It was 5am and with my hood up, eyes half closed, I was still (just about) fighting that dragon. Earlier this month, a friend and I completed a 24-hour gaming livestream for The Benjamin Foundation’s Gaming for Good campaign. With the first few hours filled with challengingly fun games, conversations with people from “across the pond” and Bertie Bott’s jellybeans, we were onto a great start! But by the time 5am came around, most people had departed to their beds, leaving the two of us by ourselves with an old Xbox 360 copy of Skyrim. Livestreaming is a powerful platform used to communicate with an audience. It involves someone being “live” on a computer with people tuning in to watch and chat with them by sending real-time messages.  

Always looking to try something new, we saw this livestream as a great opportunity to speak directly with our community, many of whom we haven’t spoken to in a while. For me, this serves as a definition of modern-day community fundraising, highlighting the incredible generosity of personal communities. There was no better time for this to click than at 7am, when, shortly after defeating Mirmulnir (at Whiterun in case you were wondering), our fresh-faced friends finally returned to say good morning. The increase in chatter as people got ready to go about their day, reflected our own increase in energy, as we became motivated by the continued and returning support of our community. This largely epitomises what fundraising can be about, not just raising awareness and doing something good, but providing you an opportunity to connect more closely with your own friends and family whilst providing them the opportunity to connect with you. 

I’m looking forward to that connection yet again when I share an edited “best moments” video from the full 24 hours – wish me luck!