24-hour gaming marathon raises £48k for Special Effect
Howard Lake | 8 March 2014 | News
Disability gaming charity SpecialEffect has raised £48,000 from its inaugural GameBlast weekend, a 24-hour gaming event hosted by Cambridge-based Jagex Games Studio, makers of the fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) RuneScape.
The marathon, which attracted 90,000 unique viewers over the course of the day, involved staff and selected members of the RuneScape community playing RuneScape and Ace of Spades.
How income was raised
During the event viewers were encouraged to make donations on the studio’s JustGiving page. In addition the in-game Well of Goodwill re-opened for the weekend. This allowed players to donate to charity the gold they had won during the game, together with other items and RuneScape bonds, which were then converted into a real world contribution on their behalf.
Also, 50% of all profits from the sales of Ace of Spades during the weekend were donated to SpecialEffect.
- JustGiving – £9,380.80
- RuneScape – £25,412.50
- Ace of Spades – £13,759
Jane Ryan, Head of RuneScape Community Management and co-organiser of Jagex’s gaming marathon, said:
“It’s been great to see our players really get behind such a worthy cause as SpecialEffect. It’s been a crazy 24 hours; we’ve seen staff rise to the occasion and take on all kinds of challenges in the name of charity. The generosity of our players is both touching and gratifying and we can’t wait to do it all again next year!”
Dr Mick Donegan, Founder and Director of SpecialEffect, added:
“This has turned out to be our biggest gamer-driven fundraising event ever and we cannot express how grateful we are for the support we have received. The money raised this weekend will help us to bring video games to all those who are passionate about them, whatever their disability.”
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.