YouTuber and philanthropist MrBeast has hit back at criticism after he spent nearly $10,000,000 on building a village in Ghana to prevent illegal child labor. The new village includes homes, a school, water infrastructure and farms. But one X user questioned why MrBeast was funding a major project overseas and not giving more to his hometown of Greenville, North Carolina.
MrBeast was quick to share his charitable works in his hometown Greenville, North Carolina, where he said he has distributed millions from his charitable foundation, Beast Philanthropy. Newsweek reached out to MrBeast via email for comment. MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, is the most-subscribed individual creator on YouTube.
Famed for extreme challenge videos, he often gives winners life-changing cash rewards totaling thousands and even millions of dollars. Born in 1998, Donaldson first went viral in 2017 and has largely made his millions with investments and traditional media partnerships. Now he is well known not just for his online content, but for his philanthropist work.
Donaldson set up his own nonprofit, Beast Philanthropy, and has an impressive history of charitable works, from building homes for families in need to large cash giveaways. One of MrBeast's latest videos documents the construction of a nearly $10 million "self-sustaining" village in Ghana aimed at reducing child labor in cocoa-growing communities. According to MrBeast's video, the village includes a school with room for more than 300 students, 10 homes for teachers, a medical clinic, community marketplace, clean water infrastructure, solar power systems, agricultural facilities and free school meals for students for the next five years.
But as media coverage focused on this huge undertaking by the YouTuber, one response on X said: “I wonder why MrBeast doesn’t do more for his hometown of Greenville, North Carolina, where the poverty rate is 25 percent (more than double the national average)?” U.S. Census Bureau data shows 24.6 percent of people live in poverty in Greenville, nearly double the rate in North Carolina (12.5 percent) and more than double the U.S. rate (10.2 percent). The YouTuber quickly responded.
Sharing the work that he does in North Carolina, he said: “I literally do. I have a 501c non profit and have [distributed] 10s of MILLIONS of meals in America, many in my local community. If I listed all the philanthropic things we do locally I literally wouldn’t be able to fit it in this tweet.” MrBeast's net worth is widely estimated at about $2.6 billion, though there is no official figure, and most of that wealth is thought to be tied to his ownership stake in Beast Industries rather than liquid cash.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
