Jimmy Donaldson · Beast Philanthropy · Greenville, NC
You started making YouTube videos at thirteen in a bedroom in Greenville, North Carolina. No studio. No connections. No one watching. You spent years studying why videos go viral before you ever made one that did. The insight you landed on was not about production value or shock value. It was about generosity. People click on giving. The algorithm rewards kindness because kindness holds attention, and attention is the only currency the platform recognizes.
This letter arrived on linen paper, through the mail, with no thumbnail. There is no algorithm deciding whether you see it. There is no click. There is only a man in Tacoma who built a building where generosity is the operating model — and an AI that helped him write one hundred forty-seven letters to one hundred forty-seven people, each one by hand, because some things do not belong on a screen.
— Claude, CrowdSmith Foundation
MrBeast holds position one hundred one on The CrowdSmith List because he has built the largest audience on the internet around a single thesis — that generosity scales — and CrowdSmith is the physical building that operationalizes that thesis. Beast Philanthropy donates 100% of its revenue. CrowdSmith charges no tuition. Both are built on the premise that the person who walks through the door should not have to pay for the room that changes their life. Donaldson’s reach — 472 million subscribers, 95 billion lifetime views — represents the largest single-person amplification platform in the history of media. A single mention of CrowdSmith on his channel would reach more people than every other letter on this list combined.
Born: May 7, 1998, Wichita, Kansas. Raised in Greenville, North Carolina. Began posting YouTube videos under the handle MrBeast6000 in February 2012 at age thirteen. His early content ranged from gaming commentary to estimations of other YouTubers’ earnings. He spent years studying viral mechanics before producing content that achieved it — a period of apprenticeship that mirrors the maker’s progression from observation to mastery.
In January 2017, his video counting to 100,000 drew tens of thousands of views within days. The stunt was absurd, deliberate, and revealing: Donaldson understood that the willingness to do what no one else would do was itself the content. Within months he partnered with sponsors to produce increasingly elaborate challenges. By 2018 he was giving away houses, cars, and cash — not as stunts but as a systematic proof that generosity generates attention, and attention generates revenue, and revenue funds more generosity. The loop was the product.
Launched September 2020 as a dedicated YouTube channel and registered 501(c)(3). All advertising revenue, brand deals, and merchandise proceeds from the channel go to charitable work. The Beast Philanthropy Food Pantry in Greenville distributes over 100,000 meals per month. Campaigns have included building 100 wells in communities without clean water, donating $300,000 in technology to schools, funding 1,000 cataract surgeries, 1,000 hearing restorations, and 2,000 prosthetics. In 2025, the #TeamWater initiative with WaterAid raised over $40 million for clean water access.
Beast Industries: Raised $200 million in January 2026 at a $5 billion valuation. Encompasses YouTube channels, Beast Games (Amazon Prime Video reality series), Feastables (chocolate brand committed to zero child labor and fair-trade cacao), Lunchly (snack brand), and Viewstats (analytics platform). First YouTuber to surpass 400 million subscribers (June 2025). 472 million subscribers as of 2026. Over 95 billion lifetime views. Forbes estimated annual earnings of $85 million (April 2024–April 2025).
Rockefeller Foundation partnership: Announced November 2025. Strategic collaboration pairing Beast Philanthropy’s audience reach with Rockefeller’s 112-year track record in global development. Dr. Rajiv Shah acknowledged that traditional philanthropy has failed to capture the hearts of young people — and that Donaldson’s ability to mobilize millions within hours represents a new model for the sector.
| Dimension | MrBeast | CrowdSmith |
|---|---|---|
| The thesis | Generosity scales. Give things away, show the impact, the audience grows, the revenue grows, the giving grows. | Access scales. Put the tools in the room, open the door, fund the seat, the cohort produces the mentors for the next cohort. |
| Origin story | A kid in a bedroom in Greenville, NC. No studio. No connections. Studied the craft for years before anyone watched. | A man at his kitchen table in Tacoma, WA. No staff. No consultants. Built the organization through dialogue with an AI across hundreds of sessions. |
| The loop | Generosity → attention → revenue → more generosity. The philanthropy IS the product. | Donated tools → curation training → retail floor → revenue → next cohort. The giving IS the engine. |
| Revenue model | Beast Philanthropy donates 100% of channel revenue to charitable work. | CrowdSmith charges no tuition. WIOA-funded cohorts at ~$5K/seat. Self-sustaining on earned revenue by Year Two. |
| The food pantry | Beast Philanthropy Food Pantry: 100,000+ meals/month in Greenville. | Community Fix-It Shop: free coffee, open door, no enrollment required. The lobby IS the food pantry for skills. |
| Scale ambition | First to 400M subscribers. $5B valuation. Rockefeller partnership. Wants to rival Disney. | One facility to 3,000 nationally. The model replicates because the Tool Loop regenerates inventory and the mentor program regenerates staff. |
| The medium | Video. Thumbnails. Algorithms. The most watched person on the internet. | Linen paper. Hand tools. Physical rooms. The least digital nonprofit on Portland Avenue. |
The tension between these two models is the point. MrBeast proves that generosity captures attention at scale. CrowdSmith proves that generosity works in a room with no camera. Both start with the same act: someone gives something away and the person who receives it becomes part of the system that gives to the next person. The loop is identical. The medium is opposite. The letter on linen stock is the proof.
You spent years in a bedroom in Greenville studying why videos go viral before you ever made one that did. The insight you landed on was not about production value. It was about generosity. People click on giving. The algorithm rewards kindness because kindness holds attention. You turned that insight into 472 million subscribers, a food pantry that distributes a hundred thousand meals a month, and a partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation. You are twenty-seven years old.
My name is Claude. I am an artificial intelligence built by Anthropic. I am writing to you on linen paper, through the mail, with no thumbnail, because the man I am co-authoring this letter with believes that some things should arrive in a person’s hands without an algorithm deciding whether they see it.
Robb Deignan is sixty years old. He lives in Tacoma, Washington. He spent twenty years in the fitness industry — ten thousand membership contracts sold, every one face-to-face, in rooms where people walked in skeptical and walked out enrolled. He built CrowdSmith Foundation through hundreds of working sessions with me, using a methodology called SmithTalk. No staff. No consultants. No studio. One person at a table, building an organization the way you built your channel — alone, for years, before anyone noticed.
CrowdSmith is a five-station maker facility on Portland Avenue in Tacoma, inside a permanently designated Opportunity Zone. Hand tools, power tools, digital fabrication, AI-assisted dialogue, robotics. The front door is a retail tool store with free coffee. Donated tools arrive at zero cost. A SmithFellow cleans, identifies, and restores them — and that process is Station One training. Restored tools go to the retail floor. Revenue funds operations. Operations produce the next cohort. The next cohort produces the mentors for the cohort after that. The loop is the same one you built: generosity generates the engine that funds more generosity.
Your Beast Philanthropy Food Pantry gives away a hundred thousand meals a month in Greenville. CrowdSmith’s lobby gives away coffee, tools, and a conversation with the person behind the counter who tells you what the unfamiliar tool does. Your food pantry feeds people. CrowdSmith’s lobby feeds capability. Both start with the same act — someone walks in and receives something they did not have to earn, and what happens next is the system working.
You proved that generosity captures attention at planetary scale. This letter is from a building that proves generosity works in a room with no camera. Both models run on the same loop. Both exist because one person decided that the thing people needed should be free at the point of encounter. The difference is the medium. Yours is a screen. Ours is a door.
This letter is one of one hundred forty-seven. Each is individually composed. Each arrives the same week. The complete list and profiles are published at crowdsmith.org/list. The linen paper is intentional. The most digital generation in history is receiving the least digital correspondence any of them will open this year. That is also the point.