MrBeast responds to backlash after spending $10,000,000 in Ghana - Newsweek
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.
Launched in late 2020 as part of Beast Philanthropy, Beast Pantry is focused in Greenville, North Carolina, where a food distribution model has reached communities around Eastern North Carolina, including places where traditional food pantries do not exist.
The system now counts more than 48 million meals delivered to people in need and more than 15 million people fed.
In 2019, MrBeast set up #TeamTrees with fellow YouTuber Mark Rober, a challenge to plant 20 million trees around the world by 2020. In partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation, for each dollar donated a tree was planted in “a forest of high need around the globe.”
The campaign reached its $20 million financial goal in just 56 days, and today the project continues with more than 25 million trees planted.
In 2021, MrBeast and Rober launched a follow-up environmental campaign to raise funds and remove trash from oceans, rivers and beaches.
The goal was to remove 30 million pounds of waste and raised funds were given to Ocean Conservancy and The Ocean Cleanup.
The project was again successful and as of 2026, the pair report they have removed more than 34 million pounds of trash from waterways and oceans.
In 2023, MrBeast released the YouTube video titled “1,000 Blind People See For The First Time."
As part of the video, he paid for cataract surgeries for 1,000 people who could not afford treatment, sparking debate about healthcare affordability in the U.S.
Surgeries took place in the U.S. and countries including Jamaica, Honduras, Namibia, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Kenya.
Later in 2023, MrBeast repeated the idea, this time with hearing. In the video titled "1,000 Deaf People Hear for the First Time," he funded hearing aids and medical procedures for a thousand people with hearing impairments.
Alongside efforts in the U.S., MrBeast and his team also traveled internationally to assist people in Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, South Africa, Malawi, and Indonesia.
For years, Beast Philanthropy has repeatedly responded to hurricanes, floods and other emergencies with support in the form of food, clothing, hygiene products and emergency supplies.
Most recently, Beast Philanthropy has paired with CARE to help fund the response to Nepal’s floods where communities are still cut off by damaged roads and bridges.
