Getting a Twitch donation sounds easy and fun and so does setting up for a Twitch donation. In fact, there are many people who make a run at it even if they are not gaming fans. Why? It sounds like the ultimate job. Sit around and play video games all day. Who does not want to do that job? Especially when most of us sit in cubicles all day and try not to be bored while cranking out some mindless task. Best of all most of these streamers, literally, work from the comfort of their own homes which is the dream of many workers in the workforce.
The Allure of Twitch Steaming:
Getting up and getting ready is a hassle. The ability of a Twitch streamer to make money from their home while playing video games might be a huge siren’s call to a lot of people. It may be true even if they do not really like games in the first place. It is the number one reason why people assume that this job is easy. The truth could not be farther from the truth. The truth is that there are aspects that are easy but the generation of viewing audience is not easy at all. There are hours and hours of playing without much to show for it. Not to mention you have to figure out how to give yourself breaks during the stream to do things like eating and such. You also have to manage the viewers so that you actually have a community that people want to join. Subsequently, there is a lot of work and effort that happens before a person can consider themselves successful and an actual “full-time streamer”.
The Time You Should Think About Setting Up a Charity Stream:
Once you do get to this level then you can start to consider how to use your new-found fame and success to help others. Most streamers at this level decide to do charity streams. The streams help their favorite charity raise money and it also gives the streamer good PR. There are also, on the streaming platforms themselves, people who will visit the stream because of the charity. Subsequently, it gives the steamer the chance to grow its audience even larger. There are technical things you should do before you do this in your own business, however. There are several pitfalls that could slow you down quite a bit. Therefore, you will need to think about them before you attempt to do this in your own streams.
The Temptation to Use Big Box Payment Processors for a Twitch Donation:
There is a temptation to just use a big box processor to handle the donations. You could, theoretically, announce your intentions to donate to an organization and send them to a page to do the donation. The page will have a button to make a donation of predetermined sizes or custom levels and that might be how you collect the money. However, the thing you need to keep in mind is that a lot of these companies will eat into the donations quite a bit. Subsequently, the amount you think you are donating may not actually reach the organization of your choice. It may, in fact, be far less than you expect. Why? A lot of these big box payment providers are made with “for-profit” activities in mind. There is the luxury of taking more money because of the higher profit margins. Something that will not fly for a non-profit that you are donating to with your procured money.
Conclusion If You Set Up Correctly for a Twitch Donation:
You also, probably, do not want to be taking this money in as an individual. Most streamers do not set up a corporate tax structure until much later in their business. The long term effect of this means that you are open to more liability in your business. Your personal assets are at risk. The other problem you have that is more specific to this case I that it stops you from using more specifically built platforms to receive your donations. Moreover, that means you are subject to larger fees due to the fact that you may have to use “for-profit” tools for your charity stream. Obviously, for your own sake and, in the interest of making bigger donations, you should get a better legal tax structure for your business. Of course, getting through these systems, once you get set up, can be difficult. You should work with a business that has an interest in helping you set up. There is, usually, a lot of technical information you need to provide like EIN numbers and so forth. Some of the information may be confusing, therefore, make sure that you have someone ready and waiting to help you through the process.
