About a year ago, Mike Gabler stunned Survivor superfans from coast to coast with his unexpected victory, however, that was not the only surprise that viewers had in store come finale night. After winning the title of “Sole Survivor” and the million-dollar cash prize, Gabler announced that he would be the first Survivor winner in the history of the beloved competition series to give away the cash prize that he had earned, with plans to donate it entirely to charities that supported United States veterans and their families — how sweet is that?
For those who need a refresher as to how the heart valve specialist was victorious in the end of Survivor 43, his journey was anything but ordinary…
During the season finale, Cassidy Clark won the final immunity challenge and decided to take Owen Knight with her to the end, forcing Jesse Lopez and Mike Gabler to compete against one another in the infamous final four fire-making challenge. As one can assume, Gabler won the challenge, making Survivor history with the fastest time ever recorded in a fire-making challenge (before Heidi Lagares-Greenblatt beat him during Survivor 44).
To the surprise of viewers, knocking out the frontrunner of the season turned out to be one of the key moments that led to his victory, with the Idaho native being praised by the jury for his final four fire-making win (as well as his strong social bonds), despite being Survivor 43‘s biggest oddball. Gabler dominated the conversation at the final tribal council, explaining that he was an “alli-Gabler” throughout the entirety of Survivor 43, playing in the middle and hiding in plain sight, resulting in a near-perfect game with no votes cast against him.
Because of this, Gabler beat Cassidy and Owen in a 7-1-0 vote, prior to announcing what he would do with his winnings, despite keeping his plans to himself throughout the entirety of his time on the hit competition show.
“I kept it quiet. I talked about it with my wife and my buddy before the show, and we were like, ‘If you get to the end, let’s do something powerful, something good.’ There’s a lot of news out there, just terrible stuff, and I’m like, ‘Let’s do something big with this money.’ Even though I was very much about it all along, I didn’t want to use veterans to benefit me. I want to benefit veterans,” he shared in an exclusive interview with Parade after being crowned the champion.
On December 11, the “Sole Survivor” of Survivor 43 took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to announce that his mission has finally been accomplished — how exciting is that?
“We did it! The entire $1,000,000 from Survivor season 43 has been donated! The 2nd photo shows the entire list of tremendous organizations that we donated to who are helping veterans, first responders, and humanity. There is still much more work to do to bring our veterans ALL THE WAY back home. God bless everyone and God bless the USA,” Gabler wrote, garnering quite the reaction from his fellow castaways.
Rick Devens of Survivor: Edge of Extinction shared, “Incredible. Outstanding work, sir!”
Wardog DaSilva of Survivor: Edge of Extinction dished, “Look at what Gabler did, just WOW!!!! This is such an amazing gift to so many charities, I do not know each charity but going to assume they’re reputable organizations.”
Owen Knight of Survivor 43 gushed, “Grateful to have met you, G! Amazing work 👏🏼”
As for which charities received a generous donation from Mike Gabler himself, the full list is as follows.
- Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS)
- Special Operations Warrior Foundation
- Illuminated Warrior and Family Foundation
- Special Forces Foundation
- No Fallen Heroes Foundation
- Ranch Church
- Bonefrog Labs
- ID Guard and Reserve Family Support Foundation
- Heroic Hearts Project Inc
- Battle Dawgs
- Give Kids The World Rescue 22 Foundation
- TADSAW
- K9s For Warriors
- Pararescue Foundation
- Operation Healing Heroes Foundation
- Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)
- Healing Patriots
- Camp Freedom
- Mental Joe Apparel
- Koterra
- Project Echelon
- Advocates of Healthy Minds
- Waymakers Missions
- The Born To Run Foundation
While a majority of these charities help out United States veterans and their families, the 53-year-old also donated to a few reality TV-specific charities like Give Kids the World, a nonprofit resort for critically ill children and their families that does many events with reality TV alums, as well as the Born to Run Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to child amputees (founded by fellow castaway Noelle Lambert).
Survivor superfans can stream Survivor 43 from start to finish to see Mike Gabler’s path to victory (as well as the other 44 seasons that the beloved competition series has to offer) via Paramount Plus.