YouTube star MrBeast doubles down on cash giveaways with $200,000 donation to a universal basic income program

• MrBeast shot to fame for giving life-changing amounts of money to complete strangers.
• The YouTube star has turned that approach into financing and fundraising for UBI programs in Uganda.

MrBeast became the most popular YouTuber on the planet by handing cash to strangers, so it's little wonder he's experimenting with universal basic income, known as UBI.

Jimmy Donaldson, who goes by MrBeast and has around 288 million subscribers to his flagship channel, has partnered with GiveDirectly to help people living in extreme poverty in Uganda.

Between them, they delivered $1,000 to around 300 households. Beast Philanthropy donated $200,000, and GiveDirectly covered the rest, including operational costs. The program gave the households roughly a year's worth of income.

MrBeast also announced a joint fundraiser with GiveDirectly to gather enough cash to give $1,000 to every household in a neighboring village. It has raised over $37,000 of its $150,000 target as of Tuesday.

From absurd stunts to fighting poverty

MrBeast helped pioneer a genre of YouTube videos that centers on giving large sums of money to strangers and filming their reactions.

He often challenges people to compete in silly competitions, such as remaining in a circle or not letting go of an object for as long as possible.

In recent months, he has pivoted toward funding philanthropic pursuits such as building wells in Africa, donating food and clothes to the needy, and providing cataract surgeries and hearing aids to blind and deaf people who couldn't afford them.

GiveDirectly is a nonprofit that, in 2017, said it was conducting the world's largest test of UBI. It involved 20,000 recipients in Kenya and lasted 12 years.

Universal basic income typically refers to a recurring cash payment made to all adult members of a population, regardless of their wealth or employment, and with no restrictions on how they spend the money.

Early findings from GiveDirectly's trial suggest that direct cash handouts boost household and business savings and support the financing of bigger projects. Upfront money also trumps regular payments as it allows people to make transformative changes to their lives such as starting a business.

Turning cash into change

It's a natural extension of MrBeast's brand to go from giving briefcases of cash to deserving strangers to handing money to people living on $1 or $2 a day.

"This is $1,000 in cash and if you suddenly came across this kind of money, no strings attached, what would you spend it on?" MrBeast teases at the start of the Uganda video.

But the social media star also addressed questions about whether direct cash payments would be spent wisely. He noted that flooding a community with money could be viewed as "extremely irresponsible," and that he and his team were "somewhat skeptical about the idea of direct cash" before GiveDirectly showed them the benefits of the approach.

MrBeast shared three anecdotes about the villagers in Karamoja, Uganda, who he said received the money. One woman named Ruth was shown in the video relaying how she used her cash to open a store and buy food and medicine for her children.

Meanwhile, Auma built a school that hosts seven teachers and more than 200 students, MrBeast said.

Similarly, MrBeast said two residents named Tiyan and Lokure could buy land to grow their crops, purchase a grain mill to serve other locals, and open a store in their home and a refueling station in the village.

The examples suggest those who received MrBeast's cash used it to not only provide basics for their families, but also to start businesses, invest in their local community, and establish revenue streams that could help them escape abject poverty for good.

To some, helping villagers will never be as entertaining as concocting absurd scenarios and watching random people navigate them in the hope of winning a life-changing amount of money. But it's fascinating to see MrBeast's evolution from a real-life Willy Wonka to a UBI believer.