Veterans, military members, and their supporters now fundraise for Fisher House Foundation and other veteran service organizations through their performances on video game streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube, raising anywhere from a few hundred dollars to thousands within hours.
Jacob Hausman, a streamer who goes by the name Deltia, hosted a 24-hour charity stream that ultimately raised over $10,000. After taking a hiatus of over two years, the Army infantry veteran was returning to the game and was excited to reconnect with the community he had cultivated.
“What was really cool to me about being in the military, I was 17 years old on active duty, I was coming in to people that were grown men having to take care of families,” he said. “And here I am not doing my own laundry at home, you know, spoiled little child. So it was cool because it was a big melting pot of different people from all over different cultures. And that’s what gaming is. Especially Elder Scrolls Online (ESO); there’s people from all over the world. So you’re still friends with them to this day, all over the world.”
When Jacob left the Army, streaming wasn’t the first thing on his agenda. He had some medical needs, and his mom would often take him to Omaha, Nebraska, nearly 100 miles away, for his appointments. Luckily, he didn’t need any overnight stays, but he thought a lot about how hard it was for families that did. He was excited when he heard that a Fisher House was being built in Omaha that would serve families like his.
When Jacob decided to return to streaming and the community he built, he decided that his first big stream would be a live streaming charity event that would support Fisher House Foundation.
Jacob and his team put together a video on YouTube that announced his return to the game. Streamers typically collect donations from their audience during a stream, but for the first week after his return, Jacob wanted people to raise funds for the Fisher House Foundation through a service called Streamlabs instead. The culmination of his fundraiser was a long streaming session where he promised to play ESO for 24 hours straight. Through hours of steady gaming, Jacob’s community rallied together and raised $10,064.33 – just surpassing the final goal of $10,000 in the last thirty minutes of the stream.
While Jacob and his community can boast that they’re the first team to exceed $10,000 in a streaming fundraiser for Fisher House Foundation, they aren’t the first to help serve military and veteran families in this way.
More than a dozen gamers and streamers have hosted events for the Fisher House Foundation over the past nine months, raising over $27,000. These grassroots streamers have played a wide range of games, including “Tekken,” “Call of Duty,” “Rocket League,” and “Fall Guys.”
Ryan Chastain, a streamer on Twitch who plays a variety of games on the channel RhinoShow, is a medically retired soldier who has raised over $1,100 for the Foundation. That’s enough to cover an almost-four-month stay for a family at a Fisher House.
“I started looking into military-based organizations because, you know, being retired military, that’s something that I’m always into,” Ryan said. “And I looked into the numbers, the percentage of the dollar that goes to the cause, and Fisher House was one of the highest.”
“A lot of my followers are veterans, and they are super behind the cause,” Ryan said. “And others are connected through family, you know, their dad or granddad or someone served. Fundraising has helped to tighten the community up. Everyone brought stories up during the stream and shared.”
Ryan donated streams three months in a row, all on the 22nd of the month, to raise awareness of veteran suicide.
Streamers interested in fundraising for Fisher House can sign up at https://streamlabscharity.com/fisher-house-foundation-inc. Fundraisers of any type can sign up at https://fisherhouse.org/get-involved/fundraise/.
