Why We Are Not Fundraising With Extra Life

For 7 consecutive years I have led a Christian Geek Central team in the annual Extra-Life Game Day fundraising event, which raises money for local Children's Miracle Network hospitals, providing financial aid to families with children in need of medical care. It has been a great opportunity for me and others in the CGC community to grow in thinking about and serving the needs of others. I think Extra-Life has done great work as an organization and will likely continue to do great work in the future. 

But recently, after learning more about how Extra-Life works, and where raised funds are put to use, I think this year is a good time to "level-up" our fundraising effectiveness by making a change in the organization we do fundraising through each year.

In the promotional materials expressing the intent of Extra-Life, the emphasis has always been on providing medical care for children in urgent need, and often life-threatening circumstances.  Funds raised through Extra-Life are given to the local Children's Miracle Network hospital of the individual fundraiser's choice. That hospital then makes all the decisions about how that money will be used, which may include less urgent medical concerns than the Extra-Life organization typically references in its promotional materials. I don't think Extra-Life is being deceitful, and I assume that at least the majority of funds raised, perhaps the vast majority, are used to help only the most urgent medical needs of children and their families.

However I recently learned that funds raised through Extra-Life are not necessarily used exclusively for the most urgent or life-threatening circumstances. This came to my attention when an e-mail from Extra-Life promoted their support of Children's Miracle Network Hospitals that include Gender and Sexuality Development Programs, like that of Cincinnati Children's Hospital, which treats patients ages 5-24, and includes puberty blocking and gender affirming treatments to aid in a patient's transition from living as one gender to another. 

I recognize that there are different views among Christians regarding biblical teaching on sexual issues. And regardless of your view, all Christians are invited to be a part of our fundraising each year. But I think I can say with confidence that a very significant number of our participants and donors will have concerns, should they learn about how some of these funds are potentially spent.

Now there are some workarounds I could have chosen to explore so that we could continue fundraising with Extra-Life. But even starting down that path I realized it would add significantly more work to an individual's fundraising efforts. And some donors who independently learn about these facets of Extra-Life may just quietly choose not to donate, rather than bring up a challenging topic with those who are fundraising.

Are these things worth working through, and these topics worth talking about even though they are hard sometimes? Absolutely! In my content creation I've repeatedly tried to encourage all of us to enter in to those conversations about hard topics with grace, sensitivity and compassion for those we disagree with. But our primary focus with this event each year has been to provide a mostly easy and fun way for geeks to take entry-level steps as they grow in thinking outside of themselves, while meeting the most urgent needs of families. I want to minimize as many hurdles as possible for those on the fence about participating as team members or donors. And so I'm making the choice to change Christian Geek Central's fundraising this year to serve another organization, and will be re-branding the annual event starting this year, with the name "Game Save '21". 

I'll talk more about what that name means and share a renewed and refocused vision for why we are doing it. But giving it a unique branding will allow us the flexibility to change the charity we fundraise for from year to year if we like, while keeping other elements consistent and predictable. A defining part of the event, for me and other team members who choose, will still involve doing a crazy 24-hour marathon of video gaming. And more than ever, it will maximize what has been our growing potential to help children and families dealing with life-threatening medical concerns.

I think our fundraising will still take place at around the same time of year, in maybe the last half of October or the first half of November. While I haven't solidified plans yet, I'm anticipating that in 2021 our Game Save event will raise funds for St. Jude's Hospital, which provides funding for families both local and distant to travel to and receive cancer treatment from St Jude's Hospital at no charge. St Jude's also carries out cutting edge research that has greatly increased survivability rates of children with cancer all over the world. They have a laser focus on illness that means life or death, and by raising funds for them I think we can be a part of saving lives more than ever before.

I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to do more of what we've been doing, but even more effectively and in a way that we can make our own. In fact I'm hoping to have a logo made for our Game Save event, so if you'd be interested in helping with that please let me know.

If you have any thoughts or questions, please don't hesitate to say something to me! In the meantime, stay tuned, as I will begin talking more about Game Save '21 as we get closer to it!

Click Here For More Info About CNM Hospitals' use of funds for Gender Programming