6 Nonprofit Lessons From MrBeast’s $40M Fundraising Push

By Amanda L. Cole

Editor's Note: After publication on Aug. 31, #TeamWater reached its $40 million goal, though the campaign remains open for donations.

This month, YouTube megastars Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast) and Mark Rober launched their third large-scale philanthropic challenge: #TeamWater. With more than 3,000 creators across 84 countries and a combined 3 billion followers, the campaign has set out to raise $40 million in just 31 days — enough to bring clean water access to 2 million people for decades.

If this effort is successful, it would outpace the duo’s past two impressive philanthropic efforts — the 2019 #TeamTrees campaign reached its $20 million goal benefiting the Arbor Day Foundation in 56 days, and the 2021 #TeamSeas campaign met its $30 million goal in partnership with the Ocean Conservancy and The Ocean Cleanup in 64 days.

As of press time, the #TeamWater effort has surpassed $33 million — a significantly faster rate than past campaigns, but still nearly $7 million short of its lofty goal. Regardless of how many millions this campaign raises, #TeamWater offers a master class in content creator campaigns that empower nonprofits by scaling awareness, fueling missions and engaging audiences in new ways.

6 Nonprofit Lessons From MrBeast’s #TeamWater Campaign

Nonprofits don’t need to work with mega-influencers to replicate these efforts. Though most campaigns won’t bring in millions, any creator can mobilize their following for a nonprofit cause. Here’s what your nonprofit can take away from the #TeamWater campaign as it aims to partner with content creators to support your organization’s mission.

1. Keep the Mission Relatable

One of the hallmarks of all three MrBeast campaigns is the simplicity of their message. #TeamTrees was about planting trees. #TeamSeas was about removing plastic from the oceans. And now, #TeamWater is about bringing clean water access to people around the world. Just as $1 planted one tree in #TeamTrees or removed a pound of trash in #TeamSeas, #TeamWater framed its goal as $1 providing one year of clean water.

Kelly Parsons, CEO of WaterAid America — the U.S. arm of campaign partner WaterAid — emphasized the importance of clarity.

“Know your mission and simplify your message is probably the first [piece of] advice I would give,” she said. “That was a challenge. WaterAid comes from a technical engineering organization [perspective], and so we had to get our message such that it would carry for audiences all over the world, and that any YouTuber could talk about it in a compelling way.”

2. Empower Creators

Nonprofits can’t expect complete control. Micromanaging the messaging may dilute authenticity and reach.

Creators know how to engage their audiences. Nonprofits should provide values-based guardrails and context while letting creators shape authentic content. While WaterAid has worked with celebrities in the past, the #TeamWater campaign — which the nonprofit has been designing for 18 months — marks the organization’s first content creator campaign. Despite this novelty, Parsons noted that WaterAid made sure to balance its expertise with trust in the creators.

YouTuber Mark Rober seen here with fellow #TeamWater supporters. MrBeast and Rober launched #TeamWater, a global campaign to bring clean water to 2 million people. 2025. | Credit: Mark Rober’s YouTube channel

“We know what they're experts in — they're experts in reaching this audience that is so important. It's the next generation of leaders,” she said. “And we are experts in getting clean water access to those in need. So I felt an extraordinary amount of mutual respect in terms of each side respecting what the other knew best.”

So, with 40 years of experience providing clean water access, WaterAid took the lead on the programmatic side. This included adding other partners to the campaign: GivePower will provide access in Kenya, DigDeep in the U.S. and Alok Institute in Brazil. The organization also provided cultural guidance, working directly with the creators’ production teams to ensure ethical storytelling occurs regarding the communities it serves. Parsons traveled with Donaldson, as well as several other content creators from other countries, to some of its programs.

“I had the pleasure of joining MrBeast in Columbia, for instance, helping him to understand the protocols of going into a Wayuu community, a very closed Indigenous community, and how he needed to act and respond in that moment — that was a great negotiation,” Parsons said.

3. Amplify Sharing

While technology shouldn’t overshadow mission, smart infrastructure can make or break a large campaign. Michael Wasserman, CEO and co-founder of fundraising platform Tiltify, which is the fundraising tool behind #TeamWater, explained how the campaign blended crowdfunding with peer-to-peer participation.

“It’s like having your peer-to-peer run/walk page, but also making the main page equally as popular as the peer-to-peer side of it,” he said. “So, if you just want to donate and get involved, there’s some incentive to just come to the main page and donate, and then if you want to gather with your community, we’ve created … promotional materials to make it clear that those are two very distinct ways that people can participate.”

Leaderboards add a gamification element, showing real-time individual and largest cumulative community giving, as well as largest cumulative individual and impact.

As of press time, the top contributor was beverage company Be LOVE Electrolyte, which supplied 5 million years of water, or a $5 million donation. Livestream platform Kick, Citadel founder Ken Griffin, YouTube (a $2 million match), Shopify and TikTok were all among the top 10 contributors as well.

Wasserman said redesigning the impact leaderboard to reflect cumulative giving was intentional to encourage more repeat donors.

“We moved that this year to a cumulative [leaderboard], because we’ve seen a lot of evidence … of people wanting to donate more and more, and up their ante to pass someone else on the leaderboard without having to do it with just a single donation. So that was also a very strategic decision for this year, and that has paid off.”

But while big gifts dominated the leaderboards, shareable graphics kept even small-dollar donors engaged. The #TeamWater-branded graphic that includes the donor’s name, donation amount, years of water provided and a message can be downloaded immediately after giving to share on social channels.

4. Reduce Friction

Perhaps the most striking digital moment was an all-night livestream that unexpectedly raised $12 million over 16 hours, breaking the Guinness World Record for most money raised in a single livestream.

Donaldson isn’t known for livestreaming, but teamed up with Adin Ross and Félix Lengyel (aka xQc) for a Kick stream to raise $5 million on Aug. 14. As momentum built, Kick executives pledged $1 million if they pushed to $8 million, and then creators realized the world record stood just under $12 million. After hours of small-dollar donations kept the tally climbing overnight, they got ahold of Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, who made a surprise $500,000 pledge to close the gap and secure the record.

“I think what you’re doing is awesome,” Chesky said on the livestream. “Thank you for doing it, and I’d like to close it out and get you to $12 million so count me in for $500,000.”

While the major gifts helped hit milestones, it was really the thousands of small donations — often just a few dollars — that sustained the stream for 18 hours. The broader campaign also reduced barriers by offering multiple giving options, including credit cards, ACH, donor-advised funds and cryptocurrency. Donor-advised funds are relatively new to the peer-to-peer space, while cryptocurrency continues to play a growing role in creator-led fundraising.

5. Rethink Cultivation for These Donors

Nonprofits may not even know who these donors are if they gave directly through social media channels. You’d need to direct them off social media platforms to obtain donor information in most cases. If you are able to steward and cultivate donors acquired through content creator partnerships, keep in mind they may be more loyal to the content creator as opposed to your nonprofit — at least at first.

“Consider and curate where they came in from and what they actually might be interested in based on how they got to you versus just adding them to your … marketing funnel, which would hit them with the galas and the direct mail asks and the different things,” Wasserman said.

You’ll need to put more consideration into engaging these digital-first donors, who are likely younger and discovered your organization via a specific channel.

“Maybe you want to invite them all to and create a Discord channel, or some way that they can speak to you in a community, which is popular now,” Wasserman said. ”But just thinking of how to engage that community really outside of email, I’d say, is probably one of the stronger strategies that I've seen be really successful for charities.”

6. Measure Success Beyond Dollars

A decade after the Ice Bucket Challenge raised millions for the ALS Foundation, the organization credited that viral campaign for driving better care and new treatment options. The lesson: Success isn’t just measured in immediate dollars raised and donors acquired, but in long-term awareness and impact.

While #TeamWater will conclude after a mere 31 days, the delivery of clean water will happen over the course of the next five years, Parsons said. This creator-led campaign has the power to raise awareness and mobilize an entire generation around the issue of clean water.

“The funding and the income from this that will bring 2 million people access to clean water is a key and critical component,” Parsons said. “But so is actually building a new generation of youth that understand the importance of clean water and will talk about it and will be advocates for it for hopefully the rest of their lives. That’s not measured on that leaderboard.”

MrBeast’s campaigns show the full potential of content creator-led philanthropy. Even if, like WaterAid, you never participated in a content creator campaign, it’s never too late to meet new audiences where they already are and discover new donors who might connect with your mission and your brand. Parsons remains optimistic about the campaign hitting its goal by Aug. 31.

“Innovating and changing the way you do things always takes extra initiative and extra effort,” she said. “And I’m really proud of how WaterAid, working on one of the oldest issues in mankind, is coming into the very newest technology — bringing [content creators and] gamers on board to support #TeamWater. That’s an incredible step.”