GamesAid: nine charities receive £23,680 each in 2018 cheque giving ceremony

Yesterday was the culmination of 12 months of fundraising on the part of the UK games industry. The industry charity GamesAid, with the help of many of you, raised £213,120 over the last year. This total was split between nine charities that were voted for by the members of GamesAid and will result in vital support for young people across the UK.

Accuro, Access Sport Trust, Autistica, The Clock Tower Sanctuary, Lifelites, Everyone Can, my AFK, Solving Kids’ Cancer and Special Effect all received cheques for £23,680 from the charity yesterday. It was a highly-emotional event, with many whose lives have been directly affected by the charities supported being present to tell their stories. The ceremony followed on from the Ukie AGM at EGX in Birmingham yesterday.

GamesAid Chair Matt Spall also announced that the charity has now raised over £3.5m since its launch over a decade ago. And given the charity’s long tenure it was about time it had a new logo, which was unveiled on the day, combining a controller with a sticking plaster to great effect.

Spall also launched a new initiative for the charity, to get people engaged by taking just one minute a week to do something for GamesAid. The idea is to set a recurring weekly reminder, for any time you like in your diary, and then do something small when it comes around, like retweeting something from the charity, reaching out to a colleague to ask them to become a member, thinking up an idea for an event, that kind of thing.

"We are thrilled that we’re able to generate hundreds of thousands in donations for such great causes" commented Spall. "In addition, major events throughout the year such as the Golf and Spa Day and Comedy Night which demonstrate how the industry continues to come together to have fun and raise money, there remains to be numerous individual and team initiatives that donate the funding pot too, showing that anyone can support GamesAid in almost any way they want".

He added: "GamesAid is drive by the passion and fundraising activity of its members and I’d like to take this chance to sincerely thank everyone, across the industry who has done something amazing to raise money for GamesAid. We are looking at initiatives and ideas from up and down the country for 2019 and I’d like to invite everyone in the games industry to get involved. It’s free to join and you can help make a real difference to the lives of the young people we support".

GamesAid is a UK based video games charity, which acts as an umbrella for fundraising and supports a number of smaller charities that offer crucial help to disadvantaged and disabled children and young people. As the only fully democratic charity in the games space, members of the UK games industry propose and vote for the charities of their choice annually. Membership is open to anyone working in the UK video games industry, and is free to join here: https://www.gamesaid.org/join-us/registration/