Carol Cain

Free Press Business Columnist

Social entrepreneur Bill Pulte is on a mission to change the way philanthropy and helping people with needs at the grassroots level come together, with Twitter as his calling card.

The Oakland County businessman launched #TwitterPhilanthropy via his @pulte account three weeks ago to give away $100,000 of his own money by year’s end to help people. He’s also challenging politicians, sports stars and celebrities to retweet him to help the greater cause. He’s gotten traction and attention, including a retweet from President Donald Trump.

“If @realDonaldTrump retweets this, I will give $30,000 to a Veteran on Twitter." President Trump retweeted @pulte with the following response: "Thank you Bill." Trump’s retweet resulted in Pulte buying a new $20,000 car and giving $10,000 to disabled female veteran in Nashville, Tennessee.

Boxer Manny Pacquiao also jumped in to help with support on Twitter.

Pulte’s been inundated with thousands of requests from folks asking for help paying electric bills, health-care bills, even fixing air conditioner and buying dentures.

“I’m hearing from people all over the globe,” Pulte said of his Twitter challenge. He had 34,000 Twitter followers before he launched his challenge and just passed the 100,000 mark.

“It’s using social media in a positive way to help people, not hurt them,” said Pulte, managing partner of Pontiac-based Pulte Capital Partners LLC. He lives in Oakland County and has homes in Washington, D.C., and Florida.

“We are also hearing from politicians, athletes, professionals, blue-collar workers, moms, dads, everyone," said Pulte. "People care and want to make a difference. We are literally changing the giving paradigm. This is only the beginning." The 31-year-old grandson of the late Pulte Home Founder William Pulte talked about his motivation for the effort.

"I was sitting on my porch about six months ago and thinking how I could help more people — those who really need it,” said Pulte. “The way philanthropy is done now is outdated. I figured why not shake the box a little bit. We have this technology. Why not use it for a better cause?"

Who gets the money

Here is how it works: Pulte tweets that he is giving away a certain amount of money (say $500) and then mentions a few criteria. After the retweets and mentions start coming in, he has a three-person team he hired to sift through them and determine that they are who they say they are (which is an issue on social media) and that their needs are legitimate.

He has a soft spot for veterans and is working with Code of Vets, a volunteer organization to find those who served who are experiencing challenges. They connected him with Lena Ramon, a veteran who is disabled. She and her kids were homeless and living out of a car from September of 2018 through January of 2019 until Code of Vets helped them find shelter. Ramon’s car had been repossessed. Pulte just bought her a new $20,000 car in Chicago and drove it to Nashville where he presented it to her along with a $10,000 check.

Pulte’s foray into helping began in 2013 as he read about Detroit’s blight problem and children being afraid to walk to school past abandoned homes. He dived in to help then-Mayor Dave Bing and started an organization, the Blight Authority. When Mike Duggan was elected a year later, he then took over the blight effort.

Pulte wasn’t out of the blight business long before Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson reached out and asked him to help the city of Pontiac with its problem. Pulte’s efforts there began in 2014 with a goal of helping take down 900 properties — a task which will be completed by the end of 2019.

“Pontiac established a Blight Task Force using the expertise and tools that Bill Pulte introduced to my administration,” said Deirdre Waterman, the mayor of Pontiac. “He was a valuable resource toward fulfilling our commitment to rid the city of this structural blight and restore our beautiful neighborhoods. He has been the consultant who has provided guidance by which we will fulfill the pledge to our residents to be blight free in 2019.”

Pulte credits the city, county and state for working together to tackle the blight issue.

Twitter founder fights blight

Jack Dorsey, who started Twitter, wanted to help his hometown of St. Louis, which is suffering from blight, so he reached out to Pulte about nine months ago. The result, the St. Louis Blight Authority, was unveiled last week and is a collaboration among Dorsey, Pulte and city of St. Louis.

“Our First Blight Elimination Zone is home to 59 amazing families, many whom have children, that have waited decades for blight to be removed from their neighborhood,” Dorsey said at last week’s press conference. “Today, we have taken large-scale action to remove the blight from four city blocks, and as a result, these families will now live in a safer and more beautiful neighborhood.”

Pulte said St. Louis has more than 7,000 vacant buildings and he is optimistic it can be blight-free by 2035.

It comes down to helping those less fortunate and making communities stronger using technology and other tools to get the job done.

“I’m using the power of social media to mobilize people to help take care of each other,” he said.

Contact Carol Cain: 313-222-6732 or clcain@cbs.com. She is senior producer/host of "Michigan Matters,” which airs 11:30 a.m. Sundays on CBS 62. See Susy Avery, Peter Bhatia, Charlie Beckham, Johnny Ginopolis, Joe Vicari and Sameer Eid on this Sunday’s show.