Summary
In honor of his late father, and to help his girlfriend’s autistic son, Rikki Cabler holds a 24-hour livestream event on MechWarrior to raise money for the Autism Science Foundation. The money raised allowed the Autism Science Foundation to distribute a number of mini-grants (up to $5,000) to assist researchers in getting their results into the world.
About
The Autism Science Foundation supports autism research by providing funding and other assistance to scientists and organizations conducting, facilitating, publicizing and disseminating autism research. The organization also educates the general public and serves to increase awareness of autism spectrum disorders and the needs of individuals and families affected by autism.
Rikki Cabler (Rik) is a family warrior by day and a MechWarrior by night. He is one of the highest scoring players in a small community of MechWarrior players called No Guts No Galaxy. MechWarrior is an online role-playing game. Rik also acts as a father to his girlfriend’s two sons, Dakota and DJ who is on the autism spectrum.
Challenges / Problem
The day before his livestream event, Rik realized that he needed to change the charity to which he’d be donating whatever money he raised. Then he ran into his next problem: how to collect donations. He had not set up a website or process for donations and, as his event would take place completely online and in the MechWarrior interface, he had no means of collecting money.
The day he had chosen as his event date was important to Rik—it was the memorial of his father’s passing. Yet, the day before his event, Rik had no charity and no way to raise the up to $2,000 he hoped to raise.
How CauseVox Helped
Hours before the event, Rik connected with the Autism Science Foundation (ASF). They were delighted to hear about his event and excited about the potential money he might raise.
Having used CauseVox in the past, most notably for their annual year-end campaign, ASF knew immediately that the platform would help them centralize the event and collect funds throughout the event. Stephanie Millman, ASF’s Science Community Relations Associate was able to quickly set up a page for the campaign so that Rik could accept donations from his livestream viewers and so that everyone could promote a central home for the campaign on social media.
With its CauseVox page ready to go, the social media promotion began. The event drew attention, specifically from iconic figures and key players within BattleTech and MechWarrior who leveraged their reach to promote the campaign.
Their Results
Rik and his livestream viewers donated $8,271, allowing ASF to distribute a number of mini-grants to autism researchers.
ASF uses CauseVox for its annual year-end campaign, which typically raises roughly $30,000. CauseVox’s platform is also an alternate method to collect donations throughout the year for ASF.
