Our Story
Detrick DeBurr and Catherine Lugo, formulated the idea for Game Time Giving (GTG) February 2014, at Startup Weekend – Denton, Texas. They and 6 others worked on the idea during the 54-hour competition resulting in a 2nd place finish. In March 2015, Detrick continued the work on the idea by formally incorporating the company and accepting a seed investment from Tech Wildcatters Accelerator Program.
GTG addresses the high costs of charitable fundraising coupled with the problem of fan engagement during a sporting event. The typical non-profit organization in the US spends about $150 to bring in first time donors. The average age of those donors is 55 years old. They break even on these donors after about 2 years. We have learned the millennials (ages 25 – 35) give on average $100 to various charitable causes each year. Hence, its cost prohibitive for them to go after this donor segment. Sports organizations are having just as difficult a time keeping millennials engaged. They are turning to digital, fantasy and e-sport offerings as a last-ditch effort to hang on to the steady declining interest amongst millennials in sports. Game Time Giving aims to meet this problem at its intersection. GTG allows fans to engage each other through competition by facilitating a giving competition with the other team’s fans in pledging money to non-profit organizations.
Game Time Giving is a fan engagement platform that facilitates competitive giving during a sporting event. During the game, fans compete in pledging to a charity of their choice while their teams are battling it out on the field/court. There are really two games happening. There is the game on the field/court and the pledging game in the stands. At the end of the game, the team’s fans with the most amount pledged wins the “Game Time Giving” game. We collect all pledges from both sides and give them to the charity minus a 12% transaction fee. Our goal is to trigger as many pledges and donations as possible during a game. We use competition as an intrinsic motivator to increase the number of pledges and donations.
