DesithonMerchFor our first Desithon ever, our community decided to sponsor Charity Water! Charity Water works with local water projects in rural areas to help bring clean drinking water to those who otherwise have no access to it. This was a charity near to Desi especially, since he had lived in India for years and had spent many nights without clean drinking water.
If you're interested in seeing the program that we developed for the event, here was the schedule for Desithon 1!
As with all Desithon events, Desi donated every penny earned during the event to the charity (and he chipped in whatever funds he could donate too!). In the interest of complete transparency with the community, we have kept records of all donations. For our first Desithon, we donated everything we earned in our Paypal account during the event directly to Charity Water, right at the end of the event. Here are three pages of receipts for that donation.
Receipt of donation sent through Paypal:
The donations above did not account for the earnings made through Twitch, which would arrive in a payout several weeks later to Desi's account. So, Desi screenshotted all revenue earned through Twitch on the day of the event and shared them here and in our server.
Revenue earned from Twitch bits, subs, and ads during the event:
When the payout arrived with all of the earnings listed above, we made a second donation to Charity Water. Below are the receipts for that donation.
Receipt of donation from Twitch revenue:
Our second Desithon was an enormous success. We sponsored Trans Lifeline, an excellent organization that provides support for trans folks in need as well as helping them applying for microgrants. The organization is run by trans folks as well: for the trans community, and run by the trans community. Even as someone cis-gendered, Desi has found the resources on their website to be some of the most useful ones available for spreading awareness about gender identity to educate those who wish to learn more, in good faith.
After all of the receipts from the first year of Desithon, we decided that a simpler and very transparent way to disburse the funds to the charity would be to use the Tiltify platform. Although we have always been as transparent as possible regarding funds and documenting payments from Desithon, Tiltify made record keeping much simpler. For example, on the Tiltify campaign's website there are records for each donation made by every viewer during the event, along with any messages they shared alongside the donation. Here's a link to Desithon 2's Tiltify campaign. Also, for those interested, here's the schedule we developed for Desithon 2.
Also, in the interest of transparency, we've provided screenshots of all the Twitch revenue we earned during the event, which we were able to donate once the funds arrived in the following payout ($923). Also, some viewers donated to our stream directly, rather than to the Tittify campaign; we donated that directly to the charity at the end of the event, since the goal was to donate every penny the stream earned during the event to help support the cause (a total of $387.03). Finally, you'll find a screenshot that displays these two donations from the Tiltify campaign itself ($923 & $387.03), along with two additional donations Desi himself made from his own savings to support the cause:
For Desithon 3, we had a very tough choice to make when it came to deciding on the charity to sponsor. That year, we had more people participating in the polls than ever, and there were two charities that were neck and neck in the polls. It was a hard decision to go with a majority vote, because that meant we would not be able to support another cause that was clearly dear to nearly everyone in the community. Between Trans Lifeline and International Bipolar Foundation, the latter ended up winning the polls. We still managed to donate $900 to Trans Lifeline, which we'll describe below.
International Bipolar Foundation is another excellent charity that we were very happy to support for our third Desithon event! International Bipolar Foundation focuses on mental health awareness, provides resources to individuals touched by Bipolar Disorder, celebrates achievements of those living with Bipolar Disorder, and much more. They also emphasize the importance of black mental health and stand in solidarity with the black community. Our stream was very happy to support such an important cause for society.
For those interested, here were the games we played during Desithon 3.
As far as funds raised during Desithon 3, our annual charity event was another giant success. Again, we used Tiltify to streamline the disbursement of funds to the charity, and so that we could keep simple and transparent records of everything. Here's the link to Desithon 3's Tiltify campaign.
Because the votes in our poll were so painfully close between Trans Lifeline & International Bipolar Foundation, Anonymous contacted Desi and wanted to match every dollar we earned (up to $500) to donate to Trans Lifeline. We made a separate Tiltify campaign to document that donation.
And, while not exactly funds raised during the date of the event, we did manage to raise more money for Trans Lifeline from an incentive we set during Desithon 3. The incentive was to beat SMB2 with the U Force. This proved to be particularly challenging on the NES version of the game, so Desi beat the game with the SNES version. Tillery, a beloved member of our community, wanted to spice things up after seeing how painfully difficult beating SMB2 (NES) on the U Force would be. They offered to donate $50 for each world of the NES version that Desi would complete on the U Force (plus an additional $50 just for attempting the endeavor). They simply mae Desi an offer that he couldn't refuse. So, for the sake of charity to an important cause to us all, we ended up beating SMB2 NES on the U Force and raising an extra $400 for Trans Lifeline!
Screenshot of the receipt for the $400 donation Tillery pledged to Trans Lifeline:
Again, in the interest of transparency, you'll find screenshots below that document all the Twitch revenue we earned during Desithon 3. First, we went ahead and donated any funds that viewers sent to the stream itself during the event, so that all funds raised during Desithon 3 would go directly to the cause (a total of $58.38). Then, once we received the funds in the following payout from Twitch, we were able to donate that money directly to the Tiltify campaign ($740). Finally, you'll find a screenshot of these donations on the Tiltify campaign for Desithon 3 ($58.38 & 740), along with another donation that Desi made from his own savings to support the cause:
For Desithon 4, we again had a difficult choice to make when it came to selecting a charity, with so many wonderful causes to support. While the polls were not neck and neck like they were the previous year, two main charities got the majority of the votes: Trans Lifeline (again) and Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF). In the end, the polls determined that TLDEF would be the charity for us to sponsor. Anonymous, however, graciously contacted me and wished to match up to $500 in donations towards the charity that won second place in the polls again! Just like the previous year, we made a separate Tiltify campaign to document Anonymous's donation to Trans Lifeline.
TLDEF does so much for trans and nonbinary folks, we were proud to sponsor such a noble charity for Desithon 4. Among TLDEF's main goals, the charity works hard to impact litigation with precedent-setting lawsuits and to provide health care to trans and nonsbinary through education and litigation. They are especially active with name change projects that connect trans and nonbinary folks with pro bono attorneys to quickly implement legal name changes.
Desithon 4 was our most successful event yet! We ended up deciding to split the event into two streams, so that Desi could rest his back in between the two streaming days. During that period (from the moment the event started on August 5th until the end of the event on August 7th), any funds the stream earned all went directly to the charity. Here was the schedule for Desithon 4, showing which games we played during Desithon 4.
As always, in the interest of transparency, we found that Tiltify was the best method for disbursing funds to the charity. Also, it has a lovely record of all the donations made during the event. Here's the link to Desithon 4's Tiltify campaign!
We kept receipts of all the funds that the stream earned, and in the interest of documenting everything for transparency, you'll find screenshots below that display all revenue our Twitch channel earned during Desithon 4. First we donated any funds that viewers sent directly to our stream rather than using the Titltify link, so that all funds raised during the event would go to the charity (a total of $428.29). It took several weeks for us to receive the funds from bits, subs, and ad revenue, but as soon as Twitch paid us, we were able to send these funds directly to the charity through the Tiltify campaign (a total of $790). Finally, you'll find a screenshot below highlighting those two donations ($428.29 & $790) to the campaign, as well as a donation from Desi personally, since he had been saving up during the months leading up to the event to help support the cause as well:
Similar to the previous year, our stream decided as a community that the charity we wanted to sponsor was Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund again! Trans Lifeline was closeby in third place, but this year our second place nominee went to The Trevor Project. Just as in previous years, Anonymous reached out to me and wanted to match every dollar up to $500 we raised so that they could support the cause that came into second place. Again, we made a separate Tiltify campaign to document Anonymous's donation to The Trevor Project.
Desithon 5 was our second most successful event yet! Apart from the $500 that Anonymous donated to The Trevor Project, we raised $5750.69 for TLDEF! That's a total of $6250.69! Here's the schedule we had for Desithon 5, showing which games we played during the event.
Again, we like to share the Tiltify campaign information here in the interest of transparency. Not only does Tiltify take care of disbursing funds and keeping transparent records, they also document everyone's lovely messages attached to each donation. Here's the link to Desithon 5's Tiltify campaign!
In line with our commitment to public transparency regarding charity funds, we have kept receipts and documentation for all funds that the stream earned during the event. Below, you'll find screenshots that display all revenue our Twitch channel earned during Desithon 5, along with a screenshot from the Tiltify page showing the donations Desi made to honor those funds ($356). During the event, some people made donations to our Twitch stream directly, rather than to the Tiltify campaign, so we went ahead and donated all of those funds to the charity as well (a total of $75.64). Finally, you'll find a screenshot displaying those two donations ($356 & $75.64) along with a donation from Desi himself, as he had been saving up money for several months so that he too could make a contribution to the charity and help the cause:
And so, here is a summary of what we have raised in each of our Desithon events:
I cannot stress this enough, this amounts to a whopping total of $28,407.42 to charity! This is such a substantial amount of money, sums of this kind make a huge difference towards changing lives for the better!
We are so proud of everyone who was able to contribute: whether through bits, subs, donations, or perhaps from participating in chat and helping make the event as fun as possible, or possibly through helping us earn ad revenue for the events, and even those who were unable to participate during the event but have been a part of the community and have helped the stream grow to such an extent. No matter how you helped (or will help in upcoming events), it has been a huge thanks to you that we have been able to make this large of an impact on the world! Thank you!
Inspired by my favorite poet and a rhetorical device that he used often (anaphora), I cannot stress enough just how much I appreciate each and every one of you and your help when it comes to charity. A HUGE thanks goes to all of YOU: everyone who has supported this stream, you have all helped us continue to grow the stream and do good for the world with our focus on charity and interest in spreading awareness about important and queer issues on Twitch. We're all very excited to see where we go with this stream and how we can continue to be a positive - and very gay - force in the world!