A few months back, some of the top YouTubers like Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson and former NASA engineer Mark Rober launched the TeamTrees campaign. This project’s goal was to raise $20 million dollars, which would allow the Arbor Day Foundation to plant 20 million trees. A worthy goal for sure.
The campaign reached its goal with over a week to spare before the December 31st deadline.
YouTubers raised this money by creating videos about trees to promote TeamTrees, which led to over 500,000 viewers donating to the cause. Most donations were about $5, but Elon Musk donated $1 million. He also changed his Twitter handle to @Treelon to help draw attention to TeamTrees. The Arbor Day Foundation will begin planting the trees next month and will have all 20 million of them planted by the end of 2022.
TeamTrees admits that these 20 million trees won’t curb climate change, but says that it will serve as a sign that people do care about the environment. “Solutions are all around us and it’s time to get to work. This is just the beginning,” says Matt Fitzgerald, Campaign Director of TeamTrees.
The campaign’s success also shows how influential YouTube stars can be and how they can leverage their fame to make a difference.
Source Engadget