Can you count to 100,000?
“We’re really leaning into how we use the MrBeast platform to create positive impact. We’re a for-profit company, but we’re also altruistic,” Housenbold told Fortune. “The question we ask ourselves is, ‘Can we combine capitalism and altruism in a way that’s a win-win?’ We believe the answer is yes.”
Scaling generosity at MrBeast’s level has been neither easy nor cheap—but his sharp business instincts as a teenager laid the foundation.
In August 2017, just seven months after his viral counting video, he partnered with Quidd, a now-defunct digital collectibles app, to launch a series of generosity-driven videos—handing huge bundles of cash to Twitch streamers, pizza delivery guys, Uber drivers. At just 19 years old, Donaldson had recently dropped out of East Carolina University after only two weeks, choosing to focus full-time on editing videos.
While it didn’t help the show’s bottom line for Donaldson to up the grand prize from $5 million to $10 million, he and his investors continue to believe thatkind of generosity will all be worth the risk. “Money isn’t everything—building and managing it is infinitely harder,” Donaldson added on the podcast.
Despite the scrutiny, Donaldson’s popularity has hardly wavered; he’s gained more than 100 million YouTuber subscribers in the last year.
But that acceleration may not last forever, according to Bill Zimmerman, a professor at Penn State University studying the creator economy. At some point, there will likely be a ceiling, he said, noting to Fortune that some of Donaldson’s extreme, challenge-based videos can be divisive.
“Those things are highly watchable, but I think these big videos that just rack up the views, also present this voyeuristic situation where you’re watching somebody push their physical limits,” Zimmerman added. And when it comes to philanthropic videos, Zimmerman said it can be difficult to separate questions about underlying motives when Donaldson has profited from being generous.
Donaldson’s CEO Housenbold challenges that generosity and profitability can, and do, exist together.
“We want to make kindness viral through the voices of the global community of influencers and their fans,” Housenbold said “We also want to welcome other companies, non-profits, and governmental agencies to join us on the journey of making lasting change.”
Or, as Donaldson himself summarized on The Diary of a CEO podcast earlier this year: “A world where I help people is just more fun than a world where I don’t.”
