Donating to charity using left over change from buying games.

[RSD]

When you buy Steam wallet cards then use them to buy games you will sometimes have change left over from the games. This change left over wont buy you anything on the website but could eventually add up to help buy a game. I think we should have a button or something that says donate the change. With Steams big community that could add up quick to make a good amount of money that could be used to give to charity.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Or you can use the change to partly pay for another game and donate directly to a charity.

[dirrtymartini]

RoadRunner43님이 먼저 게시:

When you buy Steam wallet cards then use them to buy games you will sometimes have change left over from the games. This change left over wont buy you anything on the website but could eventually add up to help buy a game. I think we should have a button or something that says donate the change. With Steams big community that could add up quick to make a good amount of money that could be used to give to charity.

What's in it for Valve? Who pays for the cost to add this feature? Your goal is admirable. Let's ask some hard questions though -- How many Steam Wallet users are there? How many actually have change in their account and would donate it?

(I'm not saying the idea is bad...but offering some questions that might be raised)

[RSD]

Well, I don't know how many wallet card users there are but im sure that if the Steam users donated money Valve would get a nice reputation. I don't think it costs to add the feature? I would not know how many of them would donate because it hasent been done. It could be worth a try?

[Spawn of Totoro]

RoadRunner43님이 먼저 게시:

Well, I don't know how many wallet card users there are but im sure that if the Steam users donated money Valve would get a nice reputation. I don't think it costs to add the feature? I would not know how many of them would donate because it hasent been done. It could be worth a try?

To add a feature cost time and manpower (as well as to pay for the manpower). It would have to be coded and tested, legal issues would have to be worked out as well as what charities would be involved and how/when to give them the money. Banks would need to be talked to as well.

In the world of buisness, everything cost money.

[dirrtymartini]

RoadRunner43님이 먼저 게시:

Well, I don't know how many wallet card users there are but im sure that if the Steam users donated money Valve would get a nice reputation. I don't think it costs to add the feature? I would not know how many of them would donate because it hasent been done. It could be worth a try?

Adding a feature requires more than good will. ;) Someone at Valve has to actually write the code to create your "donate to charity" feature. Someone has to test that feature to ensure it doesn't break something else. A third person might be involved in packaging your feature into the Steam Client, writing release notes, and documentation for the feature. An accountant and/or lawyer might be involved to see if Valve can reap some kind of tax benefit from this charity donation feature. All these people need to get paid.

As for the Steam wallet numbers, I agree that they would be hard for us regular people to get. You might try a free SurveyMonkey survey to get some numbers. Even a few hundred responses might work.

Keep plugging away though. Valve might implement your feature anyway and eat the cost to develop it. You never know.

[dirrtymartini]

Spawn of Totoro님이 먼저 게시:

RoadRunner43님이 먼저 게시:

Well, I don't know how many wallet card users there are but im sure that if the Steam users donated money Valve would get a nice reputation. I don't think it costs to add the feature? I would not know how many of them would donate because it hasent been done. It could be worth a try?

To add a feature cost time and manpower (as well as to pay for the manpower). It would have to be coded and tested, legal issues would have to be worked out as well as what charities would be involved and how/when to give them the money. Banks would need to be talked to as well.

In the world of buisness, everything cost money.

Beaten to the punch by Spawn...again! Damn you, Spawn! *shakes fist*

[aiusepsi]

Valve have done charitable donations through Steam before (TF2 hats for Japan, and the Greenlight enrolment fee goes to Child's Play) so I doubt there are any major hurdles to implementing such a thing on the legal / admin side.

I suppose the toughest part is that nothing for sale on Steam currently has a variable price (the most obvious way to implement a charitable donation being to set it up as a purchase), but that just seems to me like an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and support Humble-Bundle-style pay-what-you-want deals on Steam.

[Spawn of Totoro]

aiusepsi님이 먼저 게시:

Valve have done charitable donations through Steam before (TF2 hats for Japan, and the Greenlight enrolment fee goes to Child's Play) so I doubt there are any major hurdles to implementing such a thing on the legal / admin side.

I suppose the toughest part is that nothing for sale on Steam currently has a variable price (the most obvious way to implement a charitable donation being to set it up as a purchase), but that just seems to me like an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and support Humble-Bundle-style pay-what-you-want deals on Steam.

A one time check at the end of an event is diffrent form a continuing form of charity. To become a middle man between a charity and a person takes a lot of work and agreements. Each time an event happens, they have to agree and modify the terms for the new event. Just because they did it one time, does not mean they can use everything over again in a diffrent way.

[aiusepsi]

The Greenlight Submission fee isn't a one time event. http://store.steampowered.com/app/219820/

[Spawn of Totoro]

aiusepsi님이 먼저 게시:

The Greenlight Submission fee isn't a one time event. http://store.steampowered.com/app/219820/

No it isn't a one time event and it took a bit to set up too.

I'm not saying they can't, just that a new agreement has to be made and that cost money to do. The diffrence between them is also the ammount.

A few cents to a dollar IF someone has left over and wants to donate. Is that amount going to be worth it? If you spend 50k to set it all up, but the donation comes out to a few hundred a year, then why not just donate 50k to charity and not go through the headache of it all.

Greenlight also has potential to make Steam money when the game is realease on Steam. It's other purpose is to prevent fraud/fake games to be listed on Greenlight.

[Spawn of Totoro]

19delta3님이 먼저 게시:

That is very nice of Valve, too bad I am not a developer. Maybe Valve could make 'Child's Play' an available charitable donation for end users as well, in some form or fashion.

Thanks for the link aiusepi, I was not aware of this.

The op may well be on to something. Following the thread in interest.

If you want to, you can do a direct donation.

http://www.childsplaycharity.org/

[aiusepsi]

I'm not sure where you're getting this business about agreements and so forth from. Charities are in the business of taking money from people who want to give it to them. They don't make it difficult for you to give them money!

Furthermore, Steam is already set up to take payments from end-users and then collect up the money and send it along to the people it's for on a monthly basis; that's how they pay developers. Paying a charity rather than paying a developer isn't an incredibly crazy leap.

The Humble Bundle guys also seem to be able to do payments to charities without drowning under paperwork and legal agreements and mysterious charges. I think Steam could manage it.

[Spawn of Totoro]

aiusepsi님이 먼저 게시:

I'm not sure where you're getting this business about agreements and so forth from. Charities are in the business of taking money from people who want to give it to them. They don't make it difficult for you to give them money!

Laws do though. Who can claim the donation? Does it have to be reported? What would be the max donation? How do you track who donated so they can legaly claim the donation on their taxes.

There is a lon involved.

aiusepsi님이 먼저 게시:

Furthermore, Steam is already set up to take payments from end-users and then collect up the money and send it along to the people it's for on a monthly basis; that's how they pay developers. Paying a charity rather than paying a developer isn't an incredibly crazy leap.

Yes it is. They are two things that have diffrent laws attatched. Reporting, taxes and buisness ID numbers to name a few.

aiusepsi님이 먼저 게시:

The Humble Bundle guys also seem to be able to do payments to charities without drowning under paperwork and legal agreements and mysterious charges. I think Steam could manage it.

They do large donations at a time. 30 days with hundres of thousands or even millions during that time. They also give you something for your "donation" so it is not tax deductable. They also take some money to support the event.

This suggestion would be very small amounts over a large period of time and Steam wouldn't see a penny of it. People would be giving up something for nothing, so few would do it.

There is also the way that Steam Wallet cards are handled. The money is considered profit by the IRS. Since it is (in the IRS's eyes) already Steams money, how can you donated something that isn't yours?

Like I said, there are a lot of legal and techincal issues involved in doing something like this, and it could cost Valve a fair amount to do it.

I suggest taking a few buissness law and tax classes if you want the specifics. It's a good idea to anyways since it will help later in life.