How to get your donation read at AGDQ

Having been a host (donation reader) at SGDQ, I wanted to give some tips for making sure your donation makes it on the air.

1. Give during a slow time.
This one is fairly obvious, but if you’re one of only a couple donators at the time, you will get read for sure! Usually the middle of the night (USA time) is a great opportunity to give.

2. Give during a slower game.
If a game doesn’t seem to have much commentary going on or a lot of auto-scroller sections, it means more donations will get read.

3. Don’t give during your favorite game.
Everyone may want to get their donation in during Zelda or Mario runs to get in on the special prize drawings, but you will have lots of competition.

4. Do give during your favorite runner’s stream.
If you are a regular in someone’s channel, you might have an in. One runner actually gave me a list of people’s names to make sure their donation would be read if they chose to donate. Also, if the host knows the runner well, he/she might recognize your name also.

5. Be creative…
A funny, creative, or heartfelt message will be more likely to get pushed to the front of the line. It’s great to say good luck to all the runners, but literally everyone says this. Also note that nothing vulgar or offensive ever gets through.

6. …But keep it short!
There were so many really good donations that I just couldn’t fit in. A donation reader is always looking for places to jump in when there is a break in the action, and it is much easier to fit in a donation that is only 1 or 2 sentences. I loved your novel about your relatives that are cancer free, but there is just no way.

And last but not least…

7. Give a LOT.
Of course not everyone can give a lot of money, but if you give more than $200 I would say your chances of getting read goes up significantly. Of course, take this with a grain of salt, because on the last night of SDGQ last year, it was more around $500. The more popular the game, generally the higher the figure.

Here’s a quick explanation about how the donation process works. There are 3 levels of vounteers that the donations go through to be read on air: donation readers, head donation readers, and the host. The donation readers scan through the donations and pick out good ones to be read. The head donation reader re-reads them for content and does a little bit more sorting, sending the best few to the host. The host gets the final pick and decides based on length, relevance, amount of donation, if they recognize the name, and various other factors. As a host I would usually get 1-2 donations every 5 minutes, way too many to read, so if they were too long or complicated I usually would just clear them off without reading them. Some longer ones that were good I would hold for in between games. The shorter ones I would try to sneak in when I could.

I hope this helps you hear your name read out loud at AGDQ. Of course, even if you don’t get read on air, you still gave to a great cause! Thanks for being so generous.