Sponsoring Desert Bus
What is Desert Bus for Hope?
Desert Bus for Hope (desertbus.org) is a yearly charity fundraiser that raises money for Child's Play Charity (childsplaycharity.org), a 501(c) charity that supports child life programs in children's hospitals all over the world, and in domestic shelters in the United States.
Every November we host a live-streamed telethon where a group of volunteers play the most boring video game ever created, Desert Bus, nonstop, 24 hours a day, for a week. The whole event is streamed on our Twitch channel, twitch.tv/desertbus. We are entirely donation driven, and the main source of donations is from items that we auction or give away in raffles. Since we started in 2006, we have raised over $9.5 million dollars US for Child's Play. You can watch an explainer video below.
Brand visibility
During the run, all of our corporate sponsors have their logo displayed on our corporate sponsors page, along with a link to their website. The sponsor's name is also included on the prize listing of any items that they donated.
During the event we mention the donors by name during the giveaway/auction for the prize they donated. We also have dedicated social media posts for each sponsor with more information on their business, which go up during the event. This post is on all of our social media channels, as well as the Desert Bus website.
How are Prizes Used?
Prizes donated to Desert Bus are used in three ways to help raise money: live auctions, silent auctions, and giveaways.
Live auctions are a traditional "going once, going twice"-style auction, with the prize going to the highest bidder. They are done during the live stream with viewers placing their bids in Twitch chat. A bot in chat helps us keep track of the highest bidder. The times for each auction are set before the event starts so they can be widely promoted to help build anticipation. We usually only do a few live auctions a year for items that are extremely special and unique.
Silent auctions are done through the Desert Bus for Hope website. The auctions are live for eight hours, during which time people can place bids. The highest bid is displayed on the auction page and is updated whenever a new highest bid is submitted. Silent auctions are usually done for many of the hand-crafted items made and donated by our community.
Giveaways are the most common way that we give prizes away, and also raise the majority of the donations Child's Play receives through Desert Bus. Prizes are assigned to one of the six-hour entertainment shifts over the course of the event. During that shift, the entertainers will pick a donation amount, and then anyone who makes a donation of that amount, or a multiple of that amount, will be entered into a draw to win the prize. For example, if the donation amount is set at $5.44, anyone who donates $5.44 will get one entry into the draw, $10.88 is two entries, $16.32 is three entries, etc. These giveaways usually run for about 30-60 minutes, with the winner being drawn at random at the end of that time.
Giveaways are the most common way that corporate prizes are used to help raise money for Child's Play.
Demographics and Viewership
The majority of our viewers are in North America, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand, but we have viewers tune in from all over the world.
Most of our viewers are adults in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. Many of our viewers have also told us that they watch Desert Bus with their children as well. We aim to be a family friendly show.
Many of our viewers are into crafting hobbies such as model building/painting, knitting, sewing, ceramics, and wood and metal working, with many of them donating handmade items as prizes each year. Our audience is also interested in video games, tabletop role-playing games, books, comics, board games, and collectable card games.
Our Twitch stream runs for about 7 days in November. During 2022 we averaged about 4000 viewers per day. Our maximum viewer count was 6591 during 2022, with over 131,000 unique viewers tuning in over the course of the run.