Dan Clancy talks to Melanee Hannock & ProfessorBroman about charity| Let's Chat Podcast EP 5

Hello and welcome to Let's Chat. Let's Chat is a live podcast where I talk to creators about live streaming and the ways streamers and their communities shape culture yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I'm Dan Clancy. the CEO of Twitch and I am live from Memphis, Tennessee today after another very successful St. Jude Play live event and with me I have Melanie Hanok. Did I get that correct? Yes. All right. Got to get that pronunciation right. Melanie is the chief audience and insights officer Alsac St. Jude's Children Research Hospital. Melanie, thank you for being with us today. Thank you so much for having us. Uh it is a pleasure to be here today and I'm excited and thanks to Twitch for everything y'all done for uh nearly 12 years. All right. Well, well, obviously we're here to talk about everything that St. Jude has done. So, for those let's start with St. Jude. I think a lot of people have heard of St. Jude, right? But let's go ahead and start with St. Jude and the St. Jude mission. Well, St. Jude was founded uh by Danny Thomas who was an entertainer and when he was traveling the country as a comedian he said if I make it big um you know he prayed to St. feed Thaddius, the patron saint of u hopeless causes, and if I make it big, I will build a shrine. And he made it really big in Hollywood and TV. And he made a hospital like and his appeal was to communities. So when he was building the hospital, he appealed to his heritage communities as well as young people and fundraisers. And so really the hospital was founded on the principle of um no child should die in the dawn of life. And he believed that the hospital should be have treatment regardless of race, religion or ability to pay. And so that's the foundings. That's Danny Thomas. Um and it was all about community from the beginning, which I love. you know, take a moment and to talk about Danny Thomas because uh you know, in fact, this is one thing that struck me last year because um I'm old enough that I remember Danny Thomas well, okay, and I remember Danny Thomas and of course, you know, when I was young, I don't I think it was a little past his heyday, but there's still Danny Thomas movies coming out. And it was it's it's funny because I expect for most of the people listening to this, um they have no idea who Danny Thomas is. Right. Right. Except and if you look at all the creators here except for what he did in creating St. Jude and um you know so many creators you know have this big life as an entertainer but um you know 500 years from now I think Danny Thomas will be remembered not for his comedies but for St. Jude. Yes. I mean pivotal like that he was an entertainer known for St. Jude and known for his giving back which I think is a big part of what Twitch communities have done. Um and Marlo Thomas the same Marlo Thomas his daughter and his family is still very involved. Um, but I think the key theme is is that what's larger than life, what's larger than you know what you can do. And that's Danny. And so, so let's talk about what y'all do with the families, okay? Because I know one of the special things as like there's of course lots of wonderful institutions helping in terms of cancer and cancer research and all play their part, right? But you know, St. Jude in particular finds this unique blend both in terms of research and in treatment and in supporting families that need treatment. So talk about the you know the two parts and how you blend both research but also support for the families and the kids. Yes. And that's a big part of what makes St. Jude unique um is it's the unique combination of really um it was built with yes we want to treat children and then treat the whole family. Um, but also let's find cures to the foundational pieces of what actually causes cancer and other catastrophic diseases. And that was really important right from the founding is that it would be both. Um, and so it was originally set up that way. And then there's actually two more pieces that were added. A unique uh funding model because St. Jude is funded by the general public. It's funded by all of the people who help to donate to St. which is a little bit different than other um specialty centers and PhD granting too. So it's an institution that is actually helping to teach the world about pediatric cancer and how to serve and solve some of these big health issues, not only just here in the United States, but globally. So it's uniquely all of those things wrapped together. Yeah. Well, one of the things I love is and when they um uh when they're treating a child um they have a fullervice um uh offering that just that takes into account the child as well as their family so that they come here and you have space that the families can be living here while their child is getting treatment and all of it is covered. All of it is covered. So a family will never receive a bill from St. feuded and as part of that we have uh child life. So child life is a program where it's like it's a whole child and it's the whole family because many times when families come to St. Jude, they'll have more than one child. And so the children get to like paint and like play games and um you know, music and all kinds of other things that help kids to just be kids and their siblings get to participate in it too. And often, as you can imagine, you know, we we help the whole family as far as like the parents as well because navigating medical can be, you know, the beauty of it when you're here is um uh the um obviously in situations like this, there's a lot of weight. Yes. And heaviness. But um uh there's also a lot of joy and passion. And in fact, you see that in the families that are here in the kids because yes, there's wait, but you see the smiles, you see the laughter, you see the joy, and you see all of that. Yeah. You know, and I I've been at Alsac St. Jude for 19 years. And one thing I really like whether it's your first time visiting or whether people come back is what was their favorite thing to do um and what was the most surprising. And I hear over and over over again the most surprising thing is that while it is place where children are sick, it's a very hopeful and fun place. Um and it's a living place. I think part of it is, you know, we always when when someone's sick, you think about what you're losing if because they don't all make it, right? And um um what you're losing. Um but of course, you don't focus on what you're getting because even for the ones that don't make it, Yes. Yes, they have this experience where they are living their life and with their family, with their loved ones and in this supportive environment. That's right. Yes. Even for the ones that well the ones that do make it and more and more children are making it into adult which is amazing and that's due to the progress you know over these 60 plus years. But it's also um you know just the joy that's in everyday life. And it's surprising like when you think that maybe you don't have as much time left that that's when you truly live. So you see the joy and the Twitch community and creators bring a lot of joy to our patients too and we've got so many stories we could which we're going to get into before we get into all the creators because we're going to get to that soon. One of the questions from chat is um the sorts of kind of mental health uh support for children and how do you all think about that whole part and how do you support we do so as part of like the child life program um uh it's well art therapy is one because sometimes art or music is a great way um to bring into like storytelling to like tell what the journey is that some child might be going through either through those but We also do have psychosocial services as well for not only the children but the families um because you know it can be hard. Yeah. Uh so we do have that full support and that's what donor dollars do. That's what when someone gives a dollar, $5, $10. Um it helps to support the larger efforts. Okay. So let's now let's get to the fundraising. Okay. And um and St. Jude Play live and everything that you do with creators and for those who don't know um uh start with just explaining what is St. Jude Play live and what is that part of your program. Okay. So St. Jude Play live actually goes back to 2014. So it's been around for about 12 years. Uh, and it initially started um, uh, like I said, I've been there 19 years. And it it initially started with an employee who said, "Hey, games and streaming, you know, there's lots of things happening here with Twitch. Um, and I think maybe we can do something." And so he set out the very first year we had about eight, nine um, people who came to campus and just toured and they were creators. And it started out that way where the community so the creators defined what it should be. It wasn't even named. Um and the creator community rallied and every year since you know we have teams that come to campus. There are big marquee events like the challenge season. There's also just always on things that happen as well. Well, talk about May in particular, right? Because that's a big time for all the creators, right? So explain to everyone what what happens in May. May is like uh uh our challenge season. Um so in May that's the biggest event of the year where we are uh encouraging all the creators to go out and to ask for you know their communities to support that tell stories in their own words. So they'll come and visit the campus or if you can't visit the campus we can share more information and you go and rally your communities to support St. Dude, so how many creators participate overall? Not not physically here. I mean across all what's the ballpark? We are so fortunate that over the years over 20,000 creators have supported the mission of St. Jude um from 40 different countries um and we've received donations. Yeah. From 120 countries. So all around the world from all of the creators that have supported the mission. And um I mean I know I know uh go ahead and what is the number you're using now for a total amount that's been raised. Oh my gosh. I mean when it first started in 2014, we never would have uh thought that uh this year we would surpass hundred million dollars that's been raised by creator communities for the play live program. Yeah. That number it blows you away, you know, each year. Yes. It it just blows me away what what people do and just the the creative ways like what happens with Twitch and with the creators this whole interactive experience, right? Cuz it's live. Yeah. And so either questions or thanks for your donation or donation trains or all the honestly the ideas that came from the community that uh together we've been able to put together like it just makes it so much fun. prizes that people can either earn or get like like in like get a pie in the face like all the kinds of things that happen when each of the creators hits a milestone that they can make. Yeah. So that I mean and for those that the thing that is um uh so touching is you hear these big numbers and of course some people um uh they've raised these big numbers but so many the magic is because of the creators that raise $1,000 $500. Um and it's a creator with 30 average concurrent viewers. That's right. that is sitting there and um it really adds this kind of purpose because and the beauty thing about about you know y'all's focus on May in that area is it rallies around and builds a community where everyone feels part of something bigger and so even though your contribution might be small you know that it's all the tiny little pieces that all add up to the to the wave and I'll say too even $1,000 is actually a lot of money. Like, yeah, it it does quite a bit. Not only just for the mission, but $1,000 times 10 people times 20 people times a hundred people who are raising $1,000. That that's the way you get it really fast. And I would say the lion share of that hundred million was raised exactly that same way. Um, and even today, you might be surprised, but um, we'll still get a lot of mail where people are mailing in $1. Like those $1 really do matter. Mhm. And it was a part of Danny when he first started the hospital. He wanted $1 from a million dollars versus like a million dollars from one person because that way you get communities involved and it catches on like and it's sustained. The reason it's sustained is because of that. That's right. Um Okay. So, any stories that come to mind in terms of fun things that creators have done through the years? Well, there's there's so many things that that creators You just have to come up with one or two. Well, yeah. So, with um you know, I'll talk about the creators and the patients because there's such an intersection point between both of them. And I'll think about like you know, creator Smurky and his cousin Faith, right, that have become such uh like a part of the community as a whole. It's almost like like write, you know, Faith's name on your face and then go out and fund raise and tell a story about some of these patients. um and then go raise money like that. I think that's just one example of almost like the yes it's St. Jude, yes it's a patient, yes it's a creator and now faith's been adopted by many in the community, right? Um and so talk for those who don't know who Faith is and who Smirky are because I think may not because I know who you're talking about but they may not know when you say Faith and Smurky, right? Yes. So So Smurky is he's gosh he's been with us a number of years now. Now I know he's a streamer. Yes, he's a streamer. He's a streamer on Twitch obviously. Yeah, streamer on Twitch. And um uh he plays Toontown. Like Toontown is his main game that he plays. Uh and I love it when he comes to campus every year because in my prior to St. Jude life, I also worked on Toontown when uh from the game side uh and had a little cat that ran through Toontown. And so um so he streams he streams Toontown. Um, and it's his cousin Faith who's treated at St. Jude who's a survivor, right? Um, and now gratefully is doing really well. And I I heard that she's uh she's actually in touring Europe right now. And Faith had been treated well before Smurky was involved. Well, before Smurky was involved, it just so happened. It just so happened that now like it, you know, it's a full full circle moment. Right. Right. Right. Right. because you have this person who who's been involved in general in charity from the beginning but you know it's it shows how every you know so many people's families are touched by this. It is and even if you think of um I mentioned like the uh art program um many years ago before Play live really even started was um uh patient Ethan during his treatment. Talk about patient Ethan. He Yeah. So patient Eston was being treated and as part of that he actually was just dreaming up like a superhero and he came up with the fever fighter and the fever fighter is like all dressed in fire superhero obviously fighting fever and now the fever fighter is almost like the unofficial mascot of this community where we've got Fever Fighter like shirts and Fever Fighter like uh uh little toys like that's now part of this community, this play live community. I and I love the way, you know, you know, as you talked about with art, a big part of of this is the creative expression and how you leverage both the creative expression of the patients and the creative expression. That's right. Of the creators. That's right. And um I mean even other patients too. Again, a part of the Play Live community is um Zach and Carson who are two that two different patients. um you know uh who had acute miloid leukemia and a different form of leukemia. They were at St. Jude but they met through play live and through gaming and playing Minecraft and somewhat met many many of the creators have met Zach and Carson when they've come to campus and um you know for many years just a part of the world of Play Live and and the creators that came here. Uh unfortunately they both have passed away and so I wish I I wish there was a day when I could come here and say no child dies. Um but the two of them have passed away. Well, the be I you know I always you know when one of the obviously one of the challenges of what all of you have to deal with is the fact that they pass right but um of course all of us do eventually right that is true and um uh and so often the question is what do you leave behind? That's and what's so interesting if if you take Zach and Carson, Right. Um uh they didn't have a long life, but they left a great deal behind. They left a great deal behind and they left a beautiful life and their stories, right? And and the stories of like what each of the streamers has done to try to help advance and have them live a little bit longer. Um and even I think about Triple G, uh who's another streamer. Yeah. Um, he just named his baby Jude. Baby Jude. And so I mean, first of all, grateful, right, for for that, but second, like that's like next generation. Yeah. As well. Okay. So, let's talk now. Um, this is both a question from chat and it was also on my list. It's kind of perfect. That's all right. Great. Um, uh, in terms of, so someone's out there, they're a creator like, "Oh, this sounds cool." What do they do? Oh yes. Well, all are welcome. So, please uh come on board. You can actually go to the Twitch channel, the Play Live channel, and learn more about what we're doing. And And is the live is the channel St. Jude Play live or is it just Play live? It's St. Jude Play live. I did St. Jude Play live. Uh yeah, I think so. Yep. St. Jude Play live like at Twitch. So, you can just go in, but you can sign up cuz basically um uh for any creator Okay. Okay. And we'll get into and actually our next guest Ben can talk about this some too, but um uh any creator can participate. You can participate either using the Twitch charity tool or you can participate using Tiltify. Okay, I'd say most creators probably end up using Tiltify just because it they keep track of historically what they do over time, but both of them work great. Okay, you can sign up to be part of St. you play live so you're part of the community and you just go live and start doing something and usually and and Ben will be good to talk about this usually you're going to say on this stream or in this week or on this and and go ahead and create a goal for yourself and don't create a crazy goal because you can always increase the goal right um and um you know say okay look during this season I'm going to do my part okay and um uh so they, you know, a huge part of this just starts from starting out small, doing a little something, and then talk about the event that's going on right now, right? Because one thing that's so special about this is it's not everyone, but y'all bring a certain number of creators to campus. So, talk about that a little bit. We do. Yes. And so, um, uh, every year for the last, like I said, 12 years, um, we've had creators come to campus around this time. So, it's around the April time frame and that's where there's the May challenge season. Uh, this week we had 207 creators come to campus and they've spent several days with us, which again, we know how busy everyone is, so we're grateful that people can come and spend the time. Um, and they tour the hospital, get to learn more about the mission, get to meet with each other, and just have fun. Uh for those of you hopefully you got to see the stream yesterday for the the feud the St. Jude feud which was you know family feud version that was a lot of fun. Um but really they get to be immersed in the mission so they can understand it more and then go back out and talk. So yeah. Yeah. The beauty of it is um again so much about Twitch is about community and about each creator's community but then there's a community of the people that participate as part of St. Jude fundraising of the thousands of creators and then one way is as you participate that over the years it's not all of the folks but St. Jude goes ahead and every year invites and they they invite different creators each year so that they can get in and some it's the same each year but they um bring them on. So before we um move on to our next guest, okay, just talk about um uh you know where do you think things are going over the next 10 years, you know? Oh my gosh. Yeah. Uh I love that. Well, and just one other point about the creators that just came about half uh were brand new, first time to campus and about half were returned. So, it was really every year they do that. And so, by the way, if as you participate, you know, a lot of folks have been doing it for two and then they get to come here and it is magical to come here and St. Jude supports it all, right? So, they come here and they spend and they tour around the hospital and they get a very firsthand view of all the magical stuff that's happening. Yes. And it's magical for us too and the kids. Uh yeah. So the road ahead, you know, it's interesting to think about this that we've come so far, right, over the last 10 years, like what's next? You know, I'm going to say first and foremost, I think what's not going to change is community and people wanting to connect with each other. And I think that's what's so great about live streaming in general is this direct conversation that you can have and you can engage in community. So I think community is going to be the same. I think the way that community engages and interacts might be different. like Ben and I were just talking about um you know like obviously trading cards whether it's D and D or whether it's Pokemon and like trading card culture um or just other ways that you can activate I think will potentially change but I think the whole connection of streaming live streaming and this engaging experience will be will be similar. All right. All right. Well, great. Well, Melody, thank you for being here on this episode and um we are, you know, looking forward to all that is happening with St. Jude. I'm now going to welcome our next guest, Professor Broman. Um uh it's great that you could be here. Okay. And so, so Ben is someone who's done a ton in charity and have done with St. Jude. Okay. And so we're going to get into all that, but why don't we start with you and then we'll get to all you've done for St. Jude and charity. Okay. So, talk a little bit about your story as a creator. Oh, man. Well, it's really it's it's an honor to be on here to talk about fundraising because fundraising is what drew me into Twitch. That's why I love I love your story that says if if not for fundraising, your life actually cuz right now you're a full-time streamer. Yes, my But not for fundraising, you might still you might be a professor. Yeah, I might be I might still be in in in school. Fundraising drew me into Twitch when I when I was first exposed to the power of the expansive community that you can have online and the impact that they can have. It was back in uh the first stream I ever watched on Twitch was I ate your pie. Shout out to I ate your pie. Uh fundraising for uh victims of Hurricane Sandy. And when I tuned into that stream and I saw them raising the tens of thousands of dollars, I thought this is incredible. I I want to be involved in in this fundraising community. And the only thing I wanted out of it when I when I when I started streaming um you know from a tiny apartment where you know me and my sister were staying uh and she had brought home like a really old hophog HPV like capture device. We started streaming to make an impact and from from that desire to make an impact I have been incredibly blessed to have that grow into a a career in content creation and everything else that we've been able to do since then. Yeah, I love the story. Um, and usually we wait till later to talk about numbers, but I'll do it now. Um, uh, because, you know, it goes back to that experience. And I I do this because there's somebody watching this that has never done any fundraising before. Certainly. Right. There's someone who's listening that has never done any fundraising before, which is you going back to the Hurricane Sandy, right? And how much have you raised in your career now through all your different efforts in through everything that everybody that we've had an opportunity to work with in GCX and outside of GCX uh we've managed to raise over over $40 million for the charities that we have have worked with GCX St. Jude specifically, we've raised $20 million. Right. Right. Right. In the past 10 years. So, you know, um uh and on your channel, I think you've raised me. Me personally, I don't know if I have a track on that. It's it's like four or five million or something like that. Maybe one and a half. Maybe one and a half. I'm much more of an administrator than a personal practitioner. As you put this all together, right, you know, you think that it's it's again example cuz everything big starts small. Yes. And um uh and you never know where your life is going to go. Right. And and for for these kids, their life goes in a way that of course they don't expect because of the challenge. And for you, you saw this opportunity and it and it opened a door where if not for that door, there are tens of millions of dollars that wouldn't have been raised probably for um uh for these kids. And so I think it's, you know, both it's appreciative for all you've done, but also for all the people out there that are, as you said, you're in a small apartment. Yeah. It was very, it was very, very humble beginnings, right? And um uh and so often you just look at those opportunities and follow that path. Yeah. I I mean to to me what's so what was so wonderful about being here this year at the St. Play Life Summit is there are so many people that are driving forward into the the next generation of fundraising. You know, Melanie mentioned uh there there's a team and their stream starts today at 8 8:00 p.m. Central. Tune in to the Pokemon Streamathon. There's going to be some of them on the front page as well. Um but that's a community built around Pokemon and the trading card game community there. And they are they're expanding that to reach into other domains. We have another group here. Um the the Borderlands community is here with their the hunt initiative that's been going on for for the eight or nine years and it's been a long time. But but there are so many people that take the mission of St. Jude and that that um heart that Danny Thomas has that says I don't I don't need all of us to show up with a million dollars, but I want to see what my community can do. And and one of the things that has been so incredible about fundraising for St. in working with the incredible team at ALSAC over these years has been seeing how creators will activate not just their communities, but they'll get the developers of the games that they love involved as well. And we've had the honor of of uh working with uh developers like Bungie, Digital Extremes, um and so many others to bring tiny little in-game items that end up raising so much money uh be and and bringing the impact of St. Jude into these gaming experiences people are having every day. It's truly it is incredible how expansive the mission at St. Jude is. Okay. So talk about some of the and and again as you highlighted so much of what you do is organizational and we're going to get into GCX and that mission but I want to go I suppose all your organizational stuff because it's also at the same time you also fund raise and part of this is you motivate other people. So as you fund raise Yes. What are some of the things you've done and talk about that process of getting people to, you know, so think tell me some of the streams or some of the stuff you've done that gets people to, you know, take money out of their pocket. So, so for me, I always like to put uh my my body and dignity on the line. So, uh for me, I love setting up incentives that are are physical challenges on my stream. Uh I learned early on that it's better to overshoot the value on those. Um, one of my favorite moments I've had on stream is I was like, "All right, anybody who donates $100, I'm going to do a cartwheel in my office." That was a mistake cuz then, uh, you know, you never know how your community is going to respond, which is why I always recommend setting up. How many cartwheels did you have to do? Uh, it was in the It was nearing a hundred at some point. It was a lot of cartwheels. And at one point, I can't do a cartwheel, so I'm not going to have that challenge. There there's a clip out there of me doing a cartwheel and hitting a door in my office and the door coming off the hinge and landing on me. Uh, you know, so you really you got to put it all in. Are so beautiful, aren't they? When they happen, you can't you can't plan that. So, my my my recommendation for people if they're getting started, if they're trying to figure out what what can I do to plan something to to get my community to open up their wallets and support a cause that they love, is lean into two things. one, whatever it is that you're known for, double down on that. And then two, the stuff that you have always said, "I'm never going to do this on stream. I don't want to do this." Offer some of those things up. Like for me, I don't like playing horror games. I have a a visceral reaction. I always cry when I get scared. And so setting up incentives where, you know, chat can hit a milestone and like, "Okay, well, I'm going to go play Fasmophobia or I'm going to play Outlast later." Those all tend to do really well. Well, and for those that uh often the way streamers do it is they they both use what I'll call incremental milestones. Yes. Get here. But you talked about what because I find in addition to incre milestones which are wonderful, right? Because it's then okay, come on guys, let's get there. You have this pay this, I'll do X, right, which is your cartwheel because of course it gets you to the milestone, but there's something about having a what happens when one person does something. Right. that causes the one person to all right I'm going to give a hundred and then something funny happens and then another one and another one. So I think it's you always want to blend milestones with a if you give me this and it has to be something that's repeatable. Yes. I I always recommend those because the nature of being live you want that that quick response. Like you think about sub alerts, you think about how we you you architect your stream. Uh, so having stuff that's quick response is always uh important because it helps you crawl up the ladder to the repeatable because like dyeing your hair you can only do once. Right. So dying your hair isn't a bad milestone, right? But doing a cartwheel. You can keep doing it and often it seems like the foundation is thinking of those things that you can do repeatedly. Yes. That makes you look stupid. anything anything you can do that's going to make you look foolish because your your community loves you and people love making us look stupid. I definitely the the you know and always if there's going to be food challenges cuz everybody likes to do a food challenge whether it's bamboozle or it's spicy food you know just try and measure that you know be careful. I've I have overdone it with a spicy food before and ended up uh I I did the uh the Oh my goodness. Okay. So, um, I did a fundraiser for Able Gamers and when we hit our milestone, I ate one of the, uh, the Pocky blue chips and it was so spicy that after I got off stream, I went in my backyard and I was like literally like hallucinating colors that I that weren't there. It It was It was a bad experience. Once I was on a stream in Germany and they had these spicy sausages and they had like 10 levels and the guy I was with the most he had ever done was like three and I went all the way up to 10. I did the spiciest. Oh no. Okay. But literally it was about a day and a half before my digestive system felt catches up. You know, it was a day and a half. I took activated charcoal to try and calm my stomach down. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, let's talk about GCX. Okay. So explain what GCX is and how it got started. Oh, absolutely. So GCX or Gaming Community Expo is uh a community-led event that happens every year in Orlando, Florida. This year it's happening in uh on July uh 24th and 25th, but it got started as a small meetup in a bar in Tampa um coalesing around the Destiny community. So myself and my co-founders uh were really big into streaming that game and uh we set up a meetup. We were expecting like maybe a hundred people to show up and we had about a thousand people show up to a bar in Florida in the middle of the summer and it was very sweaty and um when the next the next evening uh when when me and my co-founders got together and we all sat down and we were like wow that was incredible uh and Corey King said you think we can do this again and our other co-founder Kevin was like yeah sure we can give it a try and then I asked a question that really changed the direction of my life and uh a hu became a huge pillar of the event and that was what if we did something for charity um because that had pulled me into Twitch and and from that humble beginning we have grown to to an event that welcomes tens of that has welcomed tens of thousands of people from all over the world worked with tons of really incredible developers put on great shows um and and ultimately has raised around $20 million for St. since our inception and I I to to speak to that specifically and just like we've been talking earlier, dream big with your community. When we started that, when we tried that, it wasn't like we were expecting all of it to to go the way that it did, right? the the passion that you have for your community and the things that they connect with, those can become the scaffolding for the the dreams you don't even know that you can have, you know, and and I I truly am am honored uh every year that we get to put together GCX and it's it's been an honor to work with the ALSAC team and bring St. Jude's mission to the forefront and really help it become a charity of choice for gamers. Now, can anyone come to GCX? Anybody can come. Yeah. And so for those listening and actually, you know, one of the things it's part of this is meeting people, right? And I do think the GCX event is a good way where you can go and you start meeting other people that are in in the charity and there's so many folks that are doing it and then that makes it easier as you jump in. Yeah. Yeah. I I think one of the things the ethos that we've managed to keep since we got started was, you know, this this event was started by creators. So we always keep creators and their communities at the forefront of our mind. We want to have an event that is welcoming, that invites people in, and that encourages discussion, right? We have people playing Magic the Gathering till 3 in the morning, and we're getting messages from the the Universal Studios hotel staff like, "Are you are you guys okay with these folks?" And they were like, "Yeah, leave it open." Um, you know, and just just like any other gathering uh with gamers, when when people get together and talk about what they're passionate about, you never know what's going to come out of it. And so it it's been incredible to us to sort of be an engine or a focal point for people to to connect with each other and expand their their goals, their missions for fundraising, but also their their careers in content creation as well. So go back and this is a question from Chad um for the professor. Okay. I think you know I I I just have to keep calling the professor. Professor is good with me. There's a lot of people who are going to love that you're calling me the professor. Okay. Um uh uh so what drew you to St. Judes initially because you know that yeah there are so you know when we initially were looking at all of the charities that were involved in the space as Melanie mentioned Play Life had kind of just gotten started but for us it was looking around and trying to find a mission that was as global in scope as the the community on Twitch was right. Uh and so when we found out about St. dude in how not only are they curing cancer but they're openly sharing uh their research globally. Uh they're creating treatment protocols and publishing I think at some point it was like 50% of all uh research papers on pediatric cancer coming out of the hospitals here and these this is stuff that's being shared freely. These treatment protocols are being introduced to hospitals globally. That was a mission that we knew we could bring in front of our our community. Um and and at a time when so many charities are under a lot of scrutiny St. Jude stands out as as like a shining light of of people who are doing it right on every single facet, right? So, we we decided to fundra for St. Jude because of that global mission. And fun side story, the first year that we did this, um I always believe in proving value to somebody before I ask for anything. So when we set up our first charity marathon, I grabbed the PayPal link from their homepage and put it into our alert software and they didn't know what was happening for for about money coming in. Money was coming in. Uh and that that first year we raised uh $500,000, but it took I think four or five days for them to track down like why are we getting all these donations through our homepage without the web visits? And this was the first year with GCA. This was this was the first year we were fundraising. Yeah. And and so and you took that and put it on a bunch of people's channels. Right. And then next thing you know, they had all this money coming in and they're like, "What the?" And we got we got reached out by uh by the the individual that founded or Melanie was mentioning that that was originally working with the the Play Life program. And he he reached out to us and he was like, "Hey, is there is there anything we can do like we could we'd love to connect and talk and and that was the start of a really wonderful relationship between us and and the team at Alsac who is again I cannot emphasize enough the the team that puts together Playive um is so deeply passionate. every single one of them deserve uh the the props and recognition for working so hard to make creators feel welcome here. Well, one of the questions and I'm actually going to start to answer this question then you can because the question from chat was did your community take a while to come along and begin donating or were you they immunity enthusiastic and the interesting thing is like Ben's community grew because of his charity work cuz in fact he wasn't streaming yeah until so he didn't have to bring his community along in fact if not for his charity work he wouldn't have his Twitch community I wouldn't for me charity was always such a a huge part of what we were doing. Whether that was back in the day when I was I was speedrunning. Again, shout out to the Borderlands community and awesome games done quick uh folks and all the great work that they're doing. But when we when we started up our first event, the response was overwhelming. Um uh that first year raising all that money was uh the result of building a really strong community of not just not just my channel on Twitch but all of the people who were in the Destiny directory at the time coming together to push with all of their communities at the same time. And I think that's one of the reasons why we got such an incredible response our first year was because we didn't make it about any individual uh content creator. We made it about what can we do together. Well, and and the beauty I like about your story is um I think one of the challenges that streamers always have is how do I get here? Interestingly, you know, you weren't you weren't worried about where you were going to get. You're worried about what you were doing. Right. And what you were doing was you wanted to make a difference in terms of fundraising. Now, it ended up getting you somewhere. Yes. Absolutely. Okay. That you didn't know you were getting to. Okay. But and so I often say focus on where you're at and what you're doing and don't always worry three years ahead especially as you create. And I think the beauty of it is um uh you know when you ground yourself in something you're passionate about. Absolutely. Then lots of doors open and lots of other doors open for you in part because you're passionate with charity. Yeah. I and I to to sort of like double down on that, showing up every day and making something like whatever it is, taking risks and and and looking at what you're doing, whether whatever you're live streaming, what whatever you're creating, and always being willing to take a little bit of a risk, take a little make a little bit of a change, tweak something, add a new alert, it compounds on itself. I so one of the things I say if um uh if you don't do something that fails then you're not doing then you're not doing something right. Because the only way you're going to do it is you need to try something and if nothing is failing then that tells you you're not trying enough stuff. You got to you got to take a you got to take a risk that scares you a little bit. Right. Um the the first year we put this together. And honest to God, every year we put we've put this together, it's always a little scary, scary because you worry you might fail, especially as you set goals around fundraising. It's like, well, I might fail. And you know what? No. Sometimes you set a goal around fundraising and you don't hit the goal. True. And that's okay. You didn't fail. Actually, you didn't hit the goal. You succeeded. I I always say any any money that you end up raising for a cause that you're passionate about that helps further the mission. I I like to kind of compare it to building uh building something like a house, you cannot lay the next brick without the one that comes before it. So, you know, whether your your first fundraising effort is just, you know, $10 and you're laying that first brick, you are building the foundation for the charities that you work with as you are creating on Twitch. And and this is something that I think cannot ever really be overstated. You have no idea how large your impact is um just by simply bringing awareness to a cause that you're passionate about. If you fund raise a lot of money, that's incredible. but you don't know the the trickle out or the network effect of the people that are coming into your stream. So, you talking about St. Jude or or you you talking about Make a Wish or whatever charity you're passionate about, that could end up in front of somebody's parents or end up in front of somebody's friends who are like, "Oh, I've never thought about that charity before." And it can spiral into so much more than what your initial effort is. And and I think that's part of the beauty is that um as much as we focus on the direct fundraising, there is this sort of uh seeding and gardening part of this as well when it comes to awareness where just by by doing the good itself, you are expanding the scope of what is uh capable of being accomplished by people. And and for those folks listening that are part of a charity that's a different charity, right? Because the beauty of this is obviously there's so many charities that make a difference. Yes. And um the beauty of St. Jude is they realize they they have a passion with their charity, but they also realize there's so many other charities collectively. And one thing I I love is that one thing you've been doing with I know one of your other orgs is branching out and helping other charities figure out how to use Twitch. Yes. Yeah. I I think it's Twitch has proven to be such a powerful tool and uh something that I'm I I'm passionate about a lot of different charities. my life's been affected by so many different things and and the the power of community on Twitch has really helped us realize like wow there's so many charities that can benefit like this and and so many people are I I think charitable organizations they kind of sit on the sidelines because they don't know they don't know how to do it and they don't understand how powerful you know and we were going to talk about this earlier but I'll touch it right now um you know the um uh for those who don't know a lot when you go back in time to kind of fundraising events. The Jerry Lewis Tellathon, which I call the Jerry Lewis Teleon, was a foundation of fundraising because it was every Labor Day weekend. And when I was a kid, I always knew it was coming up. Um, and kids, what what are you talking about? And literally everyone was talking about the the Jerry Lewis um uh teleathon where everybody and anybody that was an entertainer Yes. would go on his teleathon because with fundraising there's something about you have to give people a motivation of why now right why because yeah I want to give money but it's like no I need to do it now and that's and that's why live streaming works so great because it's I can always wait till tomorrow no I'm live now give now and you see this with public broadcasting right now we're live now and the beauty of it is the magic that started with Jerry Lewis now happens every day on Twitch um where people are saying, "No, I'm live now, so give money now." I I love that you brought up the Jerry Lewis Tathon because with some of the uh other organizations that we've spoken to that have been around for a long time, that's kind of the only touch point that they have is is I I'll say if you've ever watched the Jerry Lewis teleathon, that is what's happening on Twitch. You're getting people that have that are modern-day celebrities that have active communities that are present at any time. And there's all and this is this is the thing. If you're a charity and you're listening, this is the thing. Communities trust creators that they watch all the time. And so when you find a creator that connects with your mission, that that trust that has already been built bu it, it is such a strong pathway for communication for you as a charity. there's already so much authenticity in the conversation that there there aren't as many barriers uh to in between you your messaging and and the person who's ultimately going to give to your organization. So, if you're out there and and you're listening, I I really, if you're a charity and you're interested in getting involved in the space, I really encourage you to look at creators as a a huge opportunity for you to get your message out to to people and especially people in age demographics that you might not know how to approach. Yep. Yep. All right. So, with that, it's time to wrap up. Ben, first of all, one of the questions chat had that I want to quickly answer. Um, so in terms of Twitch's charity tool, okay, you have to be an affiliate or a partner. But in terms of charity fundraising, anyone can do it. Yes. Because that's one of the beauty of Tiltify, which is one of the the partners that you all depend so much on. You go, you sign up, you put a link on your stream, okay? And there now you're charity fundraising. Um, so you can use the charity tool or you can use Tiltify. Both work great. Anyone can do this. Okay? So with that, thank you for tuning into the podcast. We stream it on Twitch with a live audience. So the live audience is listening right now. Follow twitch on socials for announcements, timing, and guests for future shows. Join us twitch.tv/t twitch to participate in chat. Don't forget to rate and review. And I will see you in chat.