Imagine raising thousands of dollars for NF research in just a few hours while doing something you’re passionate about. The Children’s Tumor Foundation has been lucky enough to benefit from the efforts of someone who did just that – Matt Crawford, also known as, Tekking101, who learned about the Foundation through NF patient Aidan Fraser.
In 2009 Matt, was just starting his Youtube Channel as a 16-year-old in Colver, a tiny mountain village in West Central, PA. He had already been following other Youtube gamers for several years and he decided to focus his channel on Anime (he later added Manga). Nine years later, he had gained more than 300,000 followers and began planning his first ever Charity Live Stream, like he had seen other Youtubers doing. This had been his aspiration for a long time, and once he built up his audience he threw the idea out to his fans. He was looking for a charity focused on kids to benefit from this very first Charity Live Stream attempt. His only goal, he claims, “Was not to bomb horribly.” Why kids? According to Matt’s thinking, “Getting some sort of debilitating disease sucks no matter how old you are, but especially when you’re a kid. Kids are supposed to be focused on having fun and enjoying life, not laying in some hospital bed.”
Aidan Fraser, no stranger to hospital beds himself, is 18 years old and living with NF1 in New York City. He was one of the fans watching when the search was announced, and he wasted no time in making his pitch for the NF cause and the Children’s Tumor Foundation as the beneficiary. Matt says several recommendations came in, but Aidan’s stood out due to his personal conviction. He did his research on CTF and checked with Charity Navigator, and when everything checked out, Matt (aka Tekking) made the exciting announcement via his Youtube Channel that he was choosing the Children’s Tumor Foundation. Aidan was thrilled! Matt responded by asking Aidan if he would be interested in appearing on-stream to talk about living with NF. Aidan says, “I had been thinking about talking about NF for a while, so I jumped at the chance!”
As a first attempt, Tekking invested a lot of hours over two months into the event set up and created a fundraising goal of $3,000. His plan was to have a variety of guests and topics and other types of content on cue and to broadcast live for 6 hours. He also didn’t know much about NF, so he had to gain some understanding himself in order to be able to make the importance of the cause known to his audience. He set the date and time of the event as July 7, 2018, beginning at 1:00 pm EST, and secured a broadcasting studio at his alma mater, St. Francis University. He then created some buzz with other Youtubers and his fans.
The event went incredibly well. Over 50,000 people have viewed it and within 45 minutes he surpassed his fundraising goal. The stream went on for a little over 8 hours and raised over $7000! Aidan was able to share some of his experiences and challenges of growing up with NF and quickly gained the respect of the audience, who chimed in with encouraging comments and affirmations. Aidan also has a Youtube channel (Nerd King 101) and as a result of this live stream, gained a bunch of new followers.
Both Tekking and Nerd King have some words of advice for other young people who might have interest in doing a fundraiser for charity. Nerd King says, “Try something you enjoy to do it. There is a lot of people with massive reach that would love to help spread awareness if you explain your situation.” And Tekking’s advice is to be dedicated in what you’re doing and stick with it. “It takes a lot of planning.”
If you would like to give a fundraising idea a try with CTF, let us know here. We have many resources and suggestions on the DIY page of our website: http://www.ctf.org/get-involved/diy and can help you get started with the tools you need to be successful. Also, let us know if you are interested in the genre of fundraising. Tekking101’s success has opened our eyes to many new possibilities!
Our heartfelt thanks to Matt Crawford and Aiden Fraser, and the thousands of viewers and donors who made this event such a success!
To watch the live stream video (which has over 50K views) go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiQtAdmiQgM
