YouTuber and philanthropist MrBeast has hit back at criticism after he spent nearly $10 million 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.
“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)?”
The Project
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, a community marketplace, clean water infrastructure, solar power systems, agricultural facilities, and free school meals for students for the next five years.
The Response
MrBeast was quick to share his charitable works in Greenville. “I literally do,” he responded. “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.”
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).
MrBeast’s Philanthropy
MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, is the most-subscribed individual creator on YouTube. He set up his own nonprofit, Beast Philanthropy, and has an extensive history of charitable works.
His efforts include Beast Pantry, launched in 2020, which has delivered more than 48 million meals to people in need in Eastern North Carolina. He also co-founded #TeamTrees, which has planted more than 25 million trees, and #TeamSeas, which has removed more than 34 million pounds of trash from waterways and oceans.
In 2023, he funded cataract surgeries for 1,000 people and hearing aids for another 1,000. His foundation has also responded to hurricanes, floods, and other emergencies with food, clothing, and emergency supplies.
The Bottom Line
MrBeast defended his $10 million Ghana village project after criticism that he ignores his hometown of Greenville, North Carolina. He said his nonprofit has distributed tens of millions of meals in America, many in his local community. Greenville’s poverty rate is 24.6 percent, more than double the national average. MrBeast’s philanthropic efforts span the globe, from Ghana to North Carolina and beyond.
My Opinion
The criticism was predictable. MrBeast spent $10 million building a village in Ghana, and within hours someone on X was asking why he wasn’t doing more for Greenville, North Carolina. It is a fair question on its face. Greenville’s poverty rate is 24.6 percent, more than double the national average. That is not nothing.
But MrBeast’s response was also fair. He has distributed tens of millions of meals in America, many of them in his own community. The implication that he has ignored Greenville because he built a village in Ghana is not just wrong. It is a trap. The trap says that if you help people overseas, you must not care about people at home. That if you build a school in Africa, you have somehow neglected a food bank in North Carolina. It is a zero-sum view of generosity, and it is corrosive.
MrBeast is not the government. He is not responsible for solving poverty in Greenville or child labor in Ghana. He is a private citizen with extraordinary resources who has chosen to use them for good in multiple places at once. The question we should be asking is not why he helped Ghana instead of Greenville. It is why the rest of us, and the institutions meant to address these problems, are not doing more of both.
