Part of me says there's plenty of people who'd pay to stick something where the corporate ads used to be - the dev of Pixel Cat's End gave people the option to do just that after they got fucked over by Google, and found a fair few peeps taking them up on that offer.

Money gang money gang money gang money gang

God if I wasn't poor I'd be all over this.

Where's Lil Pump when Salad Fingers needs sponsoring?

This feels a little weird, but also kinda gives off an "ancient greeks competing to pay taxes" vibe.

I wanna echo the sentiment of others and say that I’d love to contribute smaller amounts to this whenever I can, even if I go uncredited. My pockets are pretty shallow as a college student, but chipping in something small when I can afford it would be a cool opportunity.

Would be awesome to hear an animation-related YouTube video be like “This video is sponsored by Newgrounds dot com!!” lol, although I’m sure this sponsorship program will remain solely for large projects like animations and games. How broad of a scope would the Money Gang’s sponsorships go?

Also, once it’s started, would it be possible for people to donate via the regular donation means and PM saying “put this towards the Money Gang” (like with charity events)?

Either way I’d love to see this come to fruition. There’s a lot of potential in the concept, I think! And if not, it’s absolutely worth trying!

I LOVE MONEY LAUNDERING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MONEY GANG MONEY GANG MONEY GANG MONEY GANG MONEY GANG

Some additional details may be required, so I'm asking a few questions.

Exclusivity: The deal mentions 1 week exclusivity to Newgrounds, before going onto YouTube, and should include NG branding.

1- Are other platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Tumblr, Patreon, Rumble, Odysee, or also covered under this exclusivity and do they also need the NG branding?

2- Any specific guidelines about how NG should be branded on the submission?

Eligibility:

1- Are there any requirements for the creator being sponsored? (ie. follower count or other measures of skill and/or popularity)

2- Any requirements for the content sponsored (ie. runtime, quality, subject matter, etc)

I'm asking because something like "Samus + Zelda Thighjob", or even some M-rated softcore fetish loop might be able to snap up that cash because a few sponsors are more horny than P-Bot.

3- Are Games, Audio, and Art, also eligible for sponsorships, and are platforms like Steam, Itch, GameJolt, Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, iTunes, DeviantArt, etc also covered (see pt 1 on Exclusivity) if this is the case?

4- Can a creator be blacklisted from a sponsorship for any reason, or a sponsor blacklisted from the NGMG for sponsoring crappy submissions.

5- What other eligiblity criteria have you also considered?

Other shit:

1- Are there any other incentives to sponsor through NG as opposed to give that $100 directly to the creator via Patreon or Ko-fi?

2- If the sponsored content is a collaboration, will you use the (currently useless) revenue sharing system?

3- How does one sponsor a creator through the Money Gang? Do I pick who gets the sponsorship (ie. I want to sponsor Koit instead of Krinkels), or can it be random?

Other platforms would have to wait a week, although an exception for private viewing by patrons on a place like Patreon could be ok, if necessary.

Something that would get worked out per-sponsorship, goal is to fit in well and not be ugly like most sponsors would be.

The goal at the moment is people who do big numbers on YouTube, where NG could get some of those release eyeballs but also some persistent branding. The cost of the sponsorship is partly making up for the opportunity cost of not just releasing on YouTube right away.

Really good content.

People in the Money Gang can't go rogue with everyone's money, something can get proposed and people can decide if they want to sponsor it. Resources aren't unlimited so we won't be pitching tons of sponsorships. The next one I have in mind is Punch Punch Forever when the second episode rolls along. This is like a giant cannon that will need to recharge between shots.

Games are still a possibility but not moving too fast out the gate here.

Things are pretty far from getting that dramatic.

Like above, something high quality that will be doing big numbers with a lot of fans who will hopefully come visit NG and associate NG with good things they like.

Nothing concrete at the moment, you could give them $100 direct and have them release on YouTube and not include an NG logo if you don't care about helping boost NG. Maybe there will be some extra perks and recognition later.

I would likely just ask people how they want it split.

Down the road the Money Gang might discuss potential sponsorships but for now it will basically be "We think this would be a good thing to sponsor, do you want to chip in?"

The idea sounds good for both NG's and the community. I've known a lot of people both irl and online who have disregarded the site cause you can't monetize your work. so if this branches off to levels that support upcoming artists I don't see this not succeeding.

I think it's a great idea. It's also clear why established IP's would be an excellent place to start.

Even through times of struggle I've been more than happy to donate to NG. I would be equally happy to also support creators that have both inspired me over the years as well as new talent.

I am sure testing the waters won't hurt, but I imagine it could prove challenging to secure 100% of the ideal budget when more people get involved with smaller donations.

Maybe 2 separate pots, one for the people that can reliably pitch in the big bucks (Money Gang) and another that could be considered "Extra Squad" for smaller donations that may bounce in order to not damage the reliability of the fund?

Does this mean there will be a "dollar signs for eyes" emoticon for messages and posts?

Are you down with the Money Gang?

@fe3l1ngsk1lledd

Oh yeah!

For the glory of the mother land!

I like this idea, and I'd be willing to pitch in for the right creators and the right content.

I'm all for helping NG regain mass popularity just on the principle of it. But in order for something like this to grow exponentially, there needs to be some kind of feedback loop. Some kind of incentive that would not only bring people to NG, but specifically to the Money Gang. More than just a badge or a thank you.

I've heard there's a well studied psychology to what makes people buy into a product or service. But what makes people sponsor? Love for the creator? A feeling of altruism? Access to extra bonus content? To feel special or to fit in? Probably a mix of some of that and other factors.

I don't have the money, sounds like an interesting idea though.

I am willing to make Newgrounds exclusives for $5 if this sponsorship ever takes off, otherwise, I will take my business to YouTube and my 5 subscribers!!!

Genuinely really exciting

I'm down to donate towards this stuff honestly a great idea to help people out, this should be good!

I also want to add: What is NG's definition of "really good content"?

Is it the animation? the writing? humor? originality?, etc.

Because 90% of popular animators/animations on YouTube only really excels at one of those things. Never all four.

Even if they aren't tailored to the YouTube algorithm, or chase the latest trends for views, they only really come once a year.

Do you have any other possible candidates?

There are other solid candidates but like I said, this won't be a super frequent thing. It will also come down to some of these artists wanting to be sponsored, since not everyone will want to add branding / do exclusive periods, so I'm not rushing to throw a bunch of names out there. Really good movies are ones that are likely to win Best Original of the Month on NG, while ideally doing strong numbers on other platforms.

Tom if I win the lottery you'll be first on my speed dial <3

It's been a hot minute since I've seen officially sponsored NG submissions but didn't you disqualify them from winning prize money since you sponsored them? Is that something you would do again or is that part of your pitch? They could get money for sponsorship and still be in the running for cash prizes?

That's a darn good question... I'm leaning towards them still being eligible for the monthly prize but alternatively we'd be able to reward more people if the prize got passed along... That's a tough one! No one is making as much money as they deserve so it feels like a prize on top of a sponsorship is still deserved.

Maybe a better goal is to keep expanding the number of prizes and their values, so it doesn't hurt as much if a winner was also sponsored. My plan since last year has been to increase the monthly prizes by $1k for every 1k additional active Supporters, until we reach the point where we aren't losing money and potentially not running adult ads, at which point it would go up faster and a new rev-share system could ultimately be explored.

The only hiccup is we've been stuck in the 8k Supporter zone for the past year. When we hit 9k, we can expand the $100 prize to the top 10 movies and top 10 games, then at 10k the top five of each could get $200, with 6-10 getting $100. Things would get more and more exciting after that!

Personally, I feel you should leave this question to whoever's getting sponsored - by my guess, a fair number of people here will be fine passing up the sponsorship money if they've already gotten paid whatever hefty sum the Gang's ponied up.

I think it's good to still let them compete for monthly prizes.

For whatever reason I feel like sponsoring specific event entries feels icky. Like the way you are talking you want to get some active and popular creators who are already going to be working on something (salad fingers) and not really trying to push them to do something new just for us, so like a Pico Day or Robot Day winner who also was sponsored feels like you went out and decided who the winner would be before the contest and gave them money (potentially an unfair advantage). The monthly awards decided by the users i feel like offers a little more distance between you sponsoring and them getting awards.

Did it ever stop people from winning if their entries were sponsored by Kongregate or Armor Games in the past?

I agree that event entries shouldn't be sponsored if they are competing for a prize from staff or a group of judges. Third party sponsorships never stopped anyone from getting prizes in the past.

Is the "Money Gang" of the Shadow Wizard variant?

Yes

WE LOVE SUPPORTING ANIMATION

I think a representative from X group or something like that would be a good approach for our subcommunities with varying depths of pockets. Making some assumptions... I think a Flash Reg Lounge money gang would get decent $ going, and I think it would be more than if only the people there dropping $100+ contributed.