Twitch’s new “charity mode” aims to ease “logistical hassles” of raising money

Creators have raised millions of dollars for good causes by hosting charity livestreams on Twitch. But they’ve never had built-in tools to do it.

Until now.

Twitch announced this week that it’s beta testing Twitch Charity, a suite a fundraising tools that lets creators set streams to “charity mode” and activate tools for automatic fund collection and donation.

“The hassles of running a charity stream—tracking donations, converting subs and Bits, managing multiple programs and apps at once—are what we’re hoping to make as minimally hassle-y as possible,” the platform wrote in a company blog post.

Setting a stream to charity mode will put a “Donate to Charity” button in the stream window along with a tracker that’ll show donations building up to hitting the stream’s fundraising goal.

Twitch Charity will also automatically donate the money raised to the streamer’s cause of choice. Previously, creators would have to tally up and donate the money themselves, and it’s become common practice for them to post screenshots of their donation as proof that viewers’ money actually went to the cause. (It’s also worth noting here that third-party companies like StreamElements have built numerous plugins and widgets that help creators host charity streams. This is just the first time Twitch has offered onsite tools.)

Now, donations made during charity mode streams will be received and tallied by the PayPal Giving Fund, and then be “granted to your recommended charity in accordance with its policies,” Twitch says.

Twitch will not take a cut of donations.

“For streamers, [Twitch Charity] makes raising money for important causes easier and transparent,” Twitch says. “For viewers, it should make supporting those causes simpler, clearer, and more impactful.”

Twitch Charity is live for “some streamers” and is “starting small with a limited amount of charities,” the platform says. Creators who have the new suite unlocked will receive an email letting them know it’s available.