Exciting news, fellow gamers! Our next annual Gamers for Giving event will take place on the weekend of April 28th & 29th, 2018!

In case you’re not familiar: Gamers for Giving is a LAN party + streamathon that generates resources for Gamers Outreach programs. Through ticket sales, sponsorship, and online donations, last year’s event raised more than $300,000 in support of providing entertainment devices to children’s hospitals around the nation (which we are now deploying)!

Gamers for Giving will once again take place within the Eastern Michigan University Convocation Center, a venue which hosts a wide array of events including concerts, trade-shows, and banquets. Tickets will go on sale in the month of January (date TBA).

We’ll release more information regarding the 2018 event over the coming months – including our fundraising goals, streaming schedule, and list of activities. As usual, you can expect a full weekend of competitive tournaments and casual LAN camaraderie.

You can stay in sync with the latest news related to Gamers for Giving 2018 by following the Gamers for Giving blog, or following Gamers Outreach on Twitter and Facebook. Be sure to use the official hashtag #GFG2018 on Twitter!

2018 is going to be a massive year for Gamers Outreach. As of this blog post, we’re in the process of scaling our programs from ~30 facilities to nearly 200 across the U.S., Canada, and even a couple hospitals overseas! We can’t wait to share our progress with you at Gamers for Giving. We’re looking forward to another year of gaming competitions and streams in support of hospitalized patients!

Hope to see you at the EMU Convocation Center on April 28th & 29th, 2018!

Gamers for Giving 2017 has come to an end, and the results are in!

Thanks to the collective efforts of the gaming community, and after tallying donations we received at the event, we’re proud to announce the grand total raised was an incredible $315,069.00!!

This is an epic victory to be shared among everyone who supported this year’s efforts! Our entire team has been inspired. To our attendees, on-site broadcasters, and online streamers who came together in support of providing recreation to hospitalized children – WE THANK YOU!!

The end result? We’ll be able to make an incredible difference in the lives of patients and their families throughout the year – delivering more GO Karts than we’ve ever constructed before!

Over the next couple months, we’ll be working to complete deliveries of our latest batch of new GO Karts. Once finished, we’ll then be able to exercise resources generated at Gamers for Giving to roll out GO Karts across multiple hospitals around the country.

None of this would have been possible without the support of our sponsors. Companies such as Lightstream, 5-Hour ENERGY, Twitch, Cables & Kits, our Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers, and many others came together to facilitate this weekend’s event. Their sponsorship amplified our fundraising – and we’re grateful for their commitment to our event and cause!

An outpouring of thanks is deserved by our streamers – who rallied their communities to help us tackle the weekend’s big goal. Collectively, our on-site stream team’s efforts accounted for more than $90,000 raised during the event! We’re blown away by the power streamers have to impact change, and we’re honored to have their support.  Streaming platforms like Twitch have enabled gamers to raise awareness and funding for causes like never before. It’s truly remarkable witnessing the difference gamers can make through online broadcasts! And of course, a special shout out goes to summit1g – who raised more than $50,000 in a single day of streaming! Astonishing.

Last but certainly not least, we owe gratitude to our army of volunteers – whose efforts can never go unnoticed at Gamers for Giving. It’s thanks to their generosity Gamers for Giving is a reality. Our crew spends numerous hours throughout the year gathering resources and equipment to bring our annual fundraising event to fruition. Many sacrifice vacation days and time with friends/family to create our event each year, and make a difference in the lives of hospitalized kids. To all our volunteers – THANK YOU for making this year’s event the most successful Gamers for Giving we’ve hosted to date!

Ultimately, our hope is to place at least 1 GO Kart in every U.S. children’s hospital, providing recreation to children who otherwise may not have access to activities away from their bedside. Seeing our $200K goal crushed on Day 1 of the event was incredibly exciting, and we can’t wait for you to see the difference these resources will make within hospitals.

The support we received this past weekend was humbling, but it’s also just the beginning of our annual quest! Interested in getting involved or supporting our efforts? Be sure to swing by the Gamers Outreach Donate page to learn how you can contribute, fundraise, or volunteer!

Thank you to everyone who joined us online and at the event. We’ll see you throughout the year!

Wow.

What a weekend!

Our deepest thanks to all of you who made this year’s Gamers for Giving so incredibly special. Words don’t adequately express our appreciation to everyone in the gaming community who helped DEMOLISH the $200K fundraising goal!

We plan to announce our final total at some point later this week as we wait for some donations to clear, and get a final count on everything collected at the live event.

In the meantime, our crew of volunteers are in the midst of tear down at the EMU Convocation Center, and then we’ll be catching up on some much needed sleep. We’ll see you in a few days with the GRAND TOTAL!!

We normally wait until after the event to report on totals – but the gaming community is absolutely CRUSHING our fundraising goal at this year’s Gamers for Giving!!

As of this blog post (8:30 AM Eastern) we have raised more than $252K in support of building GO Karts for hospitalized children!!!!

HOLY COW!!!!

Can we reach $300K? $400K?! It’s up to you!

Donations can be made here!

Join us for the last day of Gamers for Giving 2017!! Our main broadcast will go live around 10 AM Eastern time at Twitch.tv/GamersOutreach

See you soon!

That special time of year has finally arrived. Our annual fundraising event is THIS WEEKEND!!

Here’s everything you’ll need to get involved:

• Donate: You can support our fundraising efforts by making a donation here.
• Watch: Our main event broadcast will go live on Twitch at 12 PM Eastern Saturday. You’ll also be able to tune in on Sunday starting at 10:30 AM Eastern.
• Fundraise: We recently built our own fundraising platform which allows gamers to stream in support of Gamers Outreach programs! You can start a general fundraiser, or even rally your community to construct GO Karts for a hospital of your preference. Not a streamer? No sweat! You can still use the platform to reach out to friends, family, or colleagues in support of the big weekend’s goal! Create your first fundraising campaign here. Need artwork for your stream? Download our logo and Twitch banners here.
• Spread the Word: Unable to make a donation, but still want to be involved? Help spread Gamers for Giving hype on social media! You can use the hashtag #GFG2017 to help promote this year’s event and encourage friends to get involved.

We’re chasing down a $200,000 fundraising goal to build GO Karts for hospitalized kids. Anything you can do to support the cause would be incredibly appreciated!!

We’ll see you on the other side!

#GFG2017

During Gamers for Giving, our Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers will be hosting a social media giveaway! Attendees (as well as those watching online) have the chance to win a special prize pack, which includes…

• Nintendo Switch
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Nintendo Switch Pro Controller
• Micro SD Card
• $100 Visa Gift Card

There are multiple ways to enter, and attendees do not need to be physically at Gamers for Giving to participate. Check out the official contest page for all the details. Those attending in-person do receive a benefit “bonus entry” – which includes taking a selfie with our shiny new Camaro, and posting a photo across twitter with the hashtag #ChevyDetroitGFG.

Be sure to use the contest page for entry so we can track your participation!

Best of luck, and thank you to our Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers for sponsoring this year’s event!

Joining us as a member of the Gamers Outreach stream team, local StarCraft hero Evan “Winter” Ballnik will be broadcasting live to help raise funds at Gamers for Giving!

With thousands of games of StarCraft 2 logged, Winter is one of the few players in the world to reach Grandmaster Random (all 3 races) in StarCraft 2. Now a full-time streamer, Winter focus on producing entertaining, educational, and enjoyable StarCraft content on his Twitch and YouTube channels.

During last year’s Gamers for Giving, Winter streamed for 32 consecutive hours, (woa) and held down casting duties for both our StarCraft and Counter-Strike tournaments, along with some of our other crew members.

This year, Winter will be joining us in a designated stream lounge, broadcasting alongside other streamers to build GO Karts for hospitalized children around the country.

Winter is also sponsoring this year’s StarCraft tournament! Praise be!

Be sure to show him some support on Twitter and Facebook, and say hello on April 1st & 2nd!

We have to give a HUGE shout out to Twitch for helping us work with so many incredible streamers this year. Without their platform or their support, a lot of our fundraising efforts simply wouldn’t be possible. Twitch has been fantastically generous in empowering our efforts, helping to coordinate travel for many of our special guests attending this weekend. They’re really the best, aren’t they?

And of course, we’re proud to have Twitch has the official streaming platform of Gamers for Giving 2017! We’ll be getting our own stream started at approximately 11:30 AM Eastern time. Be sure to join us over at Twitch.tv/GamersOutreach!

We’ll see you on April 1st and 2nd, LIVE ON TWITCH!

Joining us online during Gamers for Giving – renowned Twitch streamer Jaryd “summit1g” Lazar will be broadcasting this weekend in support of the cause!

An ex-competitive Counter-Strike player turned full time streamer, summit1g is one of the most recognized broadcasters online – with over 20,000 Twitch Subscribers, and a viewership community of nearly 2 million strong!

Summit1g will be streaming over on his Twitch channel Saturday in support of our quest to raise $200,000 for GO Kart builds across the country.

Be sure to give him some love on Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube, and check out his stream during this weekend’s event!