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Live streaming for a cure!

From crafts to baking to fitness – and everything in between – it’s easier than ever to start live streaming for a cure to brain tumours.

Over the last five years, live streaming has exploded into the mainstream. On Twitch alone there are over 7.23 million active streamers and in April 2024 Twitch users watched nearly two billion hours of content.  

It was estimated that in 2020 Twitch streamers raised more than £60m for charitable causes. That number has likely rapidly increased in the following years. 

If you’re interested in live streaming for a cure for brain tumours – whether you’re a gamer, a baker, a crafter or a comedian – keep reading to find out everything you need to get started. 

On this page we’ll cover: 

What is live streaming?

Live streaming technology lets people watch, create and share videos in real time over the internet. It’s a bit like live TV or using Facebook live. 

When you live stream, people will be able to watch your video content live. They’ll also be able to participate by chatting with you, voting on polls and donating to your stream. 

Many streamers collect donations for charity during their streams. This is becoming an increasingly important way for charities to achieve their goals.  

In fact, when Tiltify, a streaming donation platform, compared offline fundraising to live online donations, it found that it would typically take people 37 times longer to raise the same amount offline.

Who can be a streamer?

The best thing about live streaming is that absolutely everyone with access to the internet can be a streamer. You can stream alone or you can choose to stream with other people if you prefer. 

A common misconception about streaming is that it’s just for people who live stream video games. However, some of the most popular streamers stream activities like: 

  • painting or illustrating 
  • sculpting 
  • knitting and crocheting 
  • cooking 
  • playing music or performing music tutorials 
  • comedy 
  • chatting and entertaining 
  • board games or role playing games. 

And, you don’t need to pick something to live stream and stick with that. You can keep trying new things until you’ve found something you enjoy. 

Why start streaming for a cure for brain tumours?

Live streaming for charity is a great way to raise funds while showing off your skills and doing something you enjoy. 

Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of children, teens and adults under 40, yet treatments have barely improved in a generation and research investment is too low.  

But we refuse to accept this!   

When you live stream in support of The Brain Tumour, you’re supporting our commitment to helping everyone affected by a brain tumour live a longer and better life. 

Every penny you raise will help us fund ground-breaking research, deliver life-changing support services and campaign for the needs of people affected by a brain tumour. 

EACH £30 RAISED could provide a ‘Brainy Bag’ for a child who’s been diagnosed with a brain tumour, filled treats like a teddy bear, colouring book and blanket  – as well as useful information for parents. 

EACH £120 RAISED could pay for enough Better Safe Than Tumour packs to inform up to 1,200 people about the signs and symptoms of brain tumours, helping us drive faster diagnosis. 

EACH £300 RAISED could help pay for a day of world-class research into new ways to diagnose and treat brain tumours in a kinder, more-effective way. taking part in a clinical trial, so that we can draw useful conclusions and keep driving forward towards a cure. 

What do I need to start live streaming for charity?

A Twitch or YouTube channel 

First, you’ll need to create a Twitch or YouTube channel. These are the two biggest live streaming platforms and provide everything you need to get started with streaming.  

A Tiltify account 

Tiltify is the leading tool to help live streamers raise money for charity. 

A way to stream video direct from your device or a camera 

If you’re live streaming a game or something you’re doing on your computer, you can simply connect your console or PC to your YouTube or Twitch account. Then people will be able to tune into your stream live and watch the action on your screen live. 

Want people to see what you’re physically doing during your stream? You’ll need to set up a camera to record yourself or the activity you’re doing. If you have a webcam (you can your laptops built-in webcam if it has one) or a mobile phone, you can use these while you’re getting started. 

A microphone 

If you want people to hear you while you’re streaming, you’ll need a microphone. Again, you can use the microphone built into your phone or laptop while you’re getting started. If you already own a gaming headset, you can use the microphone built into this.  

Once you’re settled in and comfortable streaming, a new microphone might be the first upgrade you make to your set-up. Many streamers believe poor-quality audio is a bigger turnoff than poor video. 

A stable internet connection 

It’s hard to get people engaged with your stream if it’s hampered by issue caused by a bad internet connection. Most guides recommend a minimum bitrate of 5 megabytes (MBPS) per second, while 10MBPS will result in a great quality stream.   

Lighting 

Even if you’re using the best camera available, your live stream isn’t going to look great if you’re sitting in the dark. Making the most of the natural light available will suffice while you’re getting started, especially if you’re in a room that gets lots of natural light. 

If not, you can normally find very affordable, simple ring lights online. 

Live streaming software 

Streaming software (also known as encoding software) captures your audio and video signal, compresses it and delivers it to your streaming platform. 

When you start out, the Twitch studio app is great for a hassle-free live streaming experience. However, you may need to explore some of the popular streaming software options that are available if you’re not getting great results. 

Perseverance 

While it’s actually quite simple to get started with streaming, you’re probably not going to instantly gain hundreds of viewers overnight. 

Often, it can take a little while to build an audience. So you might want to invite people you know to watch your first few streams while you get settled.  

Top tips for streaming for a cure for brain tumours

Test your set up! 

This may be an obvious one, but you’ll definitely want to test your set up lots before your first stream! You’ll also need to check the quality before every stream following this. 

It’s a lot less stressful to make sure everything is set up correctly 10 minutes before you’re due to stream than having to try to sort out tech issues after your stream has begun. 

Spread the word! 

When you’re getting started, don’t be shy about using your social media to promote your stream. If you’ve people you can depend on, why not ask them to join your early streams and be active in the chat to make things more fun. 

Engage with your audience 

Creating great content is only half the battle when it comes to live streaming! Most people watch streams because they appreciate the live engagement during the stream.  

The easiest way to do that is by simply reading comments on your live chat if you are able to do so. Or, you can mention some of your viewers’ names and comment on their comments. This will make your live stream more lively and fun. 

Use Tiltify to its fullest 

There’s a reason that Tiltify is the leading tool to help streamers raise funds for charity. It has lots of great features we’d recommend using to help boost your fundraising. 

Milestones are markers or sub-goals to help bring attention to certain points of progress on your fundraising journey. We’d recommend using some of our fundraising figures that help demonstrate what certain amounts can pay for. 

Rewards are a great way to incentivize people to donate. When you get started, we’d recommend sticking to virtual rewards. These could be anything from having a one-minute dance party to celebrate the donation, performing a certain action in the game you’re playing or taking requests for future streams. 

Polls are a great way to engage your audience by letting them decided what you’ll do next based on how much is donated to each option in the poll. 

Get advice from the experts 

Tiltify have an excellent guide to getting started that we’d recommend everybody reads before jumping into live streaming for charity.

Don’t give up 

You’re not going to have full chatrooms and hundreds of viewers at the start of your live streaming journey.  

In fact, you may be streaming to nobody at all, which is why we recommend inviting people you know to tune in. 

The important thing to remember is that you shouldn’t give up. People who raise money for The Brain Tumour Charity by running a marathon don’t get start day one of their training by running a full marathon – and streaming for a cure is no different.  

What support do we provide for streamers?

We’re here to support you at every step of your live streaming journey! 

Our Community Fundraising team are on hand to answer your questions, give fundraising tips and help make sure you have everything you need to make your stream a success. You can email us at communityfundraising@thebraintumourcharity.org. 

You can find all sorts of useful fundraising resources on our website and we’re always adding new resources to help you smash your fundraising goals.

If you’re planning on starting live streaming for a cure, make sure you let us know about your plans so we can support you as best as possible.

Tell us your plans