Twitter Philanthropy: How Bill Pulte Is Using Social Media For Good Causes

By Amit Chowdhry ● Sep 3, 2019
  • Bill Pulte, a director at Pulte Homes and the head of Pulte Capital Partners, is known for using Twitter for philanthropic purposes. Here’s how.

Bill Pulte — the metro Detroit based head of Pulte Capital Partners and a director at Pulte Homes — has been using Twitter for philanthropic purposes and expressing positivity over the last several months.

Pulte’s description on Twitter is as follows: “The Philanthropist & Inventor of Twitter Philanthropy. Giving to people who need necessities, food, rent, a/c etc. CEO Pulte Capital & Blight Authority,”

And recently, Pulte gained national attention by setting up a campaign to donate $30,000 to a vet if President Trump retweeted him. This got Trump’s attention and he retweeted Pulte with a note that said: “THANK YOU BILL!”

Now Pulte is using his platform to help find a missing veteran by offering a $10,000 reward. According to Business Insider, the missing veteran is 37-year-old Jesse Conger — who disappeared on August 14 without his wallet, phone, or service dog as reported by the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care System.

“$10K DOLLAR REWARD,” wrote Pulte in a tweet on August 24. “I am offering $10,000 REWARD to the person who finds Missing Combat Veteran Jesse near LEES FERRY, AZ. Trail Heads, Vistas and Look Out Points. Bring our brother-in-arms home!”

Pulte has given away money, cars, business investments, and groceries to some of his Twitter followers. Pulte’s Twitter followers are known as “teammates.”

PulteGroup (previously known as Pulte Homes) was founded by Bill’s grandfather William Pulte — who founded the company in 1956. William Pulte passed away at the age of 85 last year. In his lifetime, William Pulte oversaw the building of around 600,000 houses and he became a billionaire through his business. William Pulte is credited with turning home building into large-scale production using techniques similar to Henry Ford’s assembly line for vehicles. These moves were essential for the growth of the American middle class.

Along with donating to injured veterans, Pulte also gave money to a family living in a car, a colon cancer patient, and the family of 9-year-old Emma Hernandez — who was killed on August 19 in a dog mauling while riding her bike in Detroit.

“What I’m trying to do is inspire other people to give. Even if I gave away several million dollars, that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to the total need in the country,” said Pulte via the Detroit Free Press. “And so what I’m more interested in is how do we motivate thousands, or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people to help their fellow Americans.”

Bill Pulte is often confused with his grandfather. However, Bill Pulte said that he is not providing these donations through an inheritance. This is coming from wealth he generated from his work at Pulte Capital Partners — which has 3 employees and is known for M&A deals around home improvement. The majority of his wealth came from two major Pulte Capital deals which was the sales of Southern Air & Heat Holdings and Astar Heating & Air. 

Before launching Pulte Capital, Bill Pulte graduated from Northwestern University in 2010 and briefly worked at Penske Capital Partners — which is a private equity fund set up by Roger Penske. Bill Pulte set up Pulte Capital about a year later. Pulte received some help from family members, but they were a small minority. The majority came from private investors such as Comerica Bank.

Pulte’s Twitter follower count increased from 34,000 at the beginning of the summer to over 600,000 now.