Marc Gold
Grassroots Philanthropist
by Mike Lippitt

Thirty-one years later, he had the same dream. Exactly. He decided to act. In 1990, he visited India and met a Tibetan woman in the Himalayas who had two terrible ear infections. When he took her to the doctor he discovered that her life could be saved for the cost of $1.00, the price of an antibiotic. Another $40 for a hearing aid restored her hearing. He was shocked that something so important could be accomplished with such small funds. He didn’t realize it at that time, but the 100 Friends Project was born.

Soon thereafter he began raising money by sending a letter to 100 people, asking them to donate any amount possible. When he returned to India in 1992, he had more than $2,200 in donations, with the goal of distributing it as directly and intelligently as possible. He has now completed eight humanitarian missions and dispensed almost $50,000 directly into the hands of hundreds of people in great need.

After September 11, 2001, many people felt a need to respond to the larger world beyond America and the West, recognizing that a relatively small percentage of people on the planet have most of the wealth, while the rest of the world lives in deep poverty. Marc’s 100 Friends Project is a yearly effort to reach out to people who are desperately poor. Every year he raises as much money as possible can from his circle of contacts and friends (and friends of friends). Then he goes to slums and poor villages in third-world countries seeking the neediest people he can find, and distribute the funds as honestly, effectively, intelligently, and creatively as possible.

Making a difference

There is no particular target group -- although he does make a special attempt to help children. He pays for all his own travel expenses, and most of the rest goes directly into hands of the needy. You should see the looks on their faces when they realize what is happening and that there are no strings attached whatsoever. This work brings meaning to his life. He is also spending much time and effort educating young people to travel with purpose, awareness, and meaning.

By now he has been to more than 50 countries including India (eight times), Tibet, Thailand, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Kenya, Vietnam, Nepal, Indonesia, Israel, Mozambique, Myanmar, Laos, Turkey, South Africa, Costa Rica, Mexico, and numerous other places in Europe and elsewhere. During the time he was living in New York (1970s) he became involved with the Whirling Dervishes of Turkey (also known as the Mevlevi). He performed this incredibly beautiful ritual for many years in New York. Last year he had the honor to be invited to Istanbul, Turkey and he became the first Westerner to join them in this sacred practice.

This story explains Marc’s work:

As a man walked a desolate beach one cold, gray morning he began to see another figure, far in the distance. Slowly the two approached each other, and he could make out a local native who kept leaning down, picking something up and throwing it out into the water. Time and again he hurled things into the ocean. As the distance between them continued to narrow, the man could see that the native was picking up starfish that had been washed upon the beach and, one at a time, was throwing them back into the water. Puzzled, the man approached the native and asked what he was doing.

"I'm throwing these starfish back into the ocean. You see, it's low tide right now and all of these starfish have been washed up onto the shore. If I don't throw them back into the sea, they'll die up here from lack of oxygen."

"But there must be thousands of starfish on this beach," the man replied. "You can't possibly get to all of them. There are just too many. And this same thing is probably happening on hundreds of beaches all up and down this coast. Can't you see that you can't possibly make a difference?"

The local native smiled, bent down and picked up another starfish, and as he threw it back into the sea he replied,

"Made a difference to that one!"

Every one of us is just one person: we all have dreams, hopes, trials, cares, and responsibilities in this life. We may feel there is just too much to be done and we have too little to give. We're usually short of everything, especially time and money. When we leave this earthly shore, there will still be "millions of starfish stranded on the beach." Maybe we can't change the whole world, but there isn't one of us who can't help change one person's whole world... one day at a time and one person at a time.

Mother Teresa said: "Never give up helping others.  We can do no great things; only small things with great love. Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person."

-- by Mike Lippitt as inspired by Marc Gold’s 100 Friends Project

Additional Resources

• 100 Friends Project website
• Interview with Marc Gold