch and look forward to more collaborations in the future.”
Additionally, charities will have access to features such as a live dashboard where they can track donation progress, a list of live streamers with scheduled charities, and the ability to view streamers that are currently raising funds, which can help them approve or disapprove of the streamer, should they not represent their charity in a favorable light. Streamlabs fundraising platform is currently in beta, and only for select charities such as Feeding America, World Vision, Make-A-Wish, and the previously mentioned Arbor Day Foundation. It is expected that the program will expand the list of charities in the coming year, but the scope is yet unknown. One would hope that even smaller charities could be fundraised for, much like the ones partnered with Humble.
The fundraising platform is live now in beta, with more coming in the first quarter of 2020.