page_title: The Yogscast
section_title: Charity initiatives
hierarchical_section_title: The Yogscast / Charity initiatives
caption_attribution_description: English: Yogscast win at the Oxfam JustGiving Awards 2012
context_page_description: The Yogscast are a British entertainment company based in Bristol that primarily produce video gaming-related videos on YouTube and Twitch, and also operate the Yogscast multi-channel network for affiliated content creators. They began activity in 2008 and formally incorporated as a company in 2011. In 2017, they published the video game Caveblazers. The group had their roots in videos about the massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft, but rose to popularity with their playthrough of the sandbox game Minecraft and their self-produced role-playing series Shadow of Israphel set in the same game. More recently, the group are known to play the sandbox game Garry's Mod as well as producing a variety of live action videos. They are also known for their annual Christmas live streaming charity drive, currently named the Yogscast Jingle Jam, which has raised more than $17.7 million for various charities as of January 2020.
context_section_description: Since 2011, The Yogscast have organised a series of live streams every year in December to benefit charity. The idea began when fans would send presents to Brindley and Lane during the Christmas season, but they would instead insist that the money be donated to charity.
  The Yogscast started their first charity live stream in December 2011 with the intention to raise money for Oxfam's Give a Goat programme to "send locally-sourced and vaccinated goats to families living in poverty." As part of their charity drive, the group hosted a live stream on Twitch every day in December while viewers were encouraged to donate to the charity through the JustGiving fundraising portal. The live streams were broadcast out of the basement of the house which Brindley, Lane, and Rutherford shared at that time. A total of £66,040.30 was raised, exceeding the target goal of £60,000. For this achievement, The Yogscast was named JustGiving's Most Popular Fundraiser of 2012.
  For the 2012 holiday season, the Yogscast team conducted another charity drive for Oxfam called Honeydew's Honey Drive, with a target of raising £60,000. Improvements over the previous year included upgrading to a dedicated streaming studio in their new offices in Bristol, as well as the participation of other YouTube content producers such as Hat Films, TotalBiscuit, and Athene. The charity drive was organised in aid of Oxfam's 'Plan Bee' to provide training and equipment for beekeeping in Ethiopia and '365 Emergency Fund' for the provision of urgent aid in emergencies. In addition to viewer donations through the JustGiving website, the team also raised additional proceeds through the sale of Twitch subscriptions, merchandise and Christmas songs to be donated to charity. As incentive to donate and at Lane's goading, Brindley agreed to cross-dress in a female bee costume should the charity drive reach their target goal. The goal was reached, and as promised, Brindley dressed up in the costume for Christmas Day. Honeydew's Honey Drive was successful in raising £240,568.25, more than triple that of the previous year. The group were again nominated for JustGiving's Most Popular Fundraiser of 2013, and received a Special Recognition Award at the JustGiving Awards ceremony.
  In 2013, The Yogscast hosted the Dwarven Dairy Drive. Starting with this charity drive, donations were made through Humble Bundle instead of JustGiving, allowing donators to receive an assortment of games and in-game content as a token of appreciation. Donations were also distributed to benefit multiple charities rather than just one — in addition to Oxfam, the charity drive also supported GamesAid, Little People UK, Special Effect, and War Child. This charity drive attracted considerably more donators than previous livestreams, and raised a total of $1,159,746.33, triple that of the previous year.
  In 2014, The Yogscast named their live stream charity drive the Yogscast Jingle Jam, which has remained the theme for every year's charity drive since then. The Yogscast Jingle Jam 2015 invited special guests to the live streams including fellow YouTube celebrities Adam Montoya ("SeaNanners"), Jordan Maron ("CaptainSparklez") and Toby Turner ("Tobuscus").
  Subsequent years saw the charity drive break records in quick succession. The Yogscast Jingle Jam 2016 surpassed the previous year's total within the first week of the charity drive, and raised a total of $2,577,801.17, more than double their previous record made in 2013. As with previous years, it featured a list of supported charities, but also enabled a new option for donators to pick another beneficiary from a list of thousands of charities.
  The 2017 instalment was even more successful, raising $500,000 in the first hour, $1 million in the first day, and breaking the 2016 record within the first week. It drew a peak of 60,400 concurrent viewers in the first week of December, and by the end of the month they had broadcast more than 700 hours of live streaming and were watched by 2.5 million people, amounting to 6.8 million viewer-hours or 779 viewer-years watch
caption: The Yogscast at JustGiving Awards 2012, accepting the award for Most Popular Fundraiser.
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