“It was incredible to see what the power of
MrBeast can do to help not only the community
members in need, but just to inspire others to
give back with their time.”
Kevin Scally, chief relationship officer at
Charity Navigator, the world’s largest nonprofit
evaluator, says MrBeast is part of an encouraging
trend of social media influencers using their
power to fight homelessness or raising
COVID-19 relief funds.
“It’s actually quite brilliant for him to partner
with food companies or technology companies,
to be able to essentially act as a bit of an
advertisement, but also able to leverage those
funds to then actually do good in the world,”
Scally says.
Donaldson has been combining doing good
with humor since he started making YouTube
videos a decade ago. He’ll feature videos
of volunteers cleaning beaches or oceans
alongside ones that investigate whether 50,
magnets can catch a cannonball (spoiler alert:
no) or recreate a non-lethal “Squid Game.” His
main audience is in the 14-20 demographic and
they’re learning how to have fun while helping.
“Jimmy is teaching an entire generation to be
kind and more thoughtful, and I think that that’s
going to have a massive impact in and of itself
going forward,” says Darren Margolias, Beast
Philanthropy’s executive director.
Donaldson’s rise to become one of the top
YouTube personalities has been fueled by his
decision to invest in himself. At the beginning,
he described himself as “this awkward guy with
a bunch of acne that no one cared about. I didn’t
have any money, but I just kept going.”