It's possible that GDQ staff (because I am sure they don't have enough to do!) could send out a post-marathon survey to a random sample of donation e-mail addresses that might include a checkbox for "Which of the following are reasons you donated (choose all that apply):" and include options like "I believed in the charity's cause", "I wanted to support the runner", "I wanted to say thank you for the marathon", "I really wanted a donation incentive met", "I wanted to win one of the prizes", etc. Then you could correlate that with specific donation incentives and/or prizes and really get a sense of what drives donations. On the other hand it is worth remembering that while raising large sums of money for awesome causes is fantastic, the difference in raising $N and $N+$200,000 is probably secondary to the goal of putting on a great speedrunning marathon. Well, that and staff time is limited and this kind of a survey project is not a quick thing to pull off.
SDA Forum
Dapper as fuck.
I think what I like about what I'd read in one of the FAQs about donating to charity: water is that when you are a large donor/donor group it sounds like entire projects get built around your money. Like the FAQ made it sounds like that if we as AGDQ donors donated 1 mil or whatever, we would directly impact village(s) x in country y or something. That's a level of impact you don't see in most charity donations. The FAQ specifically says this:
"If you’re interested in donating $10,000 or more, we’ll use your gift to fund a water project for an entire community. Our water projects range from $10,000-$25,000 depending on project type, geography, and local economies. Make a gift on our sponsor page, and we’ll pair it with an appropriate project (or projects)."
It may not be the most sustainable, but seems to be more tangible than most.
"If you’re interested in donating $10,000 or more, we’ll use your gift to fund a water project for an entire community. Our water projects range from $10,000-$25,000 depending on project type, geography, and local economies. Make a gift on our sponsor page, and we’ll pair it with an appropriate project (or projects)."
It may not be the most sustainable, but seems to be more tangible than most.
Formerly known as Skullboy
Quote from dangodofthunder:
Quote from Supreme:
After doing some research on the charities, this is probably my one concern with charity: water is how big of an outreach it'll have. I imagine because it is AGDQ it'll still have a measure of success, and I'd hope people would still rally behind such an amazing cause, but it is easier for people to get motivated over something that has so directly impacted many people. Of course, we can't know for sure until an attempt is made. The fact that Zeldathons usually do pretty well is an encouraging sign as well 
Of the listed options, I would lean towards BBRF but I would have 0 issue with charity: water.
Of the listed options, I would lean towards BBRF but I would have 0 issue with charity: water.
I am curious as to how many of the donations made are tied to the fact that this is AGDQ and how many donations are due to AGDQ supporting PCF. I don't think the data exists, but I'd be incredibly curious about learning things like that about Games Done Quick and its user base.
If we are going to start throwing other marathons out there, it may be good to ask the same question concerning Zeldathon and charity:water. How many people donate to Zeldathon because it is Zeldathon and how many are donating because of the charity, or both? Also, is Zeldathon the Zelda marathon that requires raising so much to play the next game?
Quote from philosoraptor42:
I think what I like about what I'd read in one of the FAQs about donating to charity: water is that when you are a large donor/donor group it sounds like entire projects get built around your money. Like the FAQ made it sounds like that if we as AGDQ donors donated 1 mil or whatever, we would directly impact village(s) x in country y or something. That's a level of impact you don't see in most charity donations. The FAQ specifically says this:
"If you’re interested in donating $10,000 or more, we’ll use your gift to fund a water project for an entire community. Our water projects range from $10,000-$25,000 depending on project type, geography, and local economies. Make a gift on our sponsor page, and we’ll pair it with an appropriate project (or projects)."
It may not be the most sustainable, but seems to be more tangible than most.
"If you’re interested in donating $10,000 or more, we’ll use your gift to fund a water project for an entire community. Our water projects range from $10,000-$25,000 depending on project type, geography, and local economies. Make a gift on our sponsor page, and we’ll pair it with an appropriate project (or projects)."
It may not be the most sustainable, but seems to be more tangible than most.
I like the concept of them being able to say "hey if you give us this much money, you can let your viewership know THIS will happen". being able to put something tangible to the cause will definitely go a long way to motivating people to donate, so if something like this can be pulled off, I think charity:water makes a lot of sense.
Quote from Worn_Traveler:
If we are going to start throwing other marathons out there, it may be good to ask the same question concerning Zeldathon and charity:water. How many people donate to Zeldathon because it is Zeldathon and how many are donating because of the charity, or both? Also, is Zeldathon the Zelda marathon that requires raising so much to play the next game?
I'm not sure if I agree on that. The reason that I am curious as to how many people are donating because we work with PCF vs. how many people donate because it's AGDQ is so we can get a better sense of exactly what we as a community are able to do. What portion of donations are because they support GDQ and the runners? What portion is them just showing love to specific runners or personalities that attend the event? What portion are donating only because of the charity? I'm certain that there's some sort of mix of all three with every donation, but it may have value for us to understand more about our demographic.
While I'm sure our demographic overlaps with Zeldathon's quite a bit, I don't think finding out data about Zeldathon is particularly relevant to Games Done Quick, since for all we know, one organization may have dramatically more "Brand loyalty" generated amongst its user base than the other.
Even if we are not going to determine our level of success by how much money we raise, from a business perspective on both ends it'd certainly be valuable for GDQ to be able to market itself based on the support it has (Vs. the support PCF/DWB has), and I'm sure that these charities would be very interested to know as well. It IS safe to assume that there will be people who will donate for any of the other charities we choose to support that would not donate to PCF, but it's unclear if it's a net positive or a net negative. Just getting closer to an answer would be helpful, IMO.
And as far as your last inquiry, I honestly don't know. I'm not familiar with Zeldathon as a marathon.
#FailFish
Quote from Billnye_Fan:
PCF had it's fair chance for a couple years now. People are still confused at what they do. Nothing is said during the event other than general statements. There are no follow ups on the grants that have been given out. How is that "phone app in development to allow young adult cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers to communicate with one another" going along?
......
This is a from PCF. They have had access to 200,000+ viewers and who knows how many different viewers overall. Yet they didn't run one ad or have one educational message throughout the entire event. AGDQ alone probably would have had a larger impact than all of their little events combined due to the sheer volume of people who watched AGDQ. PCF funds community outreach programs to educate people, but they decide not to do the same for AGDQ where their education would impact more people.
......
Quote:
Education about cancer prevention and early detection to all populations is an important part of the mission of the Prevent Cancer Foundation. For many years, the Foundation has offered information and national and community-level education programs to the public and health professionals.
This is a from PCF. They have had access to 200,000+ viewers and who knows how many different viewers overall. Yet they didn't run one ad or have one educational message throughout the entire event. AGDQ alone probably would have had a larger impact than all of their little events combined due to the sheer volume of people who watched AGDQ. PCF funds community outreach programs to educate people, but they decide not to do the same for AGDQ where their education would impact more people.
This is actually a really, really good point. They've had several years' worth of donations now - millions of dollars' worth. How has this money been used? What difference has it made?
And beyond that, I think this point about taking more time during the event itself for the charity to talk about what they do and how the money is being used would be really good. At least once a day seems like a good idea to me.
Quote from calurduran:
It's possible that GDQ staff (because I am sure they don't have enough to do!) could send out a post-marathon survey to a random sample of donation e-mail addresses that might include a checkbox for "Which of the following are reasons you donated (choose all that apply):" and include options like "I believed in the charity's cause", "I wanted to support the runner", "I wanted to say thank you for the marathon", "I really wanted a donation incentive met", "I wanted to win one of the prizes", etc. Then you could correlate that with specific donation incentives and/or prizes and really get a sense of what drives donations. On the other hand it is worth remembering that while raising large sums of money for awesome causes is fantastic, the difference in raising $N and $N+$200,000 is probably secondary to the goal of putting on a great speedrunning marathon. Well, that and staff time is limited and this kind of a survey project is not a quick thing to pull off.
I don't know how quickly something like this is to do, but I can certainly inquire with our tracker team to see if its something that is feasible to do. We have a lot of feedback right now for the tracker team and they are focusing on priorities in addressing these, so this may not be an immediate thing, but is a good question for us to raise for the future.
Thank you for posing the question.
Quote from Alventenie:
I don't know how quickly something like this is to do, but I can certainly inquire with our tracker team to see if its something that is feasible to do. We have a lot of feedback right now for the tracker team and they are focusing on priorities in addressing these, so this may not be an immediate thing, but is a good question for us to raise for the future.
You're welcome. As someone who runs the feedback survey for our conferences, I'd recommend that you figure out what the key things you want to know are from past donors and then keep it really short so that people can legitimately complete it in under a minute. I'd also expect a low response rate from something like this, but some data is better than no data
Quote from philosoraptor42:
I think what I like about what I'd read in one of the FAQs about donating to charity: water is that when you are a large donor/donor group it sounds like entire projects get built around your money. Like the FAQ made it sounds like that if we as AGDQ donors donated 1 mil or whatever, we would directly impact village(s) x in country y or something. That's a level of impact you don't see in most charity donations. The FAQ specifically says this:
"If you’re interested in donating $10,000 or more, we’ll use your gift to fund a water project for an entire community. Our water projects range from $10,000-$25,000 depending on project type, geography, and local economies. Make a gift on our sponsor page, and we’ll pair it with an appropriate project (or projects)."
It may not be the most sustainable, but seems to be more tangible than most.
"If you’re interested in donating $10,000 or more, we’ll use your gift to fund a water project for an entire community. Our water projects range from $10,000-$25,000 depending on project type, geography, and local economies. Make a gift on our sponsor page, and we’ll pair it with an appropriate project (or projects)."
It may not be the most sustainable, but seems to be more tangible than most.
I really like this. My friend started up his own drive a while back, never amounted to much donations, but he was really passionate about his opportunity to build a well. Even if it isn't all allocated dollar to dollar, saying "Thank you for the donations so far which amount to the ability to build 10 wells which can provide clean water to over 10000 people in need" is something that I think a lot of people could appreciate.
Throw my hat towards charity:water.
ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Quote from Antilles58:
Quote from Billnye_Fan:
PCF had it's fair chance for a couple years now. People are still confused at what they do. Nothing is said during the event other than general statements. There are no follow ups on the grants that have been given out. How is that "phone app in development to allow young adult cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers to communicate with one another" going along?
......
This is a from PCF. They have had access to 200,000+ viewers and who knows how many different viewers overall. Yet they didn't run one ad or have one educational message throughout the entire event. AGDQ alone probably would have had a larger impact than all of their little events combined due to the sheer volume of people who watched AGDQ. PCF funds community outreach programs to educate people, but they decide not to do the same for AGDQ where their education would impact more people.
......
Quote:
Education about cancer prevention and early detection to all populations is an important part of the mission of the Prevent Cancer Foundation. For many years, the Foundation has offered information and national and community-level education programs to the public and health professionals.
This is a from PCF. They have had access to 200,000+ viewers and who knows how many different viewers overall. Yet they didn't run one ad or have one educational message throughout the entire event. AGDQ alone probably would have had a larger impact than all of their little events combined due to the sheer volume of people who watched AGDQ. PCF funds community outreach programs to educate people, but they decide not to do the same for AGDQ where their education would impact more people.
This is actually a really, really good point. They've had several years' worth of donations now - millions of dollars' worth. How has this money been used? What difference has it made?
And beyond that, I think this point about taking more time during the event itself for the charity to talk about what they do and how the money is being used would be really good. At least once a day seems like a good idea to me.
I agree that these points are great. I can help with this a little, as well.
The following was provided to us by PCF upon my arrival to the venue. As we can't read the whole thing on stream, we cut the blurbs down a lot for the hosts. I also read some of this during the closing speech.
Incoming wall of text:
Quote:
AGDQ Funding:
- Since the beginning of the marathon's history, AGDQ has funded research at top research institutions across the nation in the prevention and early detection of cancer.
- With the success of the marathon, the Foundation has been able to additionally award special $250,000 AGDQ grants to important research with “near term” implications in the prevention and/or early detection of cancer.
- A current grant is studying if there is a direct link of inflamed fat (adipose) tissue between obesity and cancer. Adipose inflammation, which occurs in most obese individuals, is accompanied by increases in inflammatory proteins and estrogen signaling in breast tissue. This may support the development of breast cancer, and prostate cancer Goal of the research is to develop a non-invasive blood test to detect adipose inflammation, thus possibly detecting some cancers.
- Building on the global community of the marathon, the Foundation has formed partnerships with global cancer organizations to broaden its work to save lives. Some global projects include:
• Funding of an innovative cervical cancer screening program in Rawanda where there is no other medical care using a newly developed scope which utilizes the technology of a smart phone. The project is located in a National Institutes of Health location, and expands upon the currents program of screening and treatment of HIV & AIDS. The first of it’s kind, the Foundation hopes to expand the partnership to include additional locations.
Cervical cancer is a disease linked to poverty because 76 percent of new cervical cancer cases and 88 percent of deaths across the globe occur in developing countries with minimal resources to vaccinate, screen or treat women for this deadly disease. This evaluation is part of a larger study of cervical cancer in HIV-infected women in Rwanda.
• Funding of the World Cancer Leaders Summit, a program of the Union for International Cancer Control, in Istanbul Turkey. The bi-annual summit brings together global decision makers who can help shape the way our generation addresses the task of eliminating cancer as a life threatening disease for future generations. It allows for timely debate on emerging issues related to cancer and provides a forum to spotlight a major health issue which demands a coordinated, multi-leveled global response.
• Funding of Technology Transfer Fellowships, which allow health care professionals in poor nations to train at top research and cancer institutes around the world on vital, life-saving equipment for the early detection and treatment of cancer. The 1-month fellowship are designed to facilitate rapid international transfer of cancer research and clinical technology, to exchange knowledge and enhance skills in basic, clinical, behavioral and epidemiological areas of cancer research, cancer control and prevention, and to acquire appropriate clinical management, diagnostic and therapeutic expertise for effective application and use in the home organization upon return.
• Funding of, and presenting at, the World Cancer Congress to take place in Paris in October 2016. This meeting is exclusively dedicated to implementation science and welcomes representatives from across the whole spectrum of the cancer control and the non-communicable disease communities.
• The Foundation is an active member of global in coalitions, such as the Global Lung Cancer Coalition.
• With the continued success of the marathon, the Foundation plans to continue to expand it global partnerships and save lives.
- AGDQ continues to be a major sponsor of the Foundation's national Dialogue for Action Cancer Screening Conference each year that brings together a diverse group of stakeholders - from physicians, nurses, radiologists, social workers, and community programs – committed to increasing life-saving cancer screening in all communities across the United States.
- AGDQ provided the seed money to begin a multi-year international educational campaign connecting particular viruses – such as HPV, Hep B and Hep C to cancer. The campaign kicks off on January 26th in Washington, D. C. with a Congressional Briefing.
- Since the beginning of the marathon's history, AGDQ has funded research at top research institutions across the nation in the prevention and early detection of cancer.
- With the success of the marathon, the Foundation has been able to additionally award special $250,000 AGDQ grants to important research with “near term” implications in the prevention and/or early detection of cancer.
- A current grant is studying if there is a direct link of inflamed fat (adipose) tissue between obesity and cancer. Adipose inflammation, which occurs in most obese individuals, is accompanied by increases in inflammatory proteins and estrogen signaling in breast tissue. This may support the development of breast cancer, and prostate cancer Goal of the research is to develop a non-invasive blood test to detect adipose inflammation, thus possibly detecting some cancers.
- Building on the global community of the marathon, the Foundation has formed partnerships with global cancer organizations to broaden its work to save lives. Some global projects include:
• Funding of an innovative cervical cancer screening program in Rawanda where there is no other medical care using a newly developed scope which utilizes the technology of a smart phone. The project is located in a National Institutes of Health location, and expands upon the currents program of screening and treatment of HIV & AIDS. The first of it’s kind, the Foundation hopes to expand the partnership to include additional locations.
Cervical cancer is a disease linked to poverty because 76 percent of new cervical cancer cases and 88 percent of deaths across the globe occur in developing countries with minimal resources to vaccinate, screen or treat women for this deadly disease. This evaluation is part of a larger study of cervical cancer in HIV-infected women in Rwanda.
• Funding of the World Cancer Leaders Summit, a program of the Union for International Cancer Control, in Istanbul Turkey. The bi-annual summit brings together global decision makers who can help shape the way our generation addresses the task of eliminating cancer as a life threatening disease for future generations. It allows for timely debate on emerging issues related to cancer and provides a forum to spotlight a major health issue which demands a coordinated, multi-leveled global response.
• Funding of Technology Transfer Fellowships, which allow health care professionals in poor nations to train at top research and cancer institutes around the world on vital, life-saving equipment for the early detection and treatment of cancer. The 1-month fellowship are designed to facilitate rapid international transfer of cancer research and clinical technology, to exchange knowledge and enhance skills in basic, clinical, behavioral and epidemiological areas of cancer research, cancer control and prevention, and to acquire appropriate clinical management, diagnostic and therapeutic expertise for effective application and use in the home organization upon return.
• Funding of, and presenting at, the World Cancer Congress to take place in Paris in October 2016. This meeting is exclusively dedicated to implementation science and welcomes representatives from across the whole spectrum of the cancer control and the non-communicable disease communities.
• The Foundation is an active member of global in coalitions, such as the Global Lung Cancer Coalition.
• With the continued success of the marathon, the Foundation plans to continue to expand it global partnerships and save lives.
- AGDQ continues to be a major sponsor of the Foundation's national Dialogue for Action Cancer Screening Conference each year that brings together a diverse group of stakeholders - from physicians, nurses, radiologists, social workers, and community programs – committed to increasing life-saving cancer screening in all communities across the United States.
- AGDQ provided the seed money to begin a multi-year international educational campaign connecting particular viruses – such as HPV, Hep B and Hep C to cancer. The campaign kicks off on January 26th in Washington, D. C. with a Congressional Briefing.
Having this (or any of the benefiting charity's white papers related to the marathon) on the GDQ website would be beneficial (though we'd most likely need to have it in hand earlier), so it is something we can consider in the future.
I think running promotional videos or slides of whichever charity we go with would be helpful in communicating their mission in a clear, concise, and consistent way (the same thing we do for MSF/DWB).
I hope this helps!
#FailFish
Thanks for all that feedback, sumi! It's awesome to see how far some of those dollars have gone, and just how broad and varied the impact has been! I'm glad to see that it seems that PCF has been a faithful steward of what GDQ has entrusted them with.
I think this is ABSOLUTELY a great idea. Promo videos can have a huge impact and can really give a much bigger idea of what a charity is doing than just having the host read a blurb. Having been one of those hosts, there's only so much you can do when all you have is a few sentences pre-written about an organization you really don't know that much detail about.
I've mentioned that I've worked with clean water charities in the past, and videos they had went a really long way toward communicating the need. More than words ever could.
Quote from sumichu:
I think running promotional videos or slides of whichever charity we go with would be helpful in communicating their mission in a clear, concise, and consistent way (the same thing we do for MSF/DWB).
I think this is ABSOLUTELY a great idea. Promo videos can have a huge impact and can really give a much bigger idea of what a charity is doing than just having the host read a blurb. Having been one of those hosts, there's only so much you can do when all you have is a few sentences pre-written about an organization you really don't know that much detail about.
I've mentioned that I've worked with clean water charities in the past, and videos they had went a really long way toward communicating the need. More than words ever could.
Sonic's biggest fan at heart
I have a suggestion.
Spare Some for Autism, a charity whose mission is to improve the quality of life for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. I have connections to that charity, it's within the US, and we all know that children with autism are very interested in video games. Just putting it out there.
Spare Some for Autism, a charity whose mission is to improve the quality of life for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. I have connections to that charity, it's within the US, and we all know that children with autism are very interested in video games. Just putting it out there.
Quote from Zwataketa:
I have a suggestion.
Spare Some for Autism, a charity whose mission is to improve the quality of life for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. I have connections to that charity, it's within the US, and we all know that children with autism are very interested in video games. Just putting it out there.
Spare Some for Autism, a charity whose mission is to improve the quality of life for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. I have connections to that charity, it's within the US, and we all know that children with autism are very interested in video games. Just putting it out there.
I didn't locate Spare Some for Autism on Charity Navigator... and all of their work seems limited to the North Carolina area. Is it a national organization?
Charity Water is pretty good. They actually do stuff with a measurable impact: build wells for people without access to water. Their overhead is fairly low as well, so more money goes to the programs. I had first hand experience many years ago, and unless it's changed significantly since 2008 then it's the best of the bunch in my opinion.
Who trusts a bi-polar babysitter watching over their kids? Who trusts a schizophrenic salesperson with their credit card number? Would you trust a chronically suicidal person to drive you around? I think there is still an incredible stigma surrounding mental illness so any charity that cuts into that stigma is a good one. After hearing arguments in this thread I think that BBRF would be better than NAMI, as research is a universal pursuit while "alliance against mental illness" seems a little vague. If neither of these charities make the cut then cast my vote to Charity: water
I haven't had the time to do a ton of research on this, but I do like the idea of what Charity:Water is doing and would support that.
Has anybody thought about making AGDQ a multi-charity event? Rather than choosing donation insensitive, donors could be choosing what charity we want to put the donations towards. Maybe that's too logistically difficult, but I'd like to hear other / staff thoughts on the possibility.
Has anybody thought about making AGDQ a multi-charity event? Rather than choosing donation insensitive, donors could be choosing what charity we want to put the donations towards. Maybe that's too logistically difficult, but I'd like to hear other / staff thoughts on the possibility.
It is kind of strange to me that no mentioned the Red Cross.
I would also like to see something about Mental Health. I suffer from severe depression and anxiety and I know a large amount of other streamers and speed runners do as well. It would be awesome to see another charity that affects so many of us directly. Maybe something like MHA (Mental Health America).
I would also like to see something about Mental Health. I suffer from severe depression and anxiety and I know a large amount of other streamers and speed runners do as well. It would be awesome to see another charity that affects so many of us directly. Maybe something like MHA (Mental Health America).
I'd like to voice support for Charity: Water. It's a universal cause tied to several important social issues like health, labor, and education, and the charity achieves measurable results. Their administrative and fundraising expenses are more modest than PCF's, and they're highly rated. They're the charity of choice for Californithon, and they've been a pleasure to work with - Jeff's been back-and-forth with them for a few months.
As great as PCF has been for Games Done Quick, it's time to honor requests that the charity choice reflect community consensus . Hopefully GDQ makes the right choice.
If GDQ would like to continue working with PCF, why not allow them to advertise their mission to the wide audience that the marathon attracts? I learned more about simple cancer prevention from one picture of PCF's table at the event than I did from viewing the marathon throughout the week. Representatives of the charity at the event are an asset for attendees, so why not schedule some time for them to educate stream viewers or have the charity prepare a video advertisement to be broadcast during downtime? (The latter was done during TwitchCon.) As an attendee, it's reassuring to see representatives of the charity reach out; that outreach isn't there for viewers.
AGDQ 2016 is the first GDQ in three years that I've watched from home; as a viewer, it was difficult to discern what it is that PCF actually accomplishes. The mid-marathon mentions described its mission as the prevention and early detection of cancer, and research relating to those causes; however, plugs didn't specifically describe any of the programs or research PCF is responsible for. Even as a viewer with prior knowledge of PCF's programs - the "check your mate" campaign and the planned social media application for cancer survivors advertised in conjunction with a prior GDQ - I frequently found myself wondering whether it was responsible to donate. Even though I wished to donate during Snowfats' Hotline Miami run to show support, I decided not to do so because I felt uninformed, misinformed, and distrustful of PCF as a charitable organization.
On that note, reading donations which contain misconceptions about the type of programs and research that PCF sponsors is a complicated manner. Those that refer to, "kicking cancer's butt," are slightly misleading, but it's understandable that these are read; those that refer to, "killing cancer," are misinformed and more misleading. In combination with a scarcity of specifics regarding what PCF's programs and research accomplish, these donations can confuse viewers as one of the only means by which to discern PCF's purpose and hey, it wouldn't hurt to have an event where you're not obligated to read figurative obituaries.
As great as PCF has been for Games Done Quick, it's time to honor requests that the charity choice reflect community consensus . Hopefully GDQ makes the right choice.
If GDQ would like to continue working with PCF, why not allow them to advertise their mission to the wide audience that the marathon attracts? I learned more about simple cancer prevention from one picture of PCF's table at the event than I did from viewing the marathon throughout the week. Representatives of the charity at the event are an asset for attendees, so why not schedule some time for them to educate stream viewers or have the charity prepare a video advertisement to be broadcast during downtime? (The latter was done during TwitchCon.) As an attendee, it's reassuring to see representatives of the charity reach out; that outreach isn't there for viewers.
AGDQ 2016 is the first GDQ in three years that I've watched from home; as a viewer, it was difficult to discern what it is that PCF actually accomplishes. The mid-marathon mentions described its mission as the prevention and early detection of cancer, and research relating to those causes; however, plugs didn't specifically describe any of the programs or research PCF is responsible for. Even as a viewer with prior knowledge of PCF's programs - the "check your mate" campaign and the planned social media application for cancer survivors advertised in conjunction with a prior GDQ - I frequently found myself wondering whether it was responsible to donate. Even though I wished to donate during Snowfats' Hotline Miami run to show support, I decided not to do so because I felt uninformed, misinformed, and distrustful of PCF as a charitable organization.
On that note, reading donations which contain misconceptions about the type of programs and research that PCF sponsors is a complicated manner. Those that refer to, "kicking cancer's butt," are slightly misleading, but it's understandable that these are read; those that refer to, "killing cancer," are misinformed and more misleading. In combination with a scarcity of specifics regarding what PCF's programs and research accomplish, these donations can confuse viewers as one of the only means by which to discern PCF's purpose and hey, it wouldn't hurt to have an event where you're not obligated to read figurative obituaries.
As a small donator and big fan I'd advocate sticking with the same charities. We had confusion even in the past of people with Cancer stories donating to SGDQs and now everybody seems to understand the different events and that they support 2 different charities. Fighting cancer is very universal and providing medical assistance around the world is something undeniably good too. I feel like by changing charities you might risk losing some momentum. Unless we get to the point where Cancer is prevented universally or everybody across the world gets the medical attention they need I think these are both charities that do undeniable good and that everybody is on board with supporting. Changing charities opens up to a lot of annoying political and bureaucratic debate and discussion, and if nothing else confusion from the donors. Imagine a fundraiser for diabetes inundated with cancer related donations. The confusion would become the main story and not the good that was being done. So for whatever it's worth, my opinion is we don't mess with a good thing and we stick with the same charities.
station
Another vote here for charity:water. It's the charity effort that I would spend more of my hard earned dollars for - to provide the basic but necessary resource that is clean water to those who can't access it. It also has it's history in gaming fundraisers, such as TotalBiscuit's "Battle Royale" campaign during his bid for King of the Web, donating his winnings to the cause. In fact, TB said it better than I ever could:
Here is a link to all of the projects funded by John (the ones that were contributed with the $52,644 donated have Battle Royale in the name).
https://mycw.charitywater.org/p/myprojects?member_id=61787
Viewers still largely don't seem to know where the money goes for PCF, but still donate thinking it's to "find the cure" for cancer, or "fight it" in some way (the latter being true to some extent). Even though I learned a lot from Sumi's post earlier, that's a lot of detail that couldn't possibly be fit on stream, or be read by the host, so it's hard to convey what's been accomplished thus far from GDQ donations.
Chartiy:water's objective is clear and donation-worthy. They also send the campaign organizers photos of the projects that are completed about a year down the line, along with a bunch of information on who it helped, where it's located, and what type of assistance was provided. This is something that can be put on screen during set up time. It would be immense for the viewer in terms of understanding the impact of their donation; seeing people using wells that were created from GDQ donations or something similar.
Quote:
Water is life. Dirty water kills. Long treks to clean water sources many miles away put women and children at risk and prevent them from having enough time to dedicate to their educations. Clean water projects are a real way to make a genuine difference without contributing to the campaigns of warlords and criminal forces in these unstable countries. It simply makes sense.
Thank you for your support.
Thank you for your support.
Here is a link to all of the projects funded by John (the ones that were contributed with the $52,644 donated have Battle Royale in the name).
https://mycw.charitywater.org/p/myprojects?member_id=61787
Viewers still largely don't seem to know where the money goes for PCF, but still donate thinking it's to "find the cure" for cancer, or "fight it" in some way (the latter being true to some extent). Even though I learned a lot from Sumi's post earlier, that's a lot of detail that couldn't possibly be fit on stream, or be read by the host, so it's hard to convey what's been accomplished thus far from GDQ donations.
Chartiy:water's objective is clear and donation-worthy. They also send the campaign organizers photos of the projects that are completed about a year down the line, along with a bunch of information on who it helped, where it's located, and what type of assistance was provided. This is something that can be put on screen during set up time. It would be immense for the viewer in terms of understanding the impact of their donation; seeing people using wells that were created from GDQ donations or something similar.