As it's the season of giving, I wanted to write about some amazing causes and programs taking place throughout December. There are a number of ways you can help charities and fellow gamers in the run up to Christmas and all of them take just a few minutes to set up.
Amazon Smile
If you're purchasing something through Amazon for Christmas or in the run up to the New Year, make sure to go through smile.amazon first. Amazon Smile is free and the change takes just a few seconds to set up. By going through Smile, 0.5% of the cost from eligible purchases is sent to a charity of your choice. While it's not a huge donation, the funds sent to the charity builds up over time with each purchase.
It's all official and created by Amazon, so if you trust the company enough to purchase from them, you can trust the security of Smile. When you make your first purchase through Smile, you can choose which charity you wants to donate to, and you can change anytime.
According to Business Insider, in February of this year over $80 million has been donated to charities worldwide.
All you need to do is go to smile.amazon.com or smile.amazon.co.uk. Or you can check out Business Insider for more information on the program.
Humble Store
If you're looking at purchasing a Steam game, make sure to check out The Humble Store first. You can purchase games for a number of platforms including PC, Mac, Linux, and Android. The games are redeemable through a Steam code, but by going through the Humble Store, part of the cost you pay goes to a charity of your choice from a database of 20,000.
The division of game costs means that developers sees 75% of the amount which will support future projects and general run of the studio, 10% will go to a charity of your choice, and 15% will go to help maintain The Humble Store.
A number of Remedy titles are available on the store including: Max Payne, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, Alan Wake, Alan Wake's American Nightmare, and Quantum Break!
#GiveItWithXBOX
Last month, XBOX announced a new program called #GiveWithXBOX, which combined cooperative gameplay and charities. Microsoft has asked gamers on Twitter to photograph what gaming together means to them and share those photos with the hashtag #GiveWithXBOX. With each tweet, Microsoft will donate $5 to Child's Play, Gamers Outreach, SpecialEffect, and Operation Supply Drop up to a total of $1 million.
The charities all do amazing work. Child's Play is a charity based in the US which donates toys and games to hospitalised children to make their stay more bearable. Gamers Outreach is similar as it uses video games to help entertain children forced in stay long-term in hospital and focuses on the therapeutic abilities the hobby has. SpecialEffects is a UK organisation which makes the industry more inclusive by creating custom setups for gamers with disabilities. And finally, Operation Supply Drop who help service-members and veterans connect through gaming.
You can find out more information about the program, HERE.
The charities all do amazing work. Child's Play is a charity based in the US which donates toys and games to hospitalised children to make their stay more bearable. Gamers Outreach is similar as it uses video games to help entertain children forced in stay long-term in hospital and focuses on the therapeutic abilities the hobby has. SpecialEffects is a UK organisation which makes the industry more inclusive by creating custom setups for gamers with disabilities. And finally, Operation Supply Drop who help service-members and veterans connect through gaming.
You can find out more information about the program, HERE.
