Tree-plantation campaign on YouTube raises over $8 million in less than week
"They wouldnt let it go," Donaldson said in a statement. "All my video comments were about trees!"
(Web Desk) – What started as a meme is now an international movement toward reforestation.
When the YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson - aka MrBeast - hit 20 million subscribers on YouTube in May, a fan suggested there was something he could do to commemorate the milestone and "single handedly save Earth" at the same time.
"Petition for MrBeast to plant 20 million trees for 20 million subscribers special," a Lisa Simpson presentation meme posted to Reddit read.
Donaldson took notice, then connected with fellow YouTuber and former NASA engineer Mark Rober to come up with a plan to complete the challenge, Reed Duchscher, Donaldson’s manager and the president of the talent-management firm Night Media, said.
"They wouldn’t let it go," Donaldson said in a statement. "All my video comments were about trees!"
Rober thought to enlist the help of the nonprofit conservation organisation Arbor Day Foundation, and five months later, the partnership known as #TeamTrees has grown to include "basically every digital creator you can think of," according to Duchscher.
The Arbor Day Foundation will use its international partnership network to plant 20 million trees in a year.
Each dollar donated – over US$8 million since its official launch on Friday, including a US$1 million contribution from Elon Musk – funds the planting of one tree around the world, a process facilitated by the Arbor Day Foundation as part of its reforestation program.
"It’s right up our alley," Arbor Day Foundation Vice President Woody Nelson told Business Insider. "We work with partners around the globe and try to align those funds with projects that really need help."
This story was initially published in Businees Insider.
