Phil Elliott 09:00 (BST)
16/05/2008

A new videogames industry charity called GamesAid has been set up with the purpose of raising money predominantly to support children's charities in the UK.

Founded by seven trustees, including Mastertronic's Andy Payne, Sports Interactive's Miles Jacobson and Relentless co-founder Andy Eades, the charity will operate around a special industry social network website with the principal aim of democratising fund-raising efforts and maintaining transparency of operation.

The website will also enable the charity to run without the need for a fixed office location and staff, so that overheads can be reduced to a minimum - with the initial goal of keeping costs to below 5 per cent of total funds raised.

"It's down to the people in the industry to suggest charities, to get involved in the diligence process, to help steer the Trustees' opinions, to communicate with others, to build good feeling - to do the stuff that raises cash," Payne told GamesIndustry.biz.

"It's a new way of doing it," added Eades. "It's in the Web 2.0 world - it's a kind of socially democratising approach to charity. What you've seen work with social networks, we're going to try some of those ideas out.

"It's a charity that anybody in the games industry can get involved with, and the Trustees are just there to oversee with no self-interest. Hopefully that will allow other people to raise money, choose which charities receive funds - and anybody who wants to know the information, to find out who GamesAid has donated to, can find out."

Further information on how to get involved with GamesAid will be available soon on GamesIndustry.biz and GamesAid.org.