Giving Thanks for Indie Giving

Since 2010, Indie Giving has partnered with  Game Developers Conference (GDC) to raise money and donate to local charities that have a direct impact in the Bay Area. It's becoming increasingly important that the tech community rally together and help those less fortunate, particularly in the cities that enable company growth.

For background, Indie Giving is a program designed to help game developers attend the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, as well as contribute to local charitable organizations. Indie Giving attendees pay a discounted rate for GDC tickets and agree to attend a charity event as a volunteer. Ticket sales are donated to local charities. While every year Indie Giving provides opportunities for the tech, gaming and advertising communities to come together and provide a positive impact to the Bay Area, this year marked a monumental moment for the charity.

In fact, this year Indie Giving raised over $50,000 from the sale of Indie Giving tickets and donations! Most of the money raised has gone directly to Compass Family Services, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in San Francisco that provides a wide variety of human services to families experiencing homelessness and those at great risk.

In addition to this, GDC offered a reception for Indie Giving attendees and GDC badge pick-up hosted by WeMade, Gala Games and Freeman. GDC also partnered with Indie Giving to provide a dedicated space near the GDC registration area where donations were collected.

For over a decade, Indie Giving has partnered with different non-profits - they've had the great opportunity to work with charities, homeless shelters, youth centers, park conservancies and more. Over time, the charity fostered an incredible relationship with Compass Family Services. As the joint efforts grew and evolved, synergies meshed and the organizations have been able to truly impact the communities they hope to reach.

As efforts evolved and progressed, Indie Giving formed a closer partnership with GDC. In fact, this year shows some particularly helpful collaborative efforts. GDC issued a series of promotional messages on the official GDC event website touting Indie Giving. They also provided information on how prospective attendees in need of assistance could attend the event by participating in the program. Additionally, Compass Family Services committed to supporting a larger group of attendees than ever before. Historically, the program capped sign ups to 30 people, but through the generous support of Compass Family Services, this year saw 100 sign ups. This higher number of sign ups also helped facilitate the larger donation number.

So, how is MobileFuse involved with Indie Giving?

Well, it goes back a few years actually. Indie Giving was founded by MobileFuse's Head of Innovation, Chris Hughes. Before his role at MobileFuse, Chris founded FGL, Inc. and Enhance, Inc. Both companies worked with many game developers. Chris was, and still is, a loyal attendee of GDC. Early on in his participation at the event, he noticed two things:

1. For a large group of game developers, the cost was too much; it was prohibitive for them to come out and experience the full benefits of GDC
2. There were tens of thousands of people descending on San Francisco for the conference, and those visitors could work together to give back to that community

With this in mind, Chris reached out to GDC to start what would eventually become Indie Giving, and the partnership was formed.

In 2021, MobileFuse acquired Enhance, Inc. and has had the great opportunity to continue supporting the work Indie Giving provides. With the new backing from MobileFuse, IndieGiving has more resources to help plan and manage the event. Additionally, MobileFuse graciously donated money and items (like signage and swag).

As Indie Giving is a community effort, it relies on the support from sponsors. At GDC 2024, sponsors included: MobileFuse, FlowPlay, FGL, Performance Trailer Braking, and of course the GDC itself. The sponsorships enabled Indie Giving to pay for tools, food and anything needed for the volunteers at GDC - specifically food kit assembly, hygiene kit assembly, non-perishable food kit assembly, writing notes of encouragement, organizing racks of clothing for donations, and cleaning children's play areas. Every penny left over was donated to Compass Family Services.

Together, Indie Giving's partners and supporters not only saved hundreds of work hours for these affiliated non-profit organizations, but also donated tens of thousands of dollars on the behalf of the contributors - and they have every intention of keeping these efforts going!

With that in mind, if you're interested in participating next year, please reach out to  indiegiving@mobilefuse.com for more information.