On Monday, streamer and content creator Hasan Piker helped raise more than $56,000 in one stream for Oliver Larkin, a former Bernie Sanders campaign staffer who is seeking to primary Jared Moskowitz, a moderate Democratic congressman from Florida. It was the most the campaign had raised “in a single day,” Larkin said on X shortly after the stream ended.
Over the past few years, creators have become an essential piece of campaign messaging strategy. But Piker’s recent stream for Larkin is the latest sign that online influence is being leveraged for direct fundraising as well.
Piker isn’t alone. Trisha Paytas, a YouTuber with more than 5 million subscribers and a long history of provocative stunts, isn’t known for her political activism, but in February she donated more than $10,000 to a campaign called Creators Against ICE. The campaign, organized by the creator collective Creators for Peace, is just one in a string of fundraisers organized by coalitions of creators turning social media followings into political fundraising machines.
Unlike traditional fundraising models like super PACs that pool funds from publicly reported donors, these creator collectives pool audiences and leverage social networks and off-the-shelf tools like Shopify and Tiltify to convert followers into donors. Creators for Peace is one of the most prominent groups in a line of creator coalitions mobilizing around causes from Gaza relief to immigration aid—establishing a model that could reshape grassroots fundraising ahead of the midterm elections.
“There are a lot of creators that I think recognize the power of having a platform,” says Hassan Khadair, one of the Creators for Peace organizers. “There’s more of a call to action culturally with creators than I think there’s ever been before.”
Creators for Peace was established in 2024 by Nikki Carreon in an Instagram group DM with a handful of other creators to raise money for Gaza relief. That group chat expanded into a more than 120-person Discord server that included influencers with millions of followers on platforms like Instagram, Twitch, and YouTube. People like Kurtis Conner, Hasan Piker, and the Try Guys, who collectively boast more than 15 million followers on their primary platforms, got involved. Members shared infographics with their audiences and organized a livestream. By the end of the campaign, the group had raised more than $1.6 million.
“We largely start from zero on each new campaign. I will individually reach out to several creators, we’ll get something out, and then once we allow that to catch fire on its own, a bunch of creators will reach out to us,” says Khadair. For the Creators for Peace immigration fundraiser, Khadair says, “we really wanted to try and move out of the leftist bubble just a little bit, because a lot of our audiences tend to align with us on these issues.”
By connecting with more apolitical creators like Paytas, the Creators Against ICE campaign has raised nearly $140,000 for the National Immigration Law Center, according to the group’s Tiltify fundraiser.
Creators have come under fire for remaining silent on political issues for years. During the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, audiences began demanding that influencers creating content on anything from fashion to food publicly speak out and take sides on political issues. In these online spaces, silence is often seen as complicity.
Groups of Democratic political influencers, like UnderTheDeskNews, have also started raising funds for whistles to alert communities about the presence of ICE agents and community watch support as well. In February, around 80 creators were part of an anti-ICE merch fundraiser tied to Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance, selling T-shirts, hats, and stickers featuring the singer’s Sapo Concho mascot. The campaign raised more than $100,000 for immigration legal defense funds.
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![‘My Adventures With Superman’ Creators Talk New Kara/Jimmy Super Ship
The second season of Adult Swim’s My Adventures With Superman introduced Supergirl, and it didn’t take long for her to become a fan-favorite. Starting off as a soldier and the adoptive daughter of Brainiac before joining her cousin to defend Earth, Kara’s back for season three—and much like Clark and their friends, she’s got some stuff to figure out. Kara’s arc this season is about her settling into becoming Metropolis’ newest protector and sorting out where she and Jimmy stand. Last season made it clear there were sparks on both sides, but in classic romantic tension fashion, neither have revealed their feelings in full. Jimmy thinks Kara should at least become more adjusted to Earth, which she plans to do…by going on dates with other people. This week’s episode, “All’s Fair in Love and W.O.R.M.S.,” sees Kara consult Lois for help with her many matches on dating apps. Meanwhile, Jimmy goes on a date in the hopes of making his Kryptonian friend jealous, with a slight problem: his date, Doris, is actually “Gigi,” aka Giganta, the popular Wonder Woman villain. And in a very Jimmy situation, she’s both into him and wants to run a few experiments on him, including turning him into a wolf.
Before the season’s premiere, io9 talked with co-showrunners Jake Wyatt and Brendan Clogher about the show’s other love story. While Kara and Jimmy get paired up every once in a while in comics or other media, Wyatt noted they’re not a “near-sacred pop culture thing” like Clark and Lois. As such, My Adventures With Superman is free to put its younger duo through more stress and modern dating troubles. But it’s not just a matter of testing Kara and Jimmy with one obstacle after another.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbfUC3-qU8s[/embed] Every relationship faces trials that can often make one half—or even both halves—look bad. Putting Kara and Jimmy in various situations on the path to love is part of the show’s DNA, but he and Wyatt said there’s a limit to what can be done without betraying who these characters are. “It’s a tightrope to keep audience credibility with these two and keep them likable,” Clogher acknowledged. “Supergirl is Supergirl, but we can bend the rules a bit more with Jimmy. He’s emotionally intelligent, but it’s easier to like him when he’s being bad.” “Jimmy’s off being goofus so Kara can be gallant,” added Wyatt. “If Clark and Lois are the romcom, these two are romantic chaos.” The popular manga and anime Ranma 1/2 was cited as a source for the latter term, and it definitely applies. With Jimmy’s love life taking center stage this season, the team knew they wanted him to have an arc of dating mad-scientists, which would let them turn him into animals as he had in the comics. While doing story revisions on “W.O.R.M.S.,” they realized the episode needed a bigger set piece for the third act—a “King Kong moment,” if you will—but the initial villain they had couldn’t really lead to that escalation.
So Giganta was added, allowing for a scene where she changes her size and kidnaps Jimmy before climbing a skyscraper with plans to make him just like her. Wyatt said DC “played ball really well” when it came to including her, and has generally been a good partner in that regard, including getting the Whip in last week’s episode. “Some of [our villains] are about DC notes,” he explained. “Other times, it was with DC assistance.” We won’t spoil Jimmy’s next date, but know that the character was also done with some DC advice, and they’re even more ridiculous than Giganta—and more trying on Kara. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCq12i5r3Ug[/embed] Speaking of her, io9 asked if there were any plans to put Kara in some romantic hijinks of her own outside of Jimmy’s orbit. The pair admitted that yes, the team had episode ideas where she’d go on dates, from Steve Lombard to some supervillains. “Those [villain dates] would’ve ended in swift and violent justice,” said Wyatt, which sounds like a riot. Unfortunately, these ideas were some of many in the season to be cut, so the team opted to give Kara a more serious arc of coming into her own as a hero. That journey, part of which involves her little fangirl Jessica Cruz, will play out as My Adventures With Superman continues with new episodes this summer. But if the show comes back for season four, maybe then we’ll see the Woman of Tomorrow make some bad romantic choices. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Adventures #Superman #Creators #Talk #KaraJimmy #Super #ShipJimmy Olsen,My Adventures with Superman,Supergirl,Superman ‘My Adventures With Superman’ Creators Talk New Kara/Jimmy Super Ship
The second season of Adult Swim’s My Adventures With Superman introduced Supergirl, and it didn’t take long for her to become a fan-favorite. Starting off as a soldier and the adoptive daughter of Brainiac before joining her cousin to defend Earth, Kara’s back for season three—and much like Clark and their friends, she’s got some stuff to figure out. Kara’s arc this season is about her settling into becoming Metropolis’ newest protector and sorting out where she and Jimmy stand. Last season made it clear there were sparks on both sides, but in classic romantic tension fashion, neither have revealed their feelings in full. Jimmy thinks Kara should at least become more adjusted to Earth, which she plans to do…by going on dates with other people. This week’s episode, “All’s Fair in Love and W.O.R.M.S.,” sees Kara consult Lois for help with her many matches on dating apps. Meanwhile, Jimmy goes on a date in the hopes of making his Kryptonian friend jealous, with a slight problem: his date, Doris, is actually “Gigi,” aka Giganta, the popular Wonder Woman villain. And in a very Jimmy situation, she’s both into him and wants to run a few experiments on him, including turning him into a wolf.
Before the season’s premiere, io9 talked with co-showrunners Jake Wyatt and Brendan Clogher about the show’s other love story. While Kara and Jimmy get paired up every once in a while in comics or other media, Wyatt noted they’re not a “near-sacred pop culture thing” like Clark and Lois. As such, My Adventures With Superman is free to put its younger duo through more stress and modern dating troubles. But it’s not just a matter of testing Kara and Jimmy with one obstacle after another.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbfUC3-qU8s[/embed] Every relationship faces trials that can often make one half—or even both halves—look bad. Putting Kara and Jimmy in various situations on the path to love is part of the show’s DNA, but he and Wyatt said there’s a limit to what can be done without betraying who these characters are. “It’s a tightrope to keep audience credibility with these two and keep them likable,” Clogher acknowledged. “Supergirl is Supergirl, but we can bend the rules a bit more with Jimmy. He’s emotionally intelligent, but it’s easier to like him when he’s being bad.” “Jimmy’s off being goofus so Kara can be gallant,” added Wyatt. “If Clark and Lois are the romcom, these two are romantic chaos.” The popular manga and anime Ranma 1/2 was cited as a source for the latter term, and it definitely applies. With Jimmy’s love life taking center stage this season, the team knew they wanted him to have an arc of dating mad-scientists, which would let them turn him into animals as he had in the comics. While doing story revisions on “W.O.R.M.S.,” they realized the episode needed a bigger set piece for the third act—a “King Kong moment,” if you will—but the initial villain they had couldn’t really lead to that escalation.
So Giganta was added, allowing for a scene where she changes her size and kidnaps Jimmy before climbing a skyscraper with plans to make him just like her. Wyatt said DC “played ball really well” when it came to including her, and has generally been a good partner in that regard, including getting the Whip in last week’s episode. “Some of [our villains] are about DC notes,” he explained. “Other times, it was with DC assistance.” We won’t spoil Jimmy’s next date, but know that the character was also done with some DC advice, and they’re even more ridiculous than Giganta—and more trying on Kara. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCq12i5r3Ug[/embed] Speaking of her, io9 asked if there were any plans to put Kara in some romantic hijinks of her own outside of Jimmy’s orbit. The pair admitted that yes, the team had episode ideas where she’d go on dates, from Steve Lombard to some supervillains. “Those [villain dates] would’ve ended in swift and violent justice,” said Wyatt, which sounds like a riot. Unfortunately, these ideas were some of many in the season to be cut, so the team opted to give Kara a more serious arc of coming into her own as a hero. That journey, part of which involves her little fangirl Jessica Cruz, will play out as My Adventures With Superman continues with new episodes this summer. But if the show comes back for season four, maybe then we’ll see the Woman of Tomorrow make some bad romantic choices. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Adventures #Superman #Creators #Talk #KaraJimmy #Super #ShipJimmy Olsen,My Adventures with Superman,Supergirl,Superman](https://gizmodo.com/app/uploads/2025/09/io9-2025-spoiler.png)
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