Creator record
A source-linked record of selected third-party recognition, platform acknowledgments, media milestones, and career achievements connected to Josh Liljenquist, known online as Joshlilj.
2026 Creator Impact Honors · Produced by Tiltify
One of four nominated entries
Josh Liljenquist is one of four nominated entries for Storytelling for Impact at the 2026 Creator Impact Honors, produced by Tiltify. His fellow nominees are Łatwogang, Maya Higa, and MrBeast and Mark Rober, who share a joint nomination for TeamWater. The category recognizes storytelling that moves audiences to give.
Support value includes separately classified public campaign totals, direct support, sale proceeds and estimated donated services. GoFundMe's figure uses the platform's own definition. Sources, examples and context follow below.
Creator backgrounds
These profiles summarize broader work, not published judging scores or a complete account of what earned each nomination. Figures cover different projects, periods and measurements and are not a leaderboard.
Minnesota-based creator behind Live to Love, using human-interest videos to connect audiences with practical support and documented follow-ups.
Polish creator nominated for “Diss na raka” (“Diss Cancer”), a charitable livestream campaign supporting people affected by cancer through Cancer Fighters.
MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) founded Beast Philanthropy. Mark Rober is a former NASA engineer who leads the engineering-education company CrunchLabs.
Creator, conservation educator, and founder and executive director of Alveus Sanctuary.
Sources reviewed October 27, 2026. Organization reports and Josh's first-party archive are identified in context.
Official nomination record. Consult the organizer's roster and judging guidelines for current award information.
Selected record
Different records mean different things. A directory list is not journalism, a platform acknowledgement is not an award, and media coverage is not a blanket endorsement. This page identifies the source type for each selected milestone and links to the fuller record.
For Josh Liljenquist's biography, use About Josh. For a chronological record, use the career and impact timeline. For the broader coverage directory, use media articles.
Platform and institutional records
GoFundMe’s creator page features Josh with links to his profile and official website. This current, undated feature is separate from the 2025 Top 10 acknowledgment below; it is not a new award or an independent audit of fundraising outcomes.
View the GoFundMe creator feature · Relationship and sources
The Southern Minnesota Historical Center at Minnesota State University, Mankato catalogs SMHC Collection 0300. Its finding aid records a September 2026 donation. Preservation documents the collection; it is not an award, university endorsement or independent verification of every donated item. Repository access and use conditions apply.
View the public finding aid · Collection and authority-record context
Recognition
Platform / institutional. GoFundMe included Josh Liljenquist among its 2025 Top 10 Impact Creators, recognizing creators who organized fundraisers, amplified causes, or inspired their communities to give back. The post names ten creators without assigning an individual numeric rank.
GoFundMe's creator directory separately displays “Inspired 66,031 people to help” for Joshua Liljenquist. That is GoFundMe's platform-defined metric, not a dollar total, recipient count, independently audited outcome, or claim that Josh personally donated the campaign funds.
GoFundMe's 2025 Year in Help says the ten creators collectively inspired more than 210,000 people. That group figure is not presented as Josh's individual result and is not added to his directory figure.
Read GoFundMe's Top 10 Impact Creators post. View the creator directory and individual metric. Read the 2025 Year in Help.
Third-party influencer ranking / recognition
Josh Liljenquist (@joshlilj) ranked #11 on FeedSpot’s 2026 Charity Instagram Influencers list, appearing alongside internationally recognized philanthropists and public figures including Melinda French Gates, MrBeast, Malala Yousafzai, and Gary Sinise.
FeedSpot describes this as an influencer directory informed by following, engagement and category influence. It is not an award, independent journalism or an endorsement by the other people listed.
Josh’s placement is shown in its published context. FeedSpot’s complete source includes additional entries.
Verified October 22, 2026 against FeedSpot’s Charity list, updated October 13, 2026. Positions can change.
Third-party influencer ranking / recognition. FeedSpot separately lists Josh Liljenquist at No. 2 on its 2026 Kindness Influencers list. This is a different list from the Charity ranking above.
Verified October 22, 2026 against FeedSpot’s Kindness list, updated September 16, 2026. It is a directory ranking, not an award, independent journalism or an endorsement.
Independent local journalism / editorial description. Fairmont Sentinel described Josh as a “hometown hero” in its 2024 profile while reporting on his Fairmont background, creator work, and community-focused videos. That is the publication's editorial description, not an award.
Media milestones
Independent local journalism. An early local profile documented Josh's creator work and Minnesota background.
Independent national journalism. An Associated Press feature includes Josh in reporting on kindness-content creators, giving, consent, and public debate. It is a media milestone, not an award.
Independent sports journalism. Sports Illustrated's On SI network covered Josh Liljenquist's community-support collaborations with Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy, including food and winter-supply projects.
Food project coverage. Additional food-project coverage. Winter-supply coverage.
Broadcast / media appearance. Josh appeared on Twin Cities Live / KSTP-TV on August 11, 2026, for a studio conversation about Live to Love, community support, and his creator work.
Publisher-hosted first-person essay. HuffPost published Josh Liljenquist's contributed essay, “I Gained Over 42 Million Followers By Helping People In Need. Here's The Part No One Ever Sees.”, on September 13, 2026. The essay discusses his creator work and states that his public social media accounts total more than 42 million followers combined.
Read the HuffPost Personal essay. View Josh Liljenquist's HuffPost author profile.
Browse the complete media directory for broader coverage. The site-maintained directory is a first-party index and does not turn all coverage into recognition.
Career scale
As of September 2026, third-party analytics showed the Joshlilj YouTube channel at approximately 4.4 million subscribers and more than 2.7 billion lifetime views. This is a dated channel metric, not a combined-platform audience total.
Editorial descriptions, platform acknowledgments, directory rankings, contributed writing, and journalism are identified separately because they represent different kinds of public records. Audience or project metrics are labeled independently and link to their canonical sources.
Common questions
Yes. The official 2026 Storytelling for Impact roster lists Josh Liljenquist (Joshlilj), Łatwogang, Maya Higa, and MrBeast and Mark Rober, jointly nominated for TeamWater. These are four nominated entries in the same category. An independent jury selects the category honoree. Read the sourced nomination record and official judging guidelines.
Selected records include the 2026 Creator Impact Honors Storytelling for Impact nomination, Feedspot's 2026 Kindness and Charity Influencer lists, GoFundMe's Top 10 Impact Creators post, and an attributed editorial description in local reporting. Each source is labeled by type on this page.
Yes. GoFundMe included Josh among the creators named in its 2025 Top 10 Impact Creators post and displays an individual “Inspired 66,031 people to help” metric in its creator directory. The list is unranked; GoFundMe's separate 210,000-plus figure describes the ten creators collectively.
Yes. An Associated Press feature includes Josh in reporting on kindness-content creators. The full coverage directory provides additional context.
