December 23, 2019 DrLupo has brought in a massive amount for charity, thanks in large part to a big donation from Twitch.
Last week, prolific streamer Ben ‘DrLupo’ Lupo detailed plans to raise $2 million for St Jude Children’s Research Hospital during a 24-hour charity livestream. That stream is over, and DrLupo hit the goal and then some with the help of massive donation from Twitch itself – after the streaming platform signed DrLupo to a new, exclusive contract a few weeks ago.
DrLupo’s Build Against Cancer stream brought in a grand total of $2,339,943.53 for St Jude, thanks to plenty of individual donations and big contributions from streamers like Ninja. But the biggest donation came from Twitch – the platform donated $1 million to the charity stream, making up half of the original $2 million goal.
Twitch’s $1 million donation came as all great charity contributions due – with a massive novelty cheque encased in Christmas wrapping paper. “Bro, are you kidding me?” DrLupo said as he unwrapped the donation toward the end of the stream. “Are ya’ll for real?”
It’s notable to see Twitch make such a substantial contribution to a big charity stream following the new contract, but I doubt anyone will be too bothered by a big donation to a good cause.
DrLupo raised $600,000 for St Jude Children’s Research Hospital last year, and ahead of this year’s stream, Lupo spent time visiting the hospital and its young patients. As Rick Shadyac, CEO of St Jude’s fundraising group, tells The Washington Post, “He knows the kids. He knows their stories. He knows what we do.”
“I’m just another guy that likes to play video games and got put in a position where I could use this platform to do good in the world,” Lupo says. “And so I’ve kind of jumped on board with that as much as I can.”