He was pretty confident he could raise the money. They’d need $550,000.Īfter what he describes as a six or seven hour phone call, Marcus was convinced. The real hurdle, as they saw it, was the money. The two former military members pitched Marcus on the idea of an emergency rescue mission: Fly into Afghanistan, pick up 300 people, and fly them out. His followers piped up with ideas, and he soon connected with Karen Craft, a former Army officer from the nonprofit Veterans in Media and Entertainment, and Sheffield Ford, a retired US Army Special Forces veteran who runs a logistics and consulting firm, Raven Advisory, LLC. Marcus says over 100 veterans and members of humanitarian and charity organizations are “working around the clock” to help him pull this off.Īs the Taliban began closing in on Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital and the last remaining stronghold, at the time, of its government, Marcus posted an Instagram story over the weekend about wanting to help-he didn’t want to just donate money that might disappear without having any effect. The ultimate destinations, however, like many of the other details of the plan, are not being shared out of security concerns. But he’s working with nonprofit and logistics agencies, which plan to fly into Kabul from an undisclosed foreign location. Some commenters were skeptical it could be done-which Marcus acknowledges, given the scope of the project and the necessary secrecy around key details.

The project involves a host of logistical challenges: landing safely on uncertain ground in a turbulent country, vetting the would-be evacuees (Marcus says most of them are personally known by volunteers), and successfully integrating them into foreign society. “With the incredible influx of money into this fund, we have expanded the original goal of making 2-3 flights into Kabul, to as many flights as the fund as the governments we are collaborating with will allow for,” Marcus posted to his Instagram account Wednesday night. In fact, Marcus has received so many donations that he recently had to expand his plans.

withdrew troops from a nearly 20-year engagement. Within two days, Marcus has raised nearly $6 million for what may be the largest crowdfunded evacuation effort in history to get people out of Afghanistan, where the Taliban retook control after the U.S. Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland even shared it. The meme account FunnyIntrovert shared it to 2.7 million followers so did clothing brand chnge (2.5 million followers). After some brainstorming with his followers (and some former military people), Marcus started a GoFundMe to sponsor emergency evacuation flights, which quickly went viral.

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