Imagine a telethon playing across multiple digital platforms, with multiple streams on each, populated by more than 1,000 YouTubers, celebrities, content creators, and the just plain curious. Picture that and you’ll have a sense of the #HopefromHome telethon that happens on Tuesday, April 7.

Coinciding with World Health Day, the 12-hour streaming event will be hosted on fundraising platform Tiltify and will channel donations to United Way, Red Nose Day, and the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, powered by the UN Foundation and the Swiss Philanthropy Foundation. You can tune into the live stream here.

“It is not about any one person or single channel but about hundreds, even thousands of channels across social media being used together around a message of help and hope to unite us all digitally,” said Michael Wasserman, CEO of Tiltify. “No one is too big or too small to participate in #HopeFromHome as it is truly about the idea that we are all in this together and are banding together on World Health Day to fight.”

Sean McLoughlin – who goes by the online moniker Jacksepticeye – is one YouTuber who has been enthusiastically leading efforts to promote the #HopefromHome fundraiser and rallying content creators, entertainers, and the general public around the cause. With almost 24 million subscribers, Jacksepticeye has one of the largest audiences on YouTube, and is no stranger to raising money for causes. In January 2020, he raised $200,000 in 2 hours to benefit the wildfire crisis in Australia.

“This is something happening in the world that affects us all on a global scale – we all benefit from helping out. I couldn’t sit back and do nothing,” said Jacksepticeye. “We’re all stuck inside due to self-isolating, but the power of the internet allows us to still bridge that gap, come together and make a difference.”

The fundraiser will accept donations through May 1.

So far, more than 1000 content creators and influencers have signed up for the fundraiser, including South African fashion and lifestyle blogger Thania Peck; “Orange is the New Black’s” Dascha Polanco; and British director Richard Curtis. Participants can raise money for the fundraiser on their own platforms – including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, Twitter and Facebook – and meet their audiences where they are rather than directing them elsewhere to donate. The main Tiltify #HopefromHome page will feature streams from different celebrities, athletes, and musicians throughout the event. Viewers can toggle between various content creators’ streams  from entertainment to conversations about preventing the spread of COVID-19, and health care professionals working on the front lines.

“With that whole network of people coming together around a single cause, all of those individual actions will add up to deliver a huge impact for people who are most in need right now,” said Comic Relief’s Director of Partnership Development, Mary Catherine Burdine. “It’s like a ripple effect for doing good.”

Proceeds from the event will be divided evenly among the UN Foundation’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, United Way, and Red Nose Day. The work of these organizations captures the local, national, and international needs of the COVID-19 epidemic, including securing emergency food and shelter for vulnerable populations, and ensuring that low-income families are not forgotten with the closure of public schools.

“Both the UN Foundation and Comic Relief are global powerhouses in community impact,” said Larissa Rydin, United Way Vice President of Strategic and Brand Partnerships. “Our collective work in health, education, economic stability and hunger relief addresses the most critical areas that have been impacted by this crisis.”

TO CONTRIBUTE TO #HOPEFROMHOME:

 

donate today

Every donation makes a difference. Support WHO’s life-saving efforts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by giving to the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. Donations made via Facebook will be matched up to $10,000,000. Through April 30, 2020, for every $1 you donate here, Google.org will donate $2, up to $5,000,000.

Donate to the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund