The "MrBeast" Effect: Why Philanthropy is the New Marketing Strategy for 2026

I’m a huge fan of influencers who use their influence to do good. Whether they’re supporting an environmental cause or donating money to people in need, they immediately “look good” in my books. It makes me think of them as selfless and altruistic, so I’m more likely to trust them.

And most people are like me. That’s exactly why impact marketing works and why influencers like Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, have such a strong cultural impact.

In this post, I take a closer look at what impact marketing is and what makes it work. I also explore how brands make use of charitable marketing to boost their brand impact and reputation. Let’s get started.

What is Impact Marketing?

Impact marketing is the process of promoting your brand through marketing campaigns and initiatives that have a positive environmental or social impact. Also known as charitable marketing, this purpose-driven approach helps to improve brand reputation and trust.

It’s less about advertising products and more about aligning brand mission with consumer values. As such, an impact marketing strategy may involve several key elements:

• Purpose-Driven Messaging: The campaign or initiative uses messaging that highlights the brand’s mission to support a societal or environmental cause.
• Storytelling: It builds an emotional connection with audiences through authentic stories that highlight the brand’s impact.
• Actionability: It features authentic action from the brand (donating to a charitable cause, planting trees, etc.), which is then communicated through marketing.

Here’s an example of charitable marketing involving CVS Pharmacy and Jimmy Darts, a content creator who goes around rewarding people for their honesty or charity. He sometimes asks people if they dropped money and then rewards them with more money if they’re honest.

Other times, he’d ask for a few extra cents to buy something and then reward them with more money for being charitable.

For this sponsored video, the creator asked for a few cents to buy something at CVS. He then rewarded the man with $1,000 sponsored by CVS and heard out his story, which touched the hearts of many viewers.

What Makes Philanthropy an Impactful Marketing Strategy?

Those moving videos of influencers helping a family in need? They aren’t just for likes. They have an actual business impact for brands.

This is especially true because 72% of consumers expect brands to be positive contributors to society, according to the #BrandsGetReal survey. And philanthropy is how you make that contribution.

Let’s look at how philanthropy has an impact on your marketing strategy.

Increased Brand Awareness

Charity content, especially ones involving high-budget stunts à la MrBeast, gets a lot of engagement and shares. People love to engage with this type of content and spread the joy. As the content gets more visibility, it also helps you reach more people and generate brand awareness.

For instance, the MrBeast video where he partnered with several charitable organizations and companies to help 2000 people walk again generated over 139 million views. That’s millions of people hearing about those companies and organizations through MrBeast.

Emotional Resonance

Charitable causes often have a touching story behind them. And when your brand steps in to help, it emotionally resonates with the audience. This helps you build a connection with them, especially if the cause aligns with their values.

The #BrandsGetReal survey cited above even found that 45% of consumers feel connected to a brand if it supports a cause they personally support.

Improved Brand Perception and Trust

When people see you contributing to a good cause, it positively influences how they feel about your brand. You come across as a brand that’s selfless and generous, which makes people more likely to trust you.

This improved brand perception may not lead to immediate sales, but it drives loyalty and ultimately plays a major role in influencing people’s buying decisions. After all, between two companies selling similar products, most would choose to buy from the brand they like and trust more.

Case Study: MrBeast x Feastables

Although MrBeast has partnered with a number of third-party brands for his high-budget stunt videos and click-worthy charity initiatives, this case study focuses on Feastables – the chocolate brand created by the influencer himself.

The influencer’s commitment to doing good is reflected in the brand’s business practices and mission. Feastables chocolates were inspired by MrBeast’s journey with Crohn’s. But as the influencer got deeper into the cocoa industry, he ended up discovering the prevalence of child labor and systemic injustice within the industry.

So he made it a mission to tackle these issues with more ethical business practices, which include:

• Partnering with farms that actively protect children
• Paying farmers a fair price

This has established Feastables as a shining example of ethical sourcing. And this resonates with the brand’s audience of loyal MrBeast fans who follow the influencer because of his charity content.

The influencer also continues creating his signature high-budget stunt videos to promote the Feastables brand.

Similarly, charity content creators like Jimmy Darts also built brands that closely align with their values. He founded OverFlo to bring drinking water to people who don’t have access to clean water. For every bag of OverFlo electrolytes, a family in need gets access to 30 days of clean water.

Case Study: Jimmy Darts x Regent Bank

Speaking of Jimmy Darts, the creator has partnered with several companies to support people in need. I recently came across one such partnership involving Regent Bank.

The original sponsored video featured a mother-son duo who were honest about not dropping a $100 bill. For their honesty, the influencer gave them a $500 reward, and Regent Bank added $1,000 to the reward. When the mom opened up about their struggle of having recently lost a home, the influencer decided to crowdfund donations to support the family.

The video went virala, reaching millions of people and generating over 686k likes. Once Regent Bank caught hold of the situation, the bank decided to step in. The family ended up getting $150,000 to fund their new home, along with a brand new car and a new Xbox for the son.

The comments section was flooded with people who were touched by the family’s story. And the bank’s impact is apparent, with many commenters expressing their desire to use their services.

This highlights just how impactful a brand’s charitable marketing efforts can be. In addition to the immediate positive impact on brand perception, it also influences whether people would choose the brand when they actually need their products or services.

In this case study, in particular, the bank went beyond simply donating $1,000 for the original video. They took further action to improve the family’s life and made a significant difference to their living situation.

This showed that the bank wasn’t just interested in a one-off donation. It reaffirmed the bank’s commitment to changing people’s lives for the better.

The MrBeast Model: How to Build an Impact Marketing Strategy That Works

You don't need MrBeast's budget to make impact marketing work for you. You need his premise: "Watch me do good and buy this bar to help me do more."

Let’s walk you through the process of building an impact marketing strategy that actually generates impact.

Identify the Right Creators

Like any other influencer marketing campaign, it all starts with the right creator. When you want to build a campaign or initiative to support a purpose, you need to work with creators who are aligned with the same purpose.

This ensures that the partnership is more authentic, while helping you reach an audience whose values align with yours.

For instance, a sustainable clothing brand could partner with a creator who’s big on environmental conservation to spread the word about their efforts to plant more trees. Or a school supplies company could partner with a creator who’s done a lot of community support to promote their free school lunch program.

Stonyfield Organic partnered with Miss Rachel for a cause marketing campaign that closely aligns with both the brand’s and the influencer’s values. The brand donated to two charities focused on feeding and supporting children in need: No Kid Hungry and Room to Grow.

As Miss Rachel is a well-known name in early childhood education, the partnership makes sense as it would resonate with parents who care about helping other children in need.

Platforms like Influencity come with robust Influencer Discovery tools to help you narrow your search for the right creators. You can use filters and keywords to get really specific with your search and focus on creators with a high “humanitarian” interest tag.

The platform even comes with an AI Assistant that lets you describe the exact type of creator you’re looking for to streamline your search.

Choose a Cause that Aligns with Your Brand Values

Besides the creator, the cause itself also needs to align with your brand’s unique values. Are you building homes for families in need? Are you providing free lunch to school kids? Are you planting more trees to offset your carbon footprint? Are you saving an endangered species from going extinct?

Think of the cause that you truly care about, so your efforts are genuine and truly impactful. This will also make creators more likely to jump on board because it’s a way of contributing toward a cause that matters to them.

For instance, Jon & Vinny’s is an Italian restaurant that partnered with music artist SZA and her NOT Charity to provide free meals to families in need in Los Angeles for a limited period.

Since the restaurant is closely intertwined with the Los Angeles community, the cause made sense because it allowed them to contribute to the community.

Still unsure what type of cause to support? According to the #BrandsGetReal survey, these were the top social or political issues people wanted brands to focus on:

• Natural disasters or crises (76%)
• Education (74%)
• Environmental issues (71%)
• Human rights (70%)
• Poverty/homelessness (69%)
• Military/veterans’ issues (68%)

Involve Creators in the Development Process

When you’re working with charity-focused influencers, you’re working with people who have a deep understanding of how things work in the industry. They know the inside-out of philanthropy – from the charities that make an actual difference to the causes that matter to their audiences.

So involving them in the brainstorming and development process will help you come up with an initiative that makes a real positive impact.

You could share your mission and budget and have them contribute ideas throughout the process of designing your campaign. For instance, you might be willing to donate a certain number of school supplies. And the influencer could suggest which school districts might need them the most and how to approach the whole thing.

Naturally Work the Promotion into Creator Content

If your charity effort is going to resonate with your target audience, it has to come across as genuine as possible. This essentially means it shouldn’t be staged or too out of place.

It should also fit naturally into the influencer’s typical content type. For example, MrBeast’s stunt-type videos may come across as odd or unnatural for Jimmy Dart, whose focus is on authentic and emotional storytelling.

Making an Impact with Philanthropy

Impact marketing is an effective way to communicate your brand’s values with your target audience. It can help you generate brand awareness and emotionally connect with people, which will also contribute to better brand trust.

But you need to be strategic with who you partner with and how you partner with them. Make the most of the tips and ideas shared above to inspire you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is charitable marketing?

Charitable marketing is a cause-related marketing strategy to promote a brand’s image by supporting a social or environmental cause.

What is social impact marketing?

Social impact marketing is the process of promoting a brand through initiatives that bring a positive change to a social or environmental cause.

What is an example of impact marketing?

An example of impact marketing is donating money to a charity that feeds the homeless or donating a portion of sales to planting trees.

What is the impact of philanthropy on marketing?

Philanthropy helps to improve brand awareness and reputation as more people learn about your charitable contributions. It also improves brand perception in addition to building trust and loyalty.