Charitable giving is always a good thing. Building your base of fans on any streaming platform is very difficult. However, these people grow to like and respect you, in most cases and trust you. Therefore, it can feel like a little bit of betrayal when you run a charity stream and you have to hand a large portion of the donations to the streaming platform. Most streaming platforms do not even need the money but they happily take it. The people who really need it, or the organizations that need the money, get less of the money which can leave you to feel somewhat bad at the situation. You feel bad even though you may have raised a significant amount of money.
What is the problem? The problem is that the systems were not set up for charity streams at all. They were set up for donations to improve the stream or the streamer. Therefore, the platforms feel entitled to their share of the money which is fair play in most cases. It is because the audience may have come from their own pool of people on the site or sites. However, a charity stream is an altruism. As much of the money should go to the charity as humanly possible and that is when you should look for a different solution to the donation problem.
Streaming Platforms and Double-Dipping:
The truth is that there are platforms that do the double dip. They skim a little off the top when the donation comes in then they skim some when the donation is withdrawn which means that your donation total may be less than you advertised. It is not a fault of your own but it is the reality. If you call your organization of choice and tell them that they have X amount then it might feel really bad to actually show up with less than that amount. Of course, it is not your fault. However, no one wants to show up with less than they promised. No one wants to do that even if it is an understandable situation.
What do you do? You find a service that will give you a flat fee that you can predict. Therefore, you can work into the math when you put it up on your screen. You know exactly what you need to hit that goal and you know, with some certainty, that you will show up with that amount. It sounds like a simple thing to do but not every platform supports it. Therefore, you should be ready with a system that can take donations through the preferred ways your fans, friends, and family like to interact with you. Text, chat, and other avenues should be covered.
Want a flat fee donation system you can use? You should check out our offering. The fee is the same for CC, ACH, or AMEX. You handle entertaining your stream and getting those donations. We will handle collecting it for you. Check us out today.
