Sponsored by RockWater

This is MrBeast and Mark Rober’s third huge non-profit campaign.

#TeamTrees launched in 2019 with the idea of planting 20m trees to celebrate Jimmy reaching 20 million subscribers (simpler times…). To date, the initiative has raised $24.9m, far exceeding the 20 million tree goal.

Then in 2021, they came together again with #TeamSeas with the goal of removing 30 million pounds of waste from the oceans. They raised $34m to date and hit their waste removal goal in 2024.

And now the trades are blowing up again with two concurrent non-profit creator initiatives: Ryan Trahan’s epic cross-country trip for St. Judes, and another Beast/Rober joint with #TeamWater bringing clean drinking water to millions of households.

We all know why a celebrity should do non-profit work. Why benefit so greatly from a life without giving back to those who have not been so lucky?

But I want to take a cynical approach: why celebrities benefit from proud and loud charity work.

Also in this edition:

• Social Media Accounts are Start Ups

• Is iGaming Creator Revenue Too Good to be True?

• Twitch Cracks Down on Gamed Views

• Vogue’s AI Models Get Cancelled

• Job ops from TikTok, Studio71, and Innovative Artists

• …and a dank creator economy meme by yours truly!

Let’s get into it.

NEWS:

Clarity Around Charity

There’s a selfish reason why creators of all sizes should do non-profit work consistently.

The fact that MrBeast is such an optimization wonk and has an entire philanthropy vertical is no mistake.

But most creators, whether they admit it or not, still believe non-profit work is for suckers. I’ve rolled outreach for non-profit initiatives and, despite the already low response rate, the majority of responses are, “How much does it pay?”

I doubt Ryan Trahan or DrLupo or MrBeast are asking that question, because, outside of perhaps genuinely caring for their causes, they understand the value.

Allow me to share five reasons every creator should do non-profit work regularly, taking anything altruistic out of the equation.

It’s a shortcut to a storyline everyone can root for. Ryan Trahan vlogging by going to 50 states in 50 days would have performed fine. The reason the views and PR were off the charts was because outlets could continually report huge view and donation numbers, and every audience member knows exactly how to play along: donate, or cheer on. I don’t see anyone rooting against a children’s hospital.

It’s a collab with all of the same benefits. Many social media stars think of collabs as something you do with two celebrities to share fanbases through a single initiative. Not so. KFC x Crocs was a wildly successful collab. Collabs work because interesting juxtapositions make for a more clickable moment, it provides a permission structure for breaking formats to try new creative, and, yes, fans of either side of the collab are likely to be introduced to new stars. In the case of non-profits, all of the diehard champions of clean water will be introduced more deeply to Mark Rober and MrBeast’s content, and will be far more likely to watch, like, comment, share, and, most importantly, champion to their community.

It makes you less cancellable. Last year MrBeast had a few potential cancellation events including claims of poor safety controls on his competition series and an employee that had inappropriate conversations with minors. And what did he do? Shortly thereafter, he helped 2,000 amputees and called on the U.S. healthcare system to be fixed. Jimmy clearly has a great PR team and there were other factors at play, but suddenly far fewer people were discussing his controversies. It seems the only lingering controversy involves whether he’s unfairly profiting off of charity, which, as I’m discussing right now, can be said of literally any creator’s non-profit initiative.

It makes you more authentic. Creators aren’t all vloggers. Most can’t just flip on their camera and talk about their day. So how do they show their audience what they care about? A fundraiser is a great way to do it! Doing a video about child cancer is a drag. Doing a video about St. Judes is heroic, and shows your audience that you care about something other than video games or your make up routine.

It can help you gather data about your high-conversion fans. Most fundraising platforms have some sort of way to gather basic information about people who donated: names, e-mails, phone numbers. This is exceptionally valuable. They like you enough to help you reach a fundraising goal, so they may like you enough to join your Discord or support your next film.

So, yes, do non-profit work because it improves the world.

But also do it anyways.

Start with one campaign a year built around a format and see how it feels.

And here are some tools and companies that make it easy:

Tiltify is the system Ryan Trahan and MrBeast uses to gather donations, shareable fundraising graphics, and helps you find new non-profits to support.

Glow is a newer creator charity platform, but takes a low fee and encourages fans to also become promoters in interesting ways.

GoFundMe for Creators uses GoFundMe’s popular site to help creators raise money for causes and already has some major creators doing multi-million dollar fundraises.

St. Jude PLAY LIVE is the OG of creator fundraising initaitives, where they’ve not only courted some of the biggest creators in the U.S. but also show up to all of the conventions and events.

American Heart Association’s Liive initiative has constant campaigns for creators, especially streamers, to join a community of fundraisers.

War Child (my charity of choice) has some huge celebrities on its board, constant live initiatives, and you get to work with me!

Let me know if you have any other recommendations for creators to start their non-profit journey!

SPONSORED BY ROCKWATER

Have you thought about selling your creator business?

RockWater advises owners in the creator economy on the sale of their business. We have the largest buyer network, and negotiate the best deals possible for our clients. We’re proud to be the industry’s top M&A advisor.

We recently advised Lionize, an influencer marketing platform, on their sale to gen.video. We’ve also advised Long Haul Mgmt (sold to Wasserman), Bottle Rocket Mgmt (sold to Night), Bounty (sold to gen.video), and have many more deals yet to be announced.

If you want a POV on your company’s valuation and readiness for a sale, reach out to to [email protected] to setup an intro call.

GROW 1%:

Phil Ranta’s weekly social media growth newsletter with one actionable tip to grow.

This week’s ‘Grow 1%’ is titled Social Media Accounts are Start Ups and discusses what social media creators can learn from the start up world.

Here’s an excerpt, and you can read the entire edition in the link above:

You're a gamer. You've watched Twitch growing up. You want to be just like Jynxzi. It's time to become the next great game streamer.

You spend the next 15 minutes picking a gamer tag DunkinDonutsFan69, you grab social handles ranging from @dunkindodo to @dunkdonutfanfan, and nail your 'about' section: I love to insert swear word here.

You're 15 minutes into your career and you've already tanked your business.

If you get famous, Dunkin Donuts is not going to approve you co-opting their brand so you'll have to change your handles.

Adding '69' to the end makes your brand toxic to most brands.

Writing swear words in your about section scares away young viewers and parents, and it's building an audience of trolls.

When you start a social media account, you have to act as if you're building a business.

And there are three rules any entrepreneur will tell you are essential to follow:

Continue reading here.

FAME & FORTUNE:

Brands trying to woo creators need to have a great offering, but what if it’s too good. I got a chance to talk to DoubleJack about their ‘The Great Race’ initiative* with tens of millions of dollars at stake for a mere hundreds of referrals, and their financial auditors confirmed the numbers are real. Then again, with an LTV like an iGaming customer, perhaps I shouldn’t be suprised.

Twitch loves games, but not gaming the system. Through a statement on Twitter, they alerted bot-lovers that the free ride is over as they have technology and teams that can now better identify and remove artificial engagement.

Vogue is learning the hard way: social media users are not entirely on the AI train. A Guess? ad in their most recent issue featuring an AI model has sparked backlash that’s persisted for the past week. Looks like unrealistic beauty standards have a limit, and that limit is ‘literally not real.’

TikTok is already trying out new versions of the app in Europe called TikTok Pro, focusing on “joyful and entertaining content.” In other words, no ads, no live, and no shopping, with a ‘virtual sunshine’ gamification layer that donates to charity.

*Subject to affiliate revenue

INDUSTRY HIRING:

TikTok needs a Creator Manager, Top Creators which means you have to be equally into MrBeast and Bella Poarch.

Studio71 is looking for an Manager, Creator Partnerships but only if you’ve already seen Studio1 through Studio70.

Innovative Artists wants a Digital Agent who thinks being ‘innovative’ doesn’t just mean vegan snacks in the break room.

MEME ZONE:

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this edition, give it a share and if you get someone to sign up, I’ll send you my ‘10 Rep-Friendly Ways to Monetize Today!’ deck!

Until next time, protect yo rep.