Variety Press X [Mas]
Looking to live stream this holiday season? Why not Press X [Mas]? Every $54 raised provides a toy bag for disadvantaged kids who would otherwise miss out.
Bring joy and hope to kids and families this holiday season!
Press X [Mas] for Kids in Need
Each year, thousands of children miss out on the simple joy of a brand new toy at Christmas time.
This holiday season you can charity stream to provide toys and bring joy to a child who would otherwise miss out.
Each gift costs an average of $54.
Show your support by signing up to host a charity stream yourself or donate to a Variety Press X(Mas) stream any time before the 31 December.
Variety – the Children’s Charity, with your support, arrange special toy deliveries to those families that need it most - in 2021 we gave gifts to 4,526 kids!
Who You'll Be Helping
For Tommy and his family gifts at Christmas time are completely out of reach.
The gifts provided by our donors brought them a moment of much-needed joy.
*Names changed for privacy. Pictured is Bryce who also received gifts last year
Love Minecraft?
We are stoked to be teaming up with Nodecraft for a very special Press X [Mas] Minecraft event on Giving Tuesday 29 November – join us on Twitch twitch.tv/varietylevelup from 5pm – 8pm PST. On the day we will be doing an epic build of a Xmas tree with gifts as we raise funds and awareness for kids who miss out at Christmas time.
Tune in or sign up to take part in the build and to raise funds for gifts for kids who would otherwise miss out this holiday season. Every $54 raised provide a toy bag for a child in need.
- Tune in - twitch.tv/varietylevelup
- Sign up to fundraise and join Team Press X [Minecraft]
- DM us on Discord to take part in the build
The Toys
Every $54 you raise provides a toy bag for a child in need. Toy range from robotics kits, soft toys, interactive figurines, science and art kits and more! Each toy bag is designed around the age or intellectaul age of the lucky recipient.
The Jones* family who received gifts last year had just welcomed their fifth child, Noah, last November. The father was out of work at the time, despite trying hard to find employment, and their eldest child had just been diagnosed with a language disability. As you can imagine, money was very tight for them and toys for the kids on Christmas morning were simply out of reach.
The Laing* family lost their baby boy, Dylan, to cot death 18 months before and had just welcomed a new baby to the family. Living with physical and mental health issues, they were delighted with the toys for their precious little girl.
Your support helped the Hassan's, whose family had been fractured by COVID. Two years earlier, the father, two older siblings and grandparents went overseas to celebrate Christmas with family for 4 weeks. Border closures left them stranded overseas and mum and her son struggling here on their own – both financially and emotionally. The Christmas presents meant the world to them.
Fundraising Incentives
Aim high and set a target to raise $540 to provide toy bags to 10 kids in need this holiday season.
Everyone who raises $540 or more will earn a Variety swag pack including:-
- Variety tee
- Variety enamel pin
- Variety lanyard
FAQ
All your questions answered!
I'm choosing to stream! How do I get started?
Sign up, set your challenge date anytime before 30 December and choose your stream format (24hr stream, 12hr stream, 1hr a day for the holiday season or a few hours on one day).
Follow our handy guide to help you set up for your Tilitfy campaign (check our resources above for download links). You can stream solo or as a team! Get your crew together to do a joint live stream (so you can get off the grind and have some time AFK) or go solo.
What should I choose for a fundraising goal?
We always outline where funds go, so for example $26 is the basic cost of a musical toy. If music was your passion as a kid, why not aim to get 10 kids those toys this Christmas? That’s $260 as a fantastic starter goal – as long as it means something to you, that’s what matters!
Dream big or start small, whatever works! If you reach your goal, you can set a larger one as you go!
Part of a team? Set a goal altogether and you can all support each other! Team GraveKeepers raised over $10k for us this Spooktober, so your team can aim big, too!
What if I don’t reach the fundraising goal I’ve set?
Even if you don’t hit the goal you’ve set, every dollar still counts! We’re thankful that you’ve taken time out of your days or weeks to stream for us!
Who can participate?
Anyone over the age of 16 can participate!
If you’re 16 or under, you must have the consent from a responsible parent or guardian. In addition, there needs to be supervision from them over the course of the streams.
What’s off-limits?
Streams for Variety are fun and friendly activities that should be family friendly. All this means is that keep drug talk and encouragement of illegal activities out of your streams, no sexually explicit content, as well as no bigoted language.
We welcome diversity here, so we don’t tolerate any form of hatespeech.
I have some suggestions for you! How do I get in touch?
We absolutely love inputs from the community, content creators and viewers alike. We’d love to know what you’re looking for or even how we can help out! Get in contact with us via e-mail at hello@levelupforkids.com
Any more tips on running a successful charity stream?
Planning your stream
Set a length of time that suits you!
24 hours can be a lot on your own, try for a shorter time (2-6 hours as a standard estimate) or team up with a friend or get a team together to tag out.
Get in some mods!
Gaming and chatting at the same time - including sharing links to your fundraising page regularly or letting your followers know about your incentives can be tricky. Ask a friend to moderate for you!
In addition, setting up a bot with !charity !variety or !donate commands can be a super handy way to let people find information out super easily.
Test before you stream!
Make sure everything is working prior to your big go live date! Make sure to include our overlays and alerts - these will provide dynamic updates to your viewers as they donate.
Plan your incentives, rewards and milestones
Whether you're colouring your hair or doing a giveaway, plan your incentives before your big day. Some fantastic incentives we’ve seen included are:
Putting on a blindfold for 1min
Eating a chilli
Dying your hair / beard
Wearing a fun costume – or completely trash one
Let us know when you're streaming!
Make sure to tell your friends, fam and followers know what you're doing on socials - build it up to your event day to launch with a bang! Feel free to tag us, too - we'll make sure to spread word!
We're always keen to tune in, have fun, and support those supporting us!
Reach out to companies
Let your fav stores to let them know you are charity streaming for kids in need this holiday season - you never know, they may help promote it or help you out with giveaways!
Campaign Description
When filling out your campaign description make sure you include a summary of why your helping Variety and the difference you and your supporters are making
Helpful Bots & Info
Due to the recent Hoss issues that have been plaguing Twitch, we want to make sure all of our community feel safe. We strongly recommend using Sery_Bot to help with any potential issues – the bot is constantly updating to ban known bot accounts.
This will keep you and your viewers safe from IP Grabbers.
You should also enable the twitch moderation setting that requires chatters to have a verified email, this prevents a great chunk of spam bots!
When you're streaming
Repeat your message
People might tune in and out so make sure you shout out regularly in stream and in the comments why it's important to donate to support your cause – people love to know why it’s especially important to you! We've included some easy talking points in our how-to guide to help out.
Thank and engage your supporters
While donations and comments are coming in, give your supporters a shout out to say thanks. And don't forget to do a follow up social post telling them how awesome they all are!
Take breaks
When you sign on to level up, we'll provide you with overlays including BRB screens so you can have a stretch, grab a glass of water or stock up on snacks!
Follow our community guidelines
Keep it friendly and fun and follow our community rules!
