Music Livestreams + Fundraising: What’s Working, What’s Not In Mobilizing Donors

Back in April, One World: Together At Home, the star-studded benefit concert organized by Global Citizen and curated by Lady Gaga, raised $128 million for the World Health Organization and other Covid relief beneficiaries. 

But while the event drew hundreds of thousands to a six-hour concert livestream and nearly 21 million viewers across the 26 networks on which a two-hour show aired live, very few of those dollars came from individual donors. 

“It wasn’t like people were providing $5, $10, $100. Donations came in primarily through sponsorship contribution,” says Paul Garwood, head of the Leadership & Internal Communications unit at the WHO.

“The concert was for the people to enjoy, and the outreach was to the corporate sector to get the actual donations. That $128 million was very much raised by targeted reaching out to corporate sector partners rather than individual people.” 

In the face of a prolonged global pandemic, economic uncertainty that’s slashed nonprofit budgets, and a raft of pressing social concerns, music livestreams have become the go-to for charity fundraising. While every dollar raised is golden, it’s time to take a closer look at what’s working, and what’s not.

Bottom line: Big name talent alone doesn’t translate to big donor numbers. A successful event involves deep strategy on the front and back end, consistent and persistent messaging, and artists who are able to profoundly engage with their fans. 

In July, Wiz Khalifa staged a virtual concert in conjunction with esports team the Pittsburgh Knights and Softgiving—which operates a free fundraising platform for influencers as well as a managed events service for charities—to benefit Rise Above the Disorder. 

The multiplatinum recording artist has an Instagram following of more than 31 million, yet he raised less than $10,000, according to Matt Pfaltzgraf, CEO of Softgiving, who notes: “Wiz’s conversion of people watching the stream was in the few hundreds of people, from his millions of social media followers.”

Pfaltzgraf compares that livestream to a duo of virtual charity events Softgiving facilitated for Pokemon influencer aDrive, who goes live and interacts several times a week with some of his 40,000 Instagram followers. aDrive’s first livestream in June raised $94,000 and his second in October raised $295,000 for Games for Love. 

The comparison isn’t a condemnation of Wiz or his fans, Pfaltzgraf is quick to note, but rather a reflection of the challenges top tier talent can face in converting fans to donors in the livestream environment.

“What we look at is conversion, what percentage of the audience is able to be converted into making a donation or purchasing a product. And the conversion rate for most music artists is significantly lower compared to the typical streamer,” he notes. 

“The artist’s product is the entertainment, and they are not typically associated with trying to convert their fan base to other causes. There have been some examples where it’s been wildly successful, but from a consistency basis it’s been all over the map.”

The percentage of fans tuning in to see a favorite act and those coming to support a cause “is definitely a Venn diagram,” says Todd Krim, whose The Krim Group connects nonprofits and charitable foundations with musicians and other influencers. Since March, Krim has been involved in charity activations including Together at Home, SHEIN Together with Katy Perry, Rita Ora and Lil Nas X, and Rock The Vote’s Democracy Summer virtual concert with Perry and the Black-Eyed Peas.

“If I had to make a guestimate, at least a third of the people who tune in to these cause-related livestreams donate, and if it’s a cause people are really impassioned about it might be as much as half,” Krim says. “But if you look at how much has been donated over time, it’s slowly trickled down between March and December. I’ve seen that with the events I’ve been working on, the donor fatigue.”

For Andrew Beranbom, CEO of FirstTube Media, a white-label platform for livestream concerts for brands including Grubhub
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and Tito’s Vodka, and nonprofits like St. Jude Children’s Hospital, having a strategic pre, live and post strategy beats donor fatigue. 

“You’re trying to drive lower funnel action, so having a concert to commerce framework is a requirement. You have to first create context and authority to start driving behavior, and it doesn’t happen overnight,” he says.

“But where we drive biggest donations is post,” Beranbom notes. For the Thanksgiving Nurse Heroes Live! benefit, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg with performances including Andrea Bocelli, Celine Dion, Pitbull and Stevie Wonder, “I built the database of over 2 million people and I’m now remarketing those people with native messages from the talent they watched. I can cross over who they watched, who they are fans of, and then target those people with a direct call to action to donate to the cause.”

When it comes to artist selection for many of its concert series, “It’s not about bigger name talent, it’s about highest fan intent,” Beranbom advises. “If you think people are going to react to you just because Pitbull says to… there’s fatigue there.” 

A recent virtual Tito’s “Made to Order” series to benefit World Central Kitchen featured country superstar Dierks Bentley and up-and-comer Morgan Wallen. The spotlight was on Wallen.

“Just because Dierks Bentley sells out Madison Square Garden doesn’t mean his fan intent is highest. People have seen him a lot of times. So we booked Morgan Wallen… and his engagement on his livestream and earned media vs. Dierks was over 10X,” Beranbom says. “Fans are not looking to see the artist do what they do already. That’s where digital live experience is going to have longevity past this pandemic.”

The balance of a big entertainment experience and fundraising will be put to the test for Play On, an all-star virtual concert organized by the Kevin Bacon-fronted nonprofit Six Degrees that airs December 15 on CBS
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, with a complementary livestream on YouTube. 

Co-hosted by Bacon and Eve with performances by Sara Bareilles, Bon Jovi, Gary Clark Jr., Sheryl Crow, LL Cool J, Maren Morris and others, the event is raising money for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Why Hunger and it’s already well on its way without significant individual donations—by design. 

“We didn’t want to create a telethon, constantly asking people to donate during the show and putting the burden on the individual viewer,” says Stacy Huston, Six Degrees’ executive director. “Really our goal is to do all the fundraising pre-show through our sponsors. Going into the show there’s already been millions of dollars that have been raised for the charities, which is tremendous.”

Which is not to say individual donations aren’t a factor. The push for those will come the week ahead of the show.

“Most artists are holding their posts until the week before. With social media and attention spans, you have to get in front of them as close to the show as possible. We will have high-marketed social media accounts and our partners at CBS will be promoting it, and that’s when we’ll see more of individual donations come in.” 

BEST PRACTICES FOR BRINGING IN BUCKS 

Enlist talent who’ll amp up their fan base: “I cannot stress enough how much a campaign will either succeed or fail based on what we can get a celebrity to do in terms of mentioning the campaign on social media, or even better giving a specific call to action,” says Huston. “If an artist isn’t one to launch some of these campaigns and really give them recognition, it’s really hard to get the campaign off the ground.”

Capture that donor data: “We encourage nonprofits to stream off of their platform, so it’s more than just a one-off,” Krim says. “And make sure you capture data. Get their email addresses and build that donor base so that even after the event, you’re able to get back in touch with them for future events and future donor needs.” Rock the Vote’s event, for example, registered 250,000 new young adult voters. 

Ditch the ticket fee: “Some charities have tried to charge a ticket price but I think in the end you’re better off just making it free and encouraging people to donate,” Krim says. “You have to really have something unique and exclusive to charge in advance.”

Crank up the live chat: While the actual livestream is just a “blip” in the fundraising cycle, artists engaging with fans in live chat is the best way to drive donations during the show, says Beranbom. He suggests “they engage that audience and feel like they’re watching with them, and educate people about the cause and incentivize with matching techniques.”

No TV slot, no problem: “First you need to figure out what demographic you’re going after. For lot of teens and tweens and people in their 20s, TV doesn’t hold the allure it does for people in their 30s, 40s and beyond,” Krim says. “And even if you get a [television] spot, you still need to have an online component if you really want to reach the next generation.”

Maximize giving touch points: Text to donate, donate online, virtual meet and greets and more can rack up dollars.”Mika’s “I Heart Beirut” event, for one, raised close to $1.5 million through a combination of ticket sales, T-shirt sales, sponsorships and GoFundMe donations.

Bells & whistles work: People like souvenirs of their experience, which is why Play On is offering three ways fans can support: Beyond the show, “we have merch we are selling, for those who like a takeaway,” Huston says. “And we have a charity auction. We have so many artists and people on the Board and a lot of them are offering special experiences” including cocktail hour with Bacon and his wife, actress Kyra Sedgwick.