Interview: Richard Grisham discusses Com2uS' charity efforts
Com2uS recently hosted an MLB 9 Innings charity livestream that aimed to raise money for the Roberto Clemente Foundation, and it raised an impressive sum that will go towards helping at-risk youth. It's not the first time the publisher has looked to raise money for charity, though.
We recently spoke to Richard Grisham, head of Business Development for Com2uS, about the company's ongoing charity efforts, past and present. We touched on how the recent livestream went alongside any upcoming charity events.
Can you introduce yourself and your role at Com2uS to our readers, please?Sure! I’m Richard Grisham, the head of Business Development for Com2uS in the USA. That means a lot of things, but the simplest description is that I’m responsible for optimizing our relationships with our licensors, business partners, third-party providers, community, and studios.
The latest charity livestream took place on September 15th. How much money was raised and how many people tuned in?We had a few different livestreams that week to celebrate and raise funds for the Roberto Clemente Foundation. We’re still working through all the data with our partners, but I do know for sure that since we’ve begun our charity livestreams initiatives in the 3 years I’ve been working here there has been more than $55,000 raised across all of our charitable partners.
The goal was to raise money for the Roberto Clemente Foundation. Can you speak a bit more about what this particular charity does?The Roberto Clemente Foundation is dedicated to helping at-risk youth, disaster relief around the world, and the promotion of service leadership. Clemente himself passed away tragically while delivering relief supplies to survivors of an earthquake in Nicaragua – the definition of a hero. We are thrilled to be even a very small benefactor, combined with our amazing community of players, to the Clemente Foundation, which has a long history of great works for many people in need across the globe.
One of the great things about making so many interesting, licensed baseball titles is that they each have nuances to gameplay and experience. For the MLB 9 Innings livestream, our streamer Jayfish showed off the Roberto Clemente in-game card, while also opening a lot of fun packs and using the cards in a lot of different ways to improve his team. For the Out of the Park Baseball livestream, our streamer (which was me!) pitted two different Pirates teams from history against each other – the 1966 Pirates from Clemente’s MVP season against the 1971 Pirates, which won the World Series and in which Clemente won the World Series MVP. That kind of fantasy ‘what if’ matchup is something that only Out of the Park Baseball can do!
Of course, this isn't the first time Com2uS has raised money for charity. Can you tell us about your previous efforts?We have done several amazing charity livestreams with a number of great organizations, including the ALS Association (in concert with Lou Gehrig’s estate) and the Jimmy Fund (in concert with the Boston Red Sox). We decided a few years ago that doing these kinds of things would become just part of who we are, and I’m very proud and honored to be a small part of that.
Do you have other upcoming charity livestreams you can tell us about?We will have at least one more charity livestream campaign between now and the end of the year, likely around the Holiday season, that we hope to use to combine several of our charitable partners together in a single event. Lots of work and planning still upcoming for that, but we hope it turns out to be something that the community loves and that benefits our amazing charitable partners.
Thank you for the opportunity to discuss these campaigns! It means a lot!
