According to Water.org, there are 2.2 billion people around the world who lack access to safe drinking water. As climate change threatens to make that problem even more pervasive, two of YouTube’s biggest stars are taking action. Mark Rober and MrBeast have joined forces to launch #TeamWater, a campaign that is looking to raise $40 million to bring clean water to millions of households.
Rober and MrBeast (whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson) previously teamed up for a pair of philanthropic ventures. In 2019, they raised $20 million for #TeamTrees and used that money to plant 20 million trees. Two years after completing that terrestrial effort, they turned their attention to the Earth’s oceans. Through #TeamSeas, a $30 million fundraising campaign, Rober and Donaldson led an effort to remove more than 30 million pounds of trash from the ocean.
With the third chapter in their charitable trilogy, Rober and Donaldson are upping the ante once again. #TeamWater has a $40 million goal that, if achieved, will “get 2,000,000 people around the world clean water for decades,” Donaldson explained.
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The video introducing #TeamWater arrived on Rober’s channel on August 1. The engineer-turned-creator took a trip to Kenya to check out GivePower, a company that uses reverse osmosis to turn seawater into a potable substance. To test the efficacy of GivePower’s technology, Rober made Donaldson channel Bear Grylls by drinking his own urine.
Rober’s video is linked to the month-long #TeamWater charity drive, which has already raised nearly $1 million less than four hours after its launch. To connect their philanthropy to real-world activism, Rober and Donaldson teamed with WaterAid, which is collecting donations on behalf of the two creators.
“We’ve seen the power of the internet when it rallies behind a cause, from planting millions of trees to removing millions of pounds of trash from the ocean,” Donaldson and Rober said in a joint statement. “Now, we’re taking on clean water, because no one should have to live without it.”
Many big-name creators, including Kai Cenat, Hank Green, Cleo Abram, and FaZe Rug, have pledged their support for the #TeamWater campaign. It’s nice to see Rober and Donaldson galvanizing their community to address a global crisis — and #TeamWater already looks as if it will be just as successful as its two predecessors.
