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Serious games go beyond entertainment, serving higher purposes like education, training, and behaviour change. They engage players using game mechanics and design principles, motivating them to learn or perform specific actions.
These games have been applied across various sectors, including healthcare, education, and social impact. Recently, fundraising games and gamification have emerged as vital tools for raising awareness and encouraging investment in essential causes.
Charity game streaming on platforms like Twitch and YouTube has become a popular fundraising method. A notable example is a livestream that raised over $10 million for World Central Kitchen, supporting communities devastated by disasters.
In this blog, we’ll explore how video games can support not-for-profits and charities, how charity game streaming has revolutionised fundraising, and highlight key examples and case studies of impactful video games.
How Serious Games Can Help Your Mission
Serious games can engage a vast audience, both gamers and non-gamers alike. With billions of people playing video games daily, charities and not-for-profits can leverage this platform to reach new supporters. These organisations can effectively engage users by adapting existing games or creating custom ones. Here are a few ways games can help:
Incentivize Action
Games can motivate players to donate or take specific actions aligned with the charity's mission. For instance, a game could offer in-game rewards for donating, engaging with the charity on social media, or completing real-world tasks. These incentives can drive active participation, fostering a more significant commitment to the cause.
Engagement
Games are inherently engaging and can hold people’s attention for extended periods. Not-for-profits can keep users invested in their mission by designing fun and interactive educational games.
Emotional Connection
Games can forge an emotional connection by immersing players in the experiences of those affected by specific issues. A powerful example is Bury Me, My Love, an interactive fiction game that tells the stories of Syrian refugees. Through its real-time system, the game creates a strong emotional weight around player choices, making the cause personal and impactful.
Behavior Change
Serious games can encourage behaviour change by simulating real-life scenarios and prompting players to make decisions that align with the organisation’s goals. By tracking progress and offering feedback, these games can demonstrate the tangible impact of positive choices.
Social Sharing
Games naturally capture and share stories uniquely, making them ideal for spreading awareness. A 2022 IGEA report revealed that 74% of Australians believe games help connect people. By integrating social features into their games, not-for-profits can harness the power of social media, expanding their reach and encouraging others to get involved.
Fundraising
Games can incorporate donation mechanisms directly into gameplay, like Don-Ay, where in-game actions such as regular play, watching ads, or earning achievements convert into real-world donations. Additionally, not-for-profits can partner with game developers to release exclusive content or particular edition games to raise funds, such as when Subnautica raised money for the Ocean Cleanup Foundation through a special in-game event.
Education
Games can simplify complex topics, presenting them in interactive and engaging ways. Not-for-profits can use educational games to raise awareness and deepen public understanding of their cause, making learning fun and impactful.
Charity Streaming and Its Rise in Popularity
Game streaming has become a prominent fundraising tool for not-for-profit organisations. Through platforms like Twitch and YouTube, content creators can livestream their gameplay while encouraging viewers to donate to a cause. Here’s why it’s so effective:
1. Broad Reach
Game streams can attract large, diverse audiences. Streamers with established social media presences can amplify their message, encouraging donations from their fanbase and followers.
2. Engagement
Streams create a strong sense of community. Viewers feel connected to the cause and each other, motivated by the interactive experience and the shared interest in the game or mission. Streamers can foster this connection by actively engaging with their audience.
3. Cost-Effective
Game streaming requires minimal equipment—just a console, camera, and internet connection—making it an accessible and low-cost fundraising tool. High-quality streams may require additional cameras, lighting, or equipment investment, but the scalability remains manageable.
Examples of Charity Game Streaming Success
Here are some standout examples of charity streams that have significantly impacted not-for-profits:
- St. Jude PLAY LIVE: This annual event encourages gamers to stream and raise funds for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. In 2021, PLAY LIVE raised over $13 million.
- Extra Life: A 24-hour gaming marathon that has raised over $70 million for children’s hospitals worldwide since 2008. Individual streamers can raise anything from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars.
- Zeldathon: A charity marathon focused on The Legend of Zelda series. Over the past decade, It has raised over $2.5 million for charities such as Child's Play and Direct Relief.
Game streams are practical fundraising tools because they can reach large audiences, engage viewers, and raise funds at minimal cost.
13 games that non-profits are using to make an impact
Several video games have successfully used the power of play to spread awareness, educate the public and also raise funds for charities and social causes. Here are a few examples of games and gamification projects helping not-for-profits reach their mission:
Free Rice
Free Rice is a trivia game run by the U.N World Food Programme. For every correct question answered, the dollar equivalent of 10 grains of rice is donated to people in over 80 countries worldwide. To date, Free Rice has donated over $1.8 Million worth of rice, with over 800k players engaging in trivia daily. This is a simple way to engage an audience and support a cause on multiple platforms.
Charity Miles
This mobile app lets you choose any charity and start exercising to raise money. Activities can be from walking to jogging to even dancing. You can choose from over 40 charities for causes ranging from children, animals or the environment. Players can also challenge their friends and families for exercise milestones to raise more money and spread the cause overall. Charity Miles and its members have raised over $2 Million connectively for important causes. This app is an excellent example of how gamification of a leisurely activity can lead to excellent results!
APICO
This casual simulation and crafting game is about conserving and keeping bees. The game developers, TNgineers, wanted to create a game that shows players the importance of bees to the environment in an intriguing and semi-educational setting. Bees are as beneficial to the gameplay as to real-life environments, so a portion of the game's profits goes directly to international beekeeping and conservation charities. APICO has raised tens of thousands of dollars for these organisations.
Sharmila
Sharmila is a training game created by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to help better educate its employees and cooperating partners to apply a humanitarian protection lens to their work, improving accountability to affected populations. Sharmila aims to create knowledge and awareness of these sometimes hard-to-grasp humanitarian protection and accountability concepts to improve their application in WFP programmes.
Alba: A Wildlife Adventure
This open-world adventure game focuses on the good deeds and conservation efforts of young Alba, visiting her grandparents on a Mediterranean island. The developer, UsTwo games, is committed to helping reduce their carbon footprint, primarily through their games. While Alba already has strong conservation messages, the developers committed to planting a tree for each copy of the game sold. So far, they have planted over a million trees!
Chernobilyte
Chernobilyte is a survival horror game that introduced a downloadable digital pack to support the victims in Ukraine directly. The downloadable pack 4 different posters and are priced at $3.99 per pack. All proceeds from this pack are directly donated to the Pure Heart Foundation, a non-profit charitable organisation focusing on humanitarian aid and youth projects.
Kangazoo
This mobile simulation game offers a semi-realistic view of the life of an Australian park ranger. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) wanted to showcase Australia's unique biodiversity to young people worldwide. KangaZoo teaches players about actions that lead to positive environmental and social change. This game is an excellent example of how organisations can incentivise action and awareness of important issues through engaging media.
CHANGE: A Homeless Survival Experience
Members of Delve interactive, the developers of this game, almost fell into homelessness themselves before they came up with the idea for this game. In their words, it is a hate letter to a growing indifference in the world towards the homelessness crisis. The choices in the game are raw and honest and can be emotionally frustrating at times, which makes it a highly effective way of engaging and changing players. Delve Interactive have pledged 20% of the game's profits to feed directly into organisations helping challenge homelessness.
Tilt World
XEOPlay wanted to create a game where players could have fun while making real-world changes. They achieved this with Tilt World, a game whose mission is to end climate change by simply ‘tilting’ the device. The games' activities are mirrored through We Forest, to plant a million trees in Madagascar. XEOPlay is hoping to create change through more play-sourced games for change.
Half the Sky Movement: The Game
The United States Agency created these three minigames for International Development (USAID) in partnership with Games for Change. Each game highlights essential topics like maternal health, child health and girls' education and empowerment. The games were distributed in India and East Africa to raise awareness and education.
ICED: I Can End Deportation
This game was created by Breakthrough, a human rights organisation, to raise awareness about immigration issues. The game puts the player in the shoes of an undocumented immigrant and challenges them to navigate the complex immigration system. ICED demonstrates how new media is an effective tool for human rights organisations to advocate and raise public awareness. The game has partnerships with more than 100 students and community groups, reaching over 28 million people.
WoofTrax
Wooftrax is a gamified app that converts dog walks to donations. The app has partnered with many charities and animal shelters, all needing help. This ‘dog-powered’ fundraising concept is one way to provide an easy solution for charities and organisations looking to fundraise and give social sharing opportunities. The app donates 11 to 25 cents to any charity per mile walked, these donations come from private sponsors and companies choosing to support a good cause.
Crab God
Crab God is a strategy simulation game that focuses on reviving and restoring ocean biodiversity. The game is built on a semi-realistic view of the ecosystems and webs that connect ocean life. The players are encouraged to think about their choices to maintain the balance of life with potentially harsh realities. The game also focuses on micro-donations to encourage players to make real-life impacts.
Serious Games and the Power of Play
Creating a serious game for a not-for-profit can be rewarding. It can help raise awareness of important social issues while driving positive change. By collaborating, we can develop games that entertain, educate, inspire, and motivate players to contribute to meaningful causes.
Serious games possess the potential to engage, educate, and inspire players to take action for social and environmental causes. Whether through gamified actions, charity streams, or immersive educational experiences, video games offer a powerful platform for not-for-profits to raise funds and create meaningful impact.
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