itch.io is the collective organizing platform we have, but is it the one we need?

In October of 2023, amidst a new wave of asymmetric conflict between the Israeli government and the people of Palestine, Esther Wallace began organizing the Games for Gaza fundraiser on digital games marketplace itch.io. What occurred over the following months revealed fundamental problems in itch.io as a platform and the ecosystem of charity organizing itself. 

itch.io, founded in 2013, has doubled as the hosting platform in recent years for a growing movement of philanthropic fundraising: game bundles. For these initiatives, designers donate games to be purchased for a single, low-cost lump sum. The proceeds then go to a predetermined charitable cause. The model is not unique to itch.io. Other platforms such as Humble Bundle and Tiltify have facilitated these types of charity events, but for grassroots designers in the tabletop industry, itch.io reigns supreme. Charity models such as these are often criticized as being counterproductive to systemic change, placing the responsibility of equity and communal care on individual philanthropy rather than addressing the root causes of suffering the charity hopes to mitigate. 

When the tangible realities of large-scale mutual aid efforts seem impossibly out of reach (or require actions and sacrifices that would disrupt the capitalist consumer lifestyle), resorting to individual charitable donations can seem like the only option available. In the face of these seemingly insurmountable social issues, these initiatives are marketed as opportunities for those who feel helpless to contribute towards ameliorating direct suffering. Community reception to these bundles are overwhelmingly enthusiastic, and purchasing a bundle is often viewed as both a practical and moral transaction—for the low price of $15 dollars, and the simple click of a button, you receive hundreds of games while providing aid to those in need. 

On April 12, 2023, twitter user Starshine Scribbles calculated that the TTRPG community had raised over one million dollars for charity between 2020 and April, 2023, with nearly sixteen million total raised across itch.io. That number has certainly increased in the last year with efforts like Wallace's. Donations vary in both size (ranging from a little over one thousand dollars, to upwards of eight million) and cause (including organizations supporting reproductive rights, mental health, trans rights, and victims of violence in Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Palestine). When Wallace initiated Games for Gaza to benefit the organization Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) in late October, 2023, the vocally progressive online tabletop ecosystem quickly jumped to support it. By the end of its campaign in November of 2023, the bundle had raised over $365,000 for MAP. A sense of pride permeated the community in the fundraiser’s final days, a feeling that a group of disparate people banding together for a common cause might be able to effect positive change amidst a violent and oppressive system—a familiar hope tabletop games often inspire. It was at this point the optimistic enthusiasm of charitable giving gave way to the mundane devastation of capitalist bureaucracy. 

In emails sent to Rascal, Wallace (who uses she/zhe pronouns) shared ongoing correspondence between zher, an itch.io employee, and a representative from MAP dating back to October 31. Before the bundle had ended, Wallace reached out to itch.io requesting that MAP be the sole recipient of all funds. An itch.io representative responded hours later with instructions to create an account for MAP on itch.io, enter their tax information into the site, and then send the employee their username to verify it had been entered sufficiently. A representative from MAP responded a few days later, which again was met with a same day response from itch.io. After this process had been completed, the itch.io employee recommended they try to reenter the tax ID—informing those at MAP that if the aid organization was registered as a non-profit in the United Kingdom, a tax agreement between the UK and the US would reduce what percentage of the proceeds itch.io would withhold for tax purposes from 30% (of $365,000, which comes to about $109,000) down to 0%. Not being a registered nonprofit in the United States, MAP did not have the proper Identification numbers necessary to benefit from this. The representative at MAP resigned to take the 30% tax withholding, asking on December 11 when they could expect the funds. 

After a few more days of correspondence, on December 18, 2023, the itch.io employee informed MAP that a tax ID had been entered and the withholding rate had been reduced to 0%. Itch.io also indicated the funds would be going out by the end of 2023 and that they would soon follow up with the exact amount to be donated and when it would be delivered. 

In a search of publicly-posted grievances on Discord and Twitter, complaints regarding delays in payment date back at least to 2020.

This is where communication from itch.io shifted from a series of same-day responses to radio silence. A follow up from both the MAP representative and Wallace occurred on January 16, 26, and February 7—all with no reply, or so much as an out-of-office message.

As this was occurring, charity organizer Jes Wade (known online as JestheHuman, who often hosts charity actual play streams and produces educational content for other would-be organizers) was hosting a game jam for Palestine. Over 600 designers created or donated games that would then be included in a bundle for MAP. According to Rascal’s email correspondence with Wade, and public requests made on itch.io’s community Discord server, Wade’s first attempt at communication with itch.io regarding their game jam/charity bundle was via the platform’s support ticket process on January 23. A second support ticket was initiated on February 13. Wade made follow up requests through the Discord server on February 15, 16, 19, and 21. 

While itch.io’s Discord does explicitly state that “this server is not for account specific customer support,” Leaf Corcoran, itch.io’s CEO, responded to other user requests on February 20 and 21. Among the other issues presented in the Discord were delayed payment, logistical complications of distributing access keys for sold games, requests to remove loli content (animated content sexualising underage girls) hosted on the site, requests for intervention regarding harassment on a separate charity bundle, and games being taken down from public view with no warning. 

On February 21, Wallace posted a public twitter thread stating itch.io was “ghosting [Wallace and MAP] regarding the transfer of funds.” There was understandable public backlash to the company, with many Twitter users demanding itch.io take action on the bundle they had monetarily supported, believing it would provide immediate aid to Palestinans under Israeli occupation in Gaza. In a matter of hours, itch.io’s founder Leaf Corcoran replied to Wallace on Twitter stating that he was “investigating right now to see where the hold up is,” and apologized that “communication was handled so poorly.” The funds were paid out to MAP a little over three weeks later, on March 15—though in the wake of Wallace’s thread, speculation began across the tabletop ecosystem that certain projects were receiving preferential treatment based on cause. Itch.io did not reply to a request for comment regarding this. The consistency of these patterns, however, indicate the problems stretch across causes.

In the time between Wallace’s post and itch.io’s payout to MAP, zhe expressed to Rascal a frustration with this specific instance, but also noted that they became inundated with other individuals sharing similar issues with itch.io—not just in raising money for charity, but in users receiving payouts for their private business endeavors. One charity bundle—Bundle for Buffalo–never received funds at all. 

The Bundle for Buffalo raised over $6,000 for Black Love Resist in The Rust (BLRR), which aided victims of the domestic terror attack on a Black community in Buffalo that occurred May 14, 2022. According to emails and Discord communications obtained by Rascal, requests for assistance and clarification prior to the bundle's launch received attentive communication while initially setting up the bundle, before extended delays in responses from itch.io starting in June of 2022. After multiple unanswered requests from Bundle for Buffalo co-organizer Leona Neelam Maple in July of 2022, Corcoran followed up on September 19, 2022 indicating that itch.io needed to be connected to the charity directly to process the funds.

The proceeds had been sent to organizer Lynne Meyer’s personal account, mixing with their individual game sale profits. Additionally, itch.io had not informed them that the platform would take 10% of the proceeds by default. Upon a request from Maple in October of 2022, itch.io rescinded their percentage of the funds raised. By the time the funds had been redirected to a temporary holding account in March of 2023, both the volunteer organizers and representatives from BLRR began having their own delays in communication. 

An itch.io employee sent an additional request in June of 2023, which garnered a response from BLRR. At this point, itch.io instructed the charity’s representative to create an account to receive these funds, to no response. Follow up emails were sent from itch.io in July of 2023 and November of 2023—at which point itch.io indicated there was a risk of losing all the money that had been raised a year and a half prior. After this series of difficulties, the funds expired in December 2023, never making it to the designated charity.

"I think it’s imperative we look beyond the capitalist and imperialist structures that NGOs operate in and begin to turn to more grassroots, mutual-aid based efforts."

In correspondence obtained by Rascal, it became clear that both Wallace’s bundle and the Bundle for Buffalo were delayed by a number of non-malicious, but logistically negligent causes: a lack of onboarding instructions, issues of bandwidth on the side of both the organizers and itch.io (which states on its site that the platform is run by a “small dedicated team”), and an absence of transparent communication from itch.io—which resulted in extended periods of time wherein the company appeared to be “ghosting” organizers. 

Following Wallace’s public post on February 21, Wade similarly tweeted at itch.io on February 22, which garnered a response from Corcoran. In his reply he stated that “at this point [itch.io requires] all monetary recipients to be onboarded before payments can be collected to avoid any issues about delivering the funds.”  This statement, which was made on Twitter, indicates a change in itch.io’s charity bundle process that had not yet been made clear to any bundle organizers. 

As of this article’s publication, there is a 5-step process for organizers creating a “co-op bundle” on itch.io’s site, though  it is unclear when the current policy was implemented. According to the most recent archival data on the Wayback Machine, this process was not dictated on the site as late as November 27, 2023—long past the point at which charity bundles became a standard facet of the platform’s operations. Included in this recent update to the site is the note that “itch.io may need to delay the distribution of collected earnings for several months to allow balance adjusting events to settle,” as the platform assumes liability for large payouts. There is also a warning advising organizers not to link the bundle with their personal bank account, “unless you are prepared to accept full responsibility for the distribution of earnings collected.”

After Corcoran’s response to Wallace on February 21, three emails were sent to zher and the MAP representative. In the weeks between, Wade sent three more requests about their bundle in the itch.io Discord server on March 8, 11, and 14 for an update on whether MAP had been onboarded. 

On March 10, another bundle organizer, who goes by the username “Ghosthunter”' began asking for assistance with their own Palestine relief bundle. They too followed up on the 12. On March 15, Wallace announced that MAP had been properly onboarded, and the $365,000 had been paid out.

Wade—hopeful that their bundle could begin to see progress, given that MAP had been onboarded into the itch.io system—sent another request in the Discord server that same day, to no response. Following up again on March 18, 19, and 25, Wade stated in the Discord server that they were being ignored by itch.io, and asked if they’d “done something wrong,” and said they were “literally begging” for a response. 

That same day, Wade posted on Twitter that they  “didn’t know what to do” and that they were “feeling incredibly defeated.” On March 27, after nearly 20 requests for support across multiple platforms over the course of two months, Wade decided to abandon itch.io and initiate another charity bundle on Tiltify (which had been used late last year for a TTRPGtok charity fundraiser for Palestine) and ultimately raised over $33,000. On April 25, nearly a month after their final request, Wade was informed by itch.io that MAP had been made the recipient of the charity bundle’s funds and the initiative could proceed. 

Among all the complaints levied against itch.io, the lack of transparent communication surrounding processes for both charity organizers and regular site users have been the most consistent and unaddressed. In a search of publicly-posted grievances on Discord and Twitter, complaints regarding delays in payment date back at least to 2020. Users of the platform often coalesce on the site’s community forum to identify sitewide problems. In March, one Discord user stated “on the community forum there are rumors of another Payoneer [itch.io’s payment processor] problem. An official statement from Leaf would do wonders to calm everyone.” 

To date, it appears that itch.io’s solution has been to wait for users to approach them with problems, likely due to a lack of capacity to proactively aid sellers and organizers. On March 7, 2024, when responding to a complaint posted in the platform’s Discord, Corcoran indicated that the company was aware of the delays and were “following up with those who reach out in support.”

Even with these complications, itch.io is still one of the most prominent platforms for charity drives. Ghosthunter’s bundle, which ended the morning of May 6, raised over $578,000 for the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF). Rue Dickey, who runs a TTRPGs for Trans Rights bundle annually, is currently raising funds for Project Rainbow, a shelter for unhoused queer and trans people in West Virginia. But even Dickey, now in his third year of organizing, experienced these delays in communication. According to a statement given via Twitter DM on February 21, 2024, it was while working on their second bundle in 2023 that Dickey had learned to onboard the charity’s tax paperwork prior to launching. According to Dickey, the process for their first two TTRPG for Trans Rights in Texas and Florida, the projects took roughly three to four months in total, but there was never a lack of communication from itch.io, with “no more than a few business days between asks.” 

By March 18, 2024, Dickey stated they were experiencing a similar lack of communication. The following week he described this process as “worlds apart from [his] last two bundles.” Echoing a similar request for transparency as for-profit users, Dickey stated that any explanation would suffice: “If it was just a ‘hey were having staffing issues and need to push this’ or ‘I’ll get back to you in x timeframe’ then I’d be content, but it’s just ghosting at this point.” On April 9, Dickey received a response from itch.io, and the bundle officially launched on April 25. 

While this clearly seems to be an ongoing issue with the platform, there are few options available to individuals who wish to organize charity projects. Wallace stated that solving this issue isn’t solely on itch.io’s shoulders—it lies in the very nature of charity organizing itself: “While I am disappointed with the way the process unfolded with itch.io, what I’m taking away is that all of this gets at a larger structural issue around charity-based models of giving. During and after the Games For Gaza fundraiser, I have said publicly that I don’t believe we can fundraise our way to liberation through philanthropy, and I still believe that to be true. At the time I organized the fundraiser, there were compelling reasons to go that route — getting funds to a Palestine-focused organization that could accept money, had a track record of recommendations from Palestinians and was able get aid into Gaza at scale were all factors in why I decided to raise money through a charity bundle in the first place. 

“I think it’s imperative we look beyond the capitalist and imperialist structures that NGOs operate in and begin to turn to more grassroots, mutual-aid based efforts,” Wallace said “There are so many crowdfunds for people trying to evacuate Gaza that aren’t getting half the attention our itch.io fundraiser did, and that to me is a huge problem. There are smaller organizations like Palestine Legal doing immense work here in the U.S. that largely don’t benefit on the same scale from charity models of giving. So I think the question to all of us is, how are we going to creatively direct our funds, raise our voices, and engage in solidarity actions — for Palestine and beyond — moving forward?”