海角大神

The line of cars started forming at dawn. It was early November in Greenville, North Carolina, and drivers waited in a line that stretched for miles to pick up Thanksgiving turkeys聽鈥� 10,000 free frozen birds to anyone who asked.

Who was behind this act of holiday kindness? A community foundation, perhaps? Or a food charity with deep pockets? Would you believe it was a young man who once spent 50 hours buried alive or went through the same fast food drive-thru 1,000 times?

Jimmy Donaldson聽鈥� the widely popular YouTube video maker who goes by MrBeast聽鈥� has built, alongside his fun viral stunts, an unusual charity playbook that leverages his fame and skills with the goal to end hunger. Philanthropy as entertainment.

鈥淚 want to feed millions of people on a monthly basis, tens of millions one day,鈥� he tells The Associated Press. 鈥淚鈥檓 not stopping. I鈥檓 23. I鈥檝e got decades left in me and we鈥檙e not going anywhere.鈥�

Mr. Donaldson聽鈥� who has over 150 million subscribers on his combined YouTube channels聽鈥� created the Beast Philanthropy channel last year at Thanksgiving and it donates 100% of its advertising revenue, brand deals, and merchandise sales.

Beast Philanthropy has distributed over 1.1 million pounds of food, currently helps feed nearly 1,000 households in the Greenville area on a weekly basis, and delivered over 9,000 hot meals for victims of Hurricane Ida in Louisiana.

The turkey giveaway聽鈥� on Nov. 7 at the Pitt County Fairgrounds with almost 700 volunteers聽鈥� featured turkeys donated by Jennie-O, which got plenty of shout-outs. The 4-minute video has been watched some 5 million times.

The event had music, student volunteers dressed in turkey costumes, local firefighters, and police officers doing turkey dances, and plenty of turkey-themed jokes. Some $266,000 worth of Jennie-O turkeys were handed out, the single largest donation in the company鈥檚 80-year history.

鈥淗e鈥檚 entertaining and he makes giving back and these philanthropic tie-ins really cool to be part of,鈥� says Nicole Behne, vice president of marketing at Jennie-O, whose kids are MrBeast fans and who attended the giveaway.

鈥淚t 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.鈥�

Kevin Scally, chief relationship officer at Charity Navigator, the world鈥檚 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.

鈥淚t鈥檚 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,鈥� Mr. Scally says.

Mr. Donaldson has been combining doing good with humor since he started making YouTube videos a decade ago. He鈥檒l feature videos of volunteers cleaning beaches or oceans alongside ones that investigate whether 50,000 magnets can catch a cannonball (spoiler alert: no) or recreate a non-lethal 鈥淪quid Game.鈥� His main audience is in the 14-20 demographic and they鈥檙e learning how to have fun while helping.

鈥淛immy is teaching an entire generation to be kind and more thoughtful, and I think that that鈥檚 going to have a massive impact in and of itself going forward,鈥� says Darren Margolias, Beast Philanthropy鈥檚 executive director.

Mr. Donaldson鈥檚 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 鈥渢his awkward guy with a bunch of acne that no one cared about. I didn鈥檛 have any money, but I just kept going.鈥�

A decade ago, users had to pull thousands of views a month to get monetized on YouTube and Mr. Donaldson spent years rejected by the platform, until he was about 16. Then, he says, it was 鈥済ame over.鈥�

鈥淔rom literally the time I started making money at 16 until now, I just reinvested everything I made. One dollar a day turned into two and then three. And then eventually I was making $10,000 a month then a $100,000 a month, then $1 million a month,鈥� he says.

鈥淚 just want to make the best YouTube videos possible. I don鈥檛 really care about living in a mansion or driving a Lamborghini,鈥� he adds. 鈥淚 live to create content and I want to entertain people.鈥�

He鈥檚 developed some rules along the way for success. 鈥淲hen it comes to going viral, the ultimate key is to give people something they can鈥檛 find anywhere else,鈥� he says. 鈥淭here are crazy things you can do that take effort, but don鈥檛 require a lot of money. Everyone can put in effort. You just do something that hasn鈥檛 been done and you go all out.鈥�

He and his team rely on a revenue system that rewards views. YouTube puts ads on videos on its platform and it shares half the revenue with the creators. Mr. Donaldson says his videos average between 40 million to 100 million views and a 15-minute MrBeast video might mean three or four ads embedded in each. Ad revenue might not be much on each view, but at such volume it adds up.

He plows the ad money back into the operation and sometimes reaches out for brand sponsorships like Jennie-O. Other sources of revenue include his merchandise sales and profits from his ghost kitchen MrBeast Burger line.

鈥淚n our case, we reinvest it all. So year over year, whatever we make, we just spend it on videos and the next year is higher. And I just keep doing it and I just pray it keeps working,鈥� he says.

The Beast Philanthropy channel doesn鈥檛 attract the same viewership as some of his other channels but it鈥檚 growing as more videos are added. Mr. Donaldson welcomes any brand that wants to team up with him to end hunger, saying 鈥渋t鈥檚 a win-win as long as people are getting help.鈥�

鈥淚t gets interesting because by watching the videos of us feeding people, you鈥檙e allowing us to feed more people,鈥� Mr. Donaldson says. 鈥淪o I want to see how big can we get that? Can we get it pulling views like my main channel?鈥�

Mr. Margolias and MrBeast Philanthropy plan to widen out from eastern North Carolina. According to a filing with the IRS, the group intends 鈥渢o rapidly expand throughout the country and eventually around the world,鈥� using mobile food pantries in underserved communities. It鈥檚 ambitious but don鈥檛 count them out. At its helm is a guy who鈥檚 not materialistic and is a self-described hyper-obsessive workaholic.

鈥淛immy doesn鈥檛 do anything like anybody else does, which is an amazing blessing to work for him and also a very stressful job because we鈥檙e always growing,鈥� Mr. Margolias says. 鈥淚 absolutely love it. But every time we accomplish something, Jim鈥檚 like, 鈥極K, what do we do next?鈥欌��

This story was reported by The Associated Press.