Gaming Fundraising Is About Community: Reflections from The Tiberius Show

Marc Almanzor (R) chatting with host Tiberius Boy (L) on The Tiberius Show

One of the things I enjoyed most about appearing on The Tiberius Show wasn't talking about fundraising. It was talking about why gaming has become such a powerful force for bringing people together.

Tiberius asked thoughtful questions about charity streaming, community building, leadership, and how video games can create positive change. We covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time, but—as always happens with a good conversation—there were a few ideas I wish we had more time to explore.

Here are a few of the thoughts that have stayed with me since we wrapped the interview.

Discussing how to set up for success in gaming fundraising

Gaming Isn't a Fundraising Tactic. It's a Community.

One of the most common mistakes I see in the nonprofit space is treating gaming like a channel to activate.

“How do we get gamers to fundraise for us?”

It sounds like the right question. But it usually leads to the wrong approach.

Because gaming communities don’t behave like audiences waiting to be marketed to. They behave like ecosystems that already exist—built over years of shared time, inside jokes, repeated interactions, and trust that doesn’t come from a single campaign.

So when organizations enter that space, the ones that tend to connect aren’t the ones starting with a fundraising ask. They’re the ones willing to spend time learning how the community actually works.

What matters isn’t visibility. It’s familiarity.

And familiarity only comes from showing up consistently, without always needing something in return.

https://youtu.be/EF1xCTKLbGs?si=V7BsgH958wiWu4jM&t=634

What makes a successful charity streamer?

Trust Is the Real Currency

We spent some time on the idea of authenticity during the interview, but I don’t think it can be overstated.

I’ve seen both sides of this:

On one hand, there are organizations that invest heavily in gaming initiatives that never really land because the relationship was transactional from the start.

On the other hand, I’ve seen small creators with deeply engaged communities run charity streams that far exceed expectations because people trust them.

A nice, polished campaign page helps, but that isn't what will convert a viewer into a donor. They’re responding to someone they’ve spent time with, week after week, stream after stream.

So when that person says, “This matters to me,” it carries weight.

That’s the part that doesn’t scale easily, but it’s also the part that actually drives participation.

Small Communities Often Have the Biggest Hearts

One of the biggest misconceptions about charity streaming is that you need a massive audience to make a difference.

Louder for those in the back: YOU DON'T!

In fact, some of my favorite fundraising stories involve creators who would probably describe themselves as "small".

Some of the most meaningful fundraising moments I’ve seen come from creators who would never describe themselves as “big streamers.” They’re just consistent. Their communities are tight. People know each other. There’s history there.

A charity stream in that environment doesn’t feel like a broadcast. It feels like a group project.

Someone donates. Someone else matches it. A raid comes in from a friend’s channel. Chat starts building momentum on its own.

Suddenly, what started as a modest goal turns into something much larger—not because it went viral, but because a group of people decided to move together.

That distinction matters more than it gets credit for.

What gaming is quietly teaching people

What people often miss about gaming communities is everything happening around the game and/or content creators.

A Discord server isn’t just chat—it’s someone quietly welcoming new members so they don’t bounce in the first five minutes. A charity stream isn’t just a broadcast—it’s a creator juggling alerts, donations, and a live audience while still trying to keep the energy up for people showing up halfway through. A community event isn’t just a game night—it’s someone coordinating schedules across time zones, solving last-minute issues, and making sure people feel included when they show up.

None of that looks like “leadership” in the traditional sense, but if you step back, that’s exactly what it is: people learning how to organize others, communicate clearly, and keep things moving when there’s no formal structure telling them how.

And the interesting part is that most people don’t even recognize they’re building those skills while it’s happening.

They think they’re just participating in a hobby, when in reality the person running the community is developing skills in leadership, project management, and event production.

Success Isn't Just Measured in Dollars

From a nonprofit perspective, it’s easy to default to outcomes that can be counted.

However, one thing that keeps showing up in creator-driven fundraising is that the most important outcomes often aren’t the most visible ones.

Yes, money gets raised (and that matters), but so does everything that leads to it and everything that comes after it.

A creator runs their first charity stream and learns they can actually rally people around something meaningful.

A viewer shows up for a fundraiser and discovers a cause they hadn’t thought about before.

A community builds shared momentum around something outside of the game itself.

Those things don’t always show up cleanly in a report, but they’re often what determines whether something happens once, or becomes part of how a community operates over time.

Why I'm Optimistic

People sometimes ask whether gaming for good is just a phase.

I don’t think it is.

Not because platforms won’t change (they will). Not because every nonprofit has figured it out (they haven’t).

No, it's because the underlying behavior isn’t new.

People gathering around shared interests and deciding to help each other has always existed. Gaming just happens to make that process more visible, more networked, and more accessible than it used to be.

What I keep coming back to isn’t technology. It’s people.

Creators who care about their communities.

Viewers who want to be part of something.

Organizations that are willing to learn instead of assuming they already understand the space.

That combination is what makes this interesting. Not as a trend, but as an ongoing shift in how people organize around generosity.

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  Creators for the Lupus Foundation

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  Doctors Without Borders' booth at Twitchcon

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  Easterseals at Dreamhack ATL

A Conversation Worth Continuing

I’m grateful to Tiberius and his father, Joe for the conversation. Not just for the questions, but for the curiosity behind them.

We didn’t just talk about fundraising. We talked about how communities form, how people learn to lead in informal spaces, and how gaming continues to evolve into something that’s about more than entertainment.

If there’s one thing I’d leave people with, it’s this:

Gaming has always been about connection. What’s changing now is how often that connection extends beyond the game itself.

And we’re still early in understanding what that actually makes possible.

Interested in the full podcast episode? Download audio here

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