Fundraising superstars: Sidemen do it again

In 2022, the Sidemen group of YouTube stars raised more than £1m for good causes through their charity football match, which they have been staging regularly since 2016.

 

The total was already a record for the event but in 2023 they went even further, managing to raise a staggering £2.4m for charities.

 

This is a startling feat given the Sidemen started their life on YouTube in 2013, like so many other content creators, by posting gaming content on the platform.

 

Their founding members are Josh Bradley (aka Zerkaa), Tobi Brown (Tobjizzle), Olajide Olatunji (K.S.I.), Simon Minter (Miniminter), Ethan Payne (Behzinga), and Vikram Barn (Vikkstar123), and in 2014 they were joined by Harry Lewis (W.2.S.).

 

Due to their growing popularity, they have branched out into a range of channels, including comedy sketches and since 2016 they have included fundraising in their work.

 

By 2020, they had amassed 10 million subscribers. And, as of September 2023, this tally had been almost doubled with their subscriber count standing at 19.4 million. This earns the team between £18,800 and £301,100 a month from their content, which equates to up to £3.6m a year. As a snapshot of their popularity, their content during September 2023 attracted more than 115 million views.

 

We look at the fundraising track record of the YouTube sensations and how they have managed to be so successful in backing good causes.

 

 

Sidemen and Fundraising

 

Since 2016 they have built up their involvement with good causes. In 2016, for example, they staged their first charity match, at Southampton F.C.’s St Mary’s Stadium, which raised more than £110,000 for the football club’s Saints Foundation. This saw the Sidemen’s team take on a side of other YouTube stars.

 

The event’s success ensured two further charity fundraising matches were staged over the next two years, at Charlton Athletic’s Valley ground in London, and with more charities supported. This raised £275,000 for N.S.P.C.C., Young Minds and Charlton Athletic Community Trust.

 

Social distancing restrictions amid the pandemic saw the event take a break over the next two years, but the Sidemen still managed to back good causes during this time. In March 2020, they released a fundraising YouTube video with other content creators about the dangers of infection during the pandemic, with all advertising revenue donated to the N.H.S.

 

In 2022 their football match returned, once again staged at Charlton Athletic’s ground, this time raising £1m for mental health charity C.A.L.M., Teenage Cancer Trust, children’s charity Rays of Sunshine and M7 Education, whose co-founder is Simon Minter.

 

The success of this event was due to its timing, during an international tournament break in Premier League’s fixtures, and involvement of notable other YouTube stars, including Beast, who has 186 million YouTube subscribers.

 

 

 

How did the Sidemen double donations?

 

For 2023’s event they mirrored this successful tactic of involving a wide range of popular YouTubers and timing the match during the international break in the domestic football schedule.

 

But they went further so that more people could see the event live, particularly as in 2022 more than 170,000 people queued online for tickets to see the match at Charlton Athletic’s 25,000-seater ground.

 

For the 09 September event in 2023 they switched venue to the far larger 62,000-seater London Stadium, which is home to Premier League club West Ham.

 

Celebrities in the YouTube Allstars side to take on a Sidemen XI included Chunkz, Jacksepticeye, and Chris MD. This year’s match was won by the Sidemen team 8-5.

As well as raising £2.4m for the same charities as in 2022, a stream of the match also garnered 19 million views on YouTube across the weekend it took place. It attracted 2.7 million live viewers during the match itself.

 

K.S.I. said that the fundraising total at the sell-out event “makes me so happy”. He added: “Honestly, love our fanbase”.

 

Teenage Cancer Trust Chief Executive Kate Collins described the match as “fantastic” and especially thanked Sidemen group member Ethan Payne (Behzinga) who in 2022 took his involvement in fundraising further by taking on a role as the charity’s ambassador.

 

 

Payne first became involved with the Teenage Cancer Trust in 2022 when he ran the London Marathon in 2022, when it was a virtual event due to the pandemic.

Collins said the YouTube stars taking part are “life changers for young people with cancer”.

 

 

Sidemen versus telethons

 

The Sidemen’s savvy use of YouTube for staging a fundraising event for a mass audience in recent years comes as traditional TV telethons struggle to keep the public interested, according to recent evidence.

 

Figures released in 2023 by the Pre-Paid Phone Services Authority found that phone donations fell by more than a quarter from £50m in 2021/22 to £35.9m in 2022/23, caused largely by a fall in popularity in telethons as viewers flock to streaming services such as Netflix, and platforms such as YouTube.

 

The phone services body says that if telethon are to survive they need to look at utilising online platforms, as the Sidemen are doing so expertly each year for good causes.