Beyond the basics: Planning your charity livestream for success

Define what you exactly want to achieve with your livestream. Some examples of what these could look like are:

• Raising X amount within a certain time frame
• Increase your follower count by X
• Increase awareness of our case
• Increase our community engagement

We know that you would love to achieve all of these goals, but really try to hone in on one clear goal that will help shape the livestream.

For example, if you want to increase your engagement, you should make sure there are lots of interactions with the chat, and if you want to increase your follower count, consider adding a ‘follow’ graphic overlay.

Let’s look at these objectives and apply them to a fictional dog rescue charity.

• If the goal is increasing awareness or followers, the charity could host a live ‘day in the life’ at their shelter, introducing adoptable dogs and sharing success stories.
• If the goal is fundraising, the charity could set up fun donation milestones (e.g., ‘If we reach £500, our team will dress as dogs for the rest of the stream’).
• If the goal is engagement, the charity could involve viewers in decision-making, such as letting them vote on names for new rescues.

Choose a platform that suits your audience and goals. Twitch, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook each offer different features for engagement and fundraising.

Some things to consider are:

• What is your target audience for this livestream and what platform are they on?
• What features do you need for your livestream?
• Which platforms are you most comfortable using?
• Do you already have a following on a particular platform?

Make sure to check out my last resource for more information on the features of different platforms.

Scheduling involves three major points to consider:

• Date: Either avoid major events or holidays when people will be busier or use them to your advantage. Whether it’s International Women’s Day, Wildlife Conservation Day, or World Mental Health Day – if you can host an event for it, you can host a livestream for it!
• Time: The best way to find a time that works for your audience is to check your analytics for the platform you plan to use.
• Length: Long streams offer variety and fundraising potential but require careful planning such as rotating hosts, holding slides for breaks, having variety in activities. Also keep in mind time limits for platforms (Instagram only allows lives for 4 hours).

Now you know the platform, the date, and what you want to achieve. Next, it’s time to plan and prepare your content.

The key three things to keep in mind are:

1. Your key objective
2. Your cause
3. What you’re providing your audience – if you want people to not just watch for a few hours but to act on it, you need to provide something, whether that’s information or entertainment or both!

For an article on fundraising.co.uk, Alyssa Sweetman, the Director of Creator Social Impact at Twitch, says:

“It needs to be authentic and engaging. It’s better if charities live stream something that fits with their mission. Putting an employee on playing games doesn’t automatically ensure that an audience will show up or find it engaging.”

Lauren Levy, Customer Success Manager at JustGiving, says in the same article:

“Use what you know about your audience to build what your activity will look like. Have you seen any trends with fundraising? Is there anything popular you could pivot to a livestream? Your supporters are probably the warmest audience you’ll have, so take some time to talk to them and see what they’d like to see you do. For a low-cost way of finding out, throw some polls out on social media and ask.”

Check your internet connection, camera, microphone, and any streaming software in advance to avoid technical hiccups on the day. Restream have a great guide on support with livestreaming tech.

The truth about livestreaming is that you can do anything! Here’s an A-Z of fundraising ideas from PDSA and another from NSPCC to help you brainstorm.

For charities that collaborate with streamers and encourage their supporters to go live on their behalf, the success can be huge!

• Jingle Jam 2024 raised £2.67 million to be shared across 8 charities,
• Get Together Through Gaming 2025 raised £8,261.73 for Leeds Mind.

• OBS Studio: Free, open-source software for professional-quality streams.
• Streamlabs: Free, user-friendly platform with built-in overlays, alerts, and chatbot features.
• Restream: Allows streaming across multiple platforms, has built in copyright-free music and allows you to add custom graphics.

• Tiltify: Designed for charity streaming, with donation goals and overlays. The British Red Cross has a page on its website encouraging its audiences to use Tiltify to livestream on their behalf.
• JustGiving: Trusted fundraising platform with campaign pages and donation tracking.

• Live polls: Encourage interaction by letting viewers vote on challenges.
• Chatbots: Automate moderation and engagement.
• Stream alerts: Show on-screen donation notifications to boost engagement.

• Canva: Easy-to-use tool for creating promotional graphics. As a charity, you can get free access to Canva Pro.