100 Friends Project

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Tips & Hints from Marc Gold: How to Change the World While Traveling
by Judy Wolf

This is a sidebar to an article featured in an Adventurous Life newsletter.

Marc Gold fundraises by sending letters to friends, colleagues, and family asking them to donate whatever they can to his 100 Friends Project. He then takes that money on his next trip (he covers all his own travel expenses) and distributes it directly to worthy organizations and individuals. In this sidebar to the newsletter article highlighting his efforts, I've summarized the hints and tips he gave me for those of us interested in following in his footsteps.

How do you prepare?

• Get a lot of education about the place you're going to -- through reading, watching videos, talking to people, surfing web sites. Learn about the area's history, politics, geography. Get there with as much knowledge as possible.
• Learn 20 phrases in that language. People appreciate that, and it goes a long way toward making connections.
• Do special research into the problems of that country. Find out what the NGOs (non-governmental organizations) are doing. Meet with them when you get there.

How do you raise money?

• Talk to people. Write a letter (see sample letter) and send it to everyone you know. If you don't have 100 acquaintances, so what? Do you have 40?
• Start a web page. Talk to web designers, let them know what you're doing, ask if they can help.
• If you have time, talk with rotary clubs, be on the radio. It's all about making the time and having the guts to follow through.
• Become a non-profit [this is actually more affordable than you might realize -- check out the National Heritage Foundation] or become associated with one.
• Create a newsletter. Have photos to send, or to show on your web page.
• The most important part of raising money? ASK for it.

How do you know whom to donate to?

• You meet trustworthy people, and you keep going back to them.
• Meet with people at NGOs once you're in the country, and ask them to connect you to good people who are especially worthy or needy.
• Be cool. Hang out for a number of days. Get to know people before you start talking about money.
• Trust your instincts. It's easy for money to go into the wrong hands. One family member can keep it from the others, or it can introduce jealousy. You learn as you go.
• The longer you do it, the stronger your connections will be, the more you'll know whom to trust -- and they'll connect you with honest, reliable, deserving people in the community.
• When you're giving to people on the street, look for people collecting bottles, cans -- they're not begging, they're working. $3 or $5 goes a long way.
• Do a web search for NGOs or NGO directories in the region you're planning to visit. Visit the World Organization of Non-Governmental Organizations (WANGO), Taking It Global or the Journal of Philanthropy for resources and listings that can get you started.

How do you avoid imposing your ideas about what people need?

• Ask. Find out from people who know the area or the organization or from the person him or herself what would make sense.
• Look for people who are already trying to help themselves and give them a little boost.
• Let people know that the best way they can pay it back is by helping someone else.
• Become as aware as possible about the culture in which you are operating. Educate yourself and ask questions -- humility is a good quality to carry with you on a project like this.

What do you say to concerns about being an over-privileged westerner walking into communities and throwing your cash around?

• If you talk to peple who desperately need it, they'll say, "That's cool." But you have to be smart and sensitive about it. There are definitely ways money can do more harm than good.
• Ultimately you have to ask yourself, Is it better to sit around doing nothing, or to do something, however imperfect?

Go back to the article.

Copyright (c) 2004 Judy Wolf

About the Author:
Judy Wolf (www.judywolf.com) is a world traveler, freelance writer, speaker, and whitewater kayak instructor. She's taken numerous, extended solo journeys around the world, traveling by foot, bus, jeep, camel, truck, boat, train, plane, elephant, and bicycle to over 30 countries on five continents. She currently lives in upstate New York with her husband and border collie, where she's working on a book-length travel narrative about her most recent adventures…that is, when she's not plunging off waterfalls or entertaining the dog.

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