In the face of President Donald Trump’s immigration and refugee ban, YouTube star and VidCon co-founder Hank Green just raised a ton of money for refugee resettlement organizations — to the tune of $71,750.
Earlier this month, after Trump’s polarizing executive order was signed — which banned all refugees to the U.S. for 120 days, and Syrian refugees indefinitely — Green announced that he planned to donate $5 to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for every hand-drawn message of support for immigrants and refugees shared with him via Twitter.
For every reply to this tweet with a hand-drawn message of support for immigrants, Muslims, and/or refugees, I will donate $5 to the ACLU.
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— Mr. Fart Facts Green (@hankgreen) January 28, 2017
All told, Green said, he received more than 2,213 submissions — or a total of $11,065 for the ACLU.
This gave way to yet another charitable venture. Inspired by the swell of creations he’d received, Green reached out to 17 artists to create posters of the images they’d submitted. He then vended these posters for roughly $12 apiece in a flash charity sale last weekend on Don’t Forget To Be Awesome (DFTBA) — an e-commerce company co-founded by Green that sells merch by prominent YouTube stars. Green noted that he was making the donation because, as part of the ban, government funding for refugee resettlement organizations had also been halted.
The sale, Green announced yesterday, raised $71,750. And Erika Brown-Binion, the director of the Refugee Development Center (RDC), one of the organizations to have received funds from Green, wrote to him to express her gratitude. “We have never received an unsolicited donation even close to this amount,” she wrote in a message Green shared on Twitter (below). “This will support over 100 refugee youths and their families this summer.”
❤❤❤❤❤😭😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/CiRVS78E6J — Mr. Fart Facts Green (@hankgreen) February 8, 2017
