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Bundled Computer Game Packages Raise More Than $17 Million For Ukraine
Bundled Computer Game Packages Raise More Than $17 Million For Ukraine

Software producers and digital content platforms have started selling bundles of digital products, with the proceeds set aside for humanitarian nonprofits that benefit Ukraine as the country attempts to hold off a Russian military invasion.

San Francisco-based Humble Bundle, which supports nonprofits through sales of expansive packages of games, books and software at low prices, has raised more than $11 million as of March 21 through sales of its Stand With Ukraine bundle. The sale ends on Friday, March 25. 

All of the proceeds will be split among four nonprofit recipients, which include:

  • Direct Relief, a Santa Barbara, Calif., nonprofit that is providing medicine and medical supplies;
  • International Medical Corps, headquartered in Los Angeles, which provides healthcare services and training;
  • International Rescue Committee, a global humanitarian aid, relief, and development nongovernmental organization based in New York City; and,
  • Razom for Ukraine, an eight-year-old organization formed in New York City to aid those opposing the then-government’s increasingly closer ties with the Russian government.

Payments to each organization are made via PayPal Giving Fund.

“The violent and unlawful invasion in Ukraine is taking a tragic toll — displacing people, devastating families, and creating an urgent need for food, water, supplies, shelter, and safety,” Humble Bundle officials wrote on the company’s website. “To help out how we can, we’ve joined forces with game creators, book publishers, and software makers around the globe for a bundle 100% dedicated to supporting the victims and refugees from Ukraine during this crisis.”

Humble Bundle’s Stand with Ukraine bundle features 123 pieces of content, which the company values at $2,572. The ask ladder starts at $40 and goes to $65 in five-dollar increments, but purchasers are able to pay what they’d like — with some going well above the top suggested amount. Top contributors, according to a leaderboard on Humble Bundle’s website, are those who have given $10,000.

Donations are nothing new for Humble Bundle, which has given away at least a portion of its sale of bundles to a variety of charities since its inception, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Girls Who Code, the Make a Wish Foundation, One Tree Planted and Worldreader. Humble Bundle, which launched in 2010, has generated more than $200 million in contributions from sales of its content to more than 12 million customers, according to the company’s website.

Humble Bundle is not alone in its efforts to raise funds through collections of digital goodies. A bundle hosted by Necrosoft Games, of Oakland, Calif., concluded a sale on March 18 of a bundle of nearly 1,000 computer games, tabletop roll-playing games, books and more.

That bundle raised nearly $6.4 million from 449,625 contributors, with the top contribution reaching $9,000. Purchasers were able to buy the bundle for $10, but were urged to make a higher contribution.

Proceeds from the Necrosoft bundle were split between International Medical Corps. and Voices of Children, a Ukraine-based organization founded in 2015 that helps children that have had their lives disrupted, or even destroyed, by ongoing hostilities within Ukraine.