To help raise money for COVID-19 relief in India and Brazil, digital storefront Humble Bundle launched a special bundle on its site in early May. The company has just revealed how much money that bundle earned for the cause.
Humble Heal Raises Over a Million Dollars for COVID-19 Relief
Humble Bundle announced via blog post that the “Humble Heal: COVID-19 Bundle” was bought 54,374 times, earning $ 1,170,824 for charities Direct Relief, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), International Medical Corps, and GiveIndia.
Thanks to the incredible Humble community, the Humble Heal: COVID-19 Bundle sold 54,374 bundles, and raised $ 1,170,824 for @DirectRelief, @MSF_USA, @IMC_Worldwide, & @GiveIndia. Check out our blog to learn more about how these funds are being used!https://t.co/uI1ODcYAm3 pic.twitter.com/TJRu8U71Sn
— Humble Bundle (@humble) May 28, 2021
The bundle was full of popular games, ebooks, and software. Amongst the inclusions are indie RPG Undertale, award-winning puzzle game Baba Is You, and self-help book Unf*ck Your Worth.
Humble Heal was different from Humble’s other bundles, in that you couldn’t adjust the sliders to determine where your money was going. Instead, the profits were split evenly between the four charities.
The blog post ends with thank-you messages from executives of each charity. Here’s part of the statement given by Heather Bennett, Vice President of Partnerships and Philanthropy at Direct Relief:
Direct Relief is tremendously grateful to Humble Bundle and its community of passionate and generous people. Their collective efforts will translate to critically-needed medicines, supplies, and other resources to the hardest-hit communities in India and Brazil as they continue to battle rising cases of COVID-19.
Humble Before the Heal COVID-19 Bundle
The success of Humble’s charity bundle is probably great relief for the company, as it’s been a rough few months. The storefront received heaps of backlash at the end of last April, following its announcement that charity donations from bundle purchases would be capped at 15 percent.
This angered much of Humble’s consumer market. Not only because ultimately less money would go to charity, but because one of Humble’s competitors, itch.io, launched its own charity bundle (for a different cause) during the summer of 2020.
The “Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality” earned over $ 8.2 million—and yet, itch.io took none of the proceeds. Critics couldn’t help but draw comparisons between the two storefronts.
A week would pass before Humble rescinded its decision, bringing the sliders back. By then, however, damage had already been done. The angriest Humble customers took to social media to express their disappointment and declare that they wouldn’t buy from Humble anymore.
Humble Bundle Finally Hits a High Note
Well, there’s one for certain: regardless of what your opinion of Humble is, the money raised from Humble Heal will help a lot of people.
While some countries around the world are prepping for things to go back to normal, there are folks out there that are still going to have to deal with the pandemic for months to come.
