Bill Pulte - pictured with his grandfather - is trying to harness the power of Twitter as a force for good. Photo / Facebook
Bill Pulte - pictured with his grandfather - is trying to harness the power of Twitter as a force for good. Photo / Facebook
A millionaire CEO has built a mass social media following after vowing to give away huge chunks of his fortune to worthy causes.
Bill Pulte is the grandson of William Pulte, a billionaire who founded the home-building giant PulteGroup in 1956.
When William Pulte died last year at 85, his grandson inherited an unknown sum of money, although the younger Pulte has also built a fortune in his own right through his private equity firm, Pulte Capital Partners, reports News.com.au.
Regardless of where it came from, the 31-year-old has millions in the bank — but in July, he decided to put his money towards good causes.
For example, in July, he announced on Twitter he would donate $US30,000 ($NZ47,500) to a military veteran if US President Donald Trump retweeted him, which he did on July 10.
Since then, he has pledged tens of thousands of dollars to other causes, including the search for a missing marine, the tuition fees of a Baltimore student and the funeral costs of Emma Hernandez, a nine-year-old girl mauled by dogs while riding her bike.
Millionaire Bill Pulte tied the knot in 2017. Photo / Facebook
He has also given away cash to strangers in public and donated cars and gift vouchers.
Mr Pulte now refers to himself as the "inventor of Twitter philanthropy" on his Twitter bio, claiming he is devoted to "Giving to people who need necessities, food, rent, a/c etc".
However, his cash giveaways are more than random acts of kindness — he's actually attempting to harness the power of social media for good by encouraging others to give to worthy causes.
"Technology allows us to micro-target to people who are immediately in need," he told The Detroit News in July.
"They can't afford to pay for food or gas or electricity.
"Social networks have so much nonsense on them, it's about time we started spreading positivity and love."
He told Detroit Free Press this month he was inspired to launch Twitter Philanthropy during a summer holiday with his family.
"There is such hate and vitriol on social media these days, and I wondered how come we're not using all of this technology for good," he said.
"Because of the success I've had in business, coupled with my younger age, I felt that it was appropriate for me to try to champion social media for good.
"My experience has been that people are willing to give a hand and help their fellow Americans as long as they know that (the money) is going to be put to good use. And technology allows us to do that instantaneously."
He told the publication he now had more than 10 staff members devoted to pouring through the deluge of charity requests that came through.
He has since promised to give away $1,000,000 of his own cash by the end of 2019 if he reaches one million Twitter followers.
