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Aiming to Earn that DXRacer Extra Life Chair? Michael DiPirro Shares Tips To Raise $5,000

Michael DiPirro has been raising money for Boston Children’s Hospital since 2017. In that time, he has helped to raise nearly $25,000 USD and attended Extra Life United. This year, his fourth year contributing his time and energy to Extra Life, DiPirro has already surpassed $6,000 USD! Michael was one of the first people to break the $5,000 USD mark in 2020 which netted him a free DXRacer chair done up with Extra Life color schemes and designs.

We reached out to DiPirro to ask how others can follow his example and what keeps him motivated to get out and raise money for his local children’s hospital.

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Jack Gardner: How did you come to be the team captain of Radical Dreamers? Can you tell me about what you and your team have done over the years to raise money for the kids?

Michael DiPirro: The Radical Dreamers team I actually started this year named fondly after a group in one of my favorite RPGs, Chrono Cross. I wanted to create a comfortable environment for those that are dreaming big about what they want to do, setting goals with how much money they want to raise for their hospitals, but might not know how to kick start their campaign. It doesn’t matter if someone has been doing this for five years or if they are brand new to Extra Life. You will be welcomed with open arms to join our squad!

JG: You’ve been a part of Extra Life since 2017, what initially got you involved?

MD: I initially heard about Extra Life from my supervisor at my previous job. I watched streamers on Twitch for a number of years prior to actually jumping in myself because I never really was able to find that thing to latch onto for the purpose behind me jumping on and streaming. So, one day, when I was meeting with my supervisor I noticed a flyer hanging behind him on his corkboard for something I didn’t recognize called Extra Life. I asked him about it and the more he explained it, the more interested I was! I decided to give it a shot from there and my passion has been growing ever since. Not only my connection with the cause itself, but I have a lot of fun creating different kinds of events and social media marketing campaigns to better connect with my donor base. As years have progressed, I have built a strong connection with the champions at Boston Children’s Hospital along with the hospital itself that has bolstered my passion for this cause even further. Here I am with Miracle Kid Brody Simoncini from Boston Children’s, the IHOP Kid Chef’s winner in 2019.

JG: How did you manage to raise $5,000 USD limit and become eligible for the DXRacer chair?

MD: I think it’s a combination of things. Over the last few years of fundraising I’ve learned that in order to have continued success that I really have to make things fun for my donors in the process! To kick off this year, we gained early momentum by completing an incentive from the previous year in February with a polar plunge!

I had donation incentives tied to that event that led to me performing the plunge with bright blue hair and gave out event themed stickers and lanyards for those that donated for the event.

One of the other things that I like to do is create and auction off perlers, which are basically beads setup on a pegboard and fused together using an iron, and folks list bidding amounts that end up in an Extra Life donation along with a cool prize! I typically make a lot of characters for the NES, SNES and Sega Genesis that really bring the pixelated characters to life as something that you can hold onto from people’s favorite games!

JG: With four years under your belt, what have you learned from your fundraising experiences that might help other Extra Lifers who aren’t sure where to start?

MD: Kind of piggy backing off of that last question, I think that a big thing here is getting your donors invested in what you’re doing. There was definitely a learning curve to go through when I was trying to get things off of the ground where I had to bridge the gap between the cause and the whole “why do I care about Mike playing video games on camera?” I think this is so big in really setting yourself up for success. Building a connection with the hospital that you’re raising money for, showing valuable statistics to your donor base about where their money is going in order to help these families and really showing the value in where their hard earned dollars are going.

Let’s face it, people have a lot of great causes out there to put their money towards. You have to put in that extra effort to stand out and not only showcase why your cause is important, but make the donors a part of what you’re doing. Be interactive with them. Put together events that allow them to participate along with the donations that they are giving.

For example, last year one of the events I had was to eat a “Spooky Pizza” where for each $10 donated I would add an additional topping of their choosing to a pizza and then eat it live for them all to see! This kind of event strays from gaming a bit, but it’s things like this that are going to attract a more casual audience of friends, family and co-workers to get them closer to what you’re doing. If you cast a wide net you’re likely to catch more fish, even if you do end up having to cover it with chocolate fudge on a slice of pizza!

JG: What do you think of your new DXRacer chair?

MD: I don’t think I’ve been that excited unboxing something since I got N64 as a kid! What an incredible chair that is! The funny thing too is that my current chair was a knock off DXRacer chair that I had gotten off of Amazon that was kind of falling apart. I have always wanted a DXRacer chair and often checked out the website kind of dreaming of maybe someday having one. To finally have that AND have it be this incredible looking Extra Life themed version of it?! I was speechless.  I can’t wait to see the rest of my Extra Life family’s reaction to this being a $5,000 incentive! I just know that they are going to crush their goals and earn their own awesome chair!

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Thank you so much to Michael for taking time to talk with us and being one of the engines that keeps Extra Life going. Extra Life wouldn’t be possible without the enthusiasm we see from people like you.

Want your own Extra Life DXRacer chair? Sign up as a platinum member. This can be done while signing up or by upgrading your status. Once you have done that, you will need to be one of the first 200 people to raise $5,000 USD!


Don’t forget to sign up for Extra Life to help sick and injured kids in hospitals around the US and Canada by playing games!