By Emily J. Minor
Around the county pocket, everyone knows John Ferber and his man-version Cinderella story.
Sure, he loves to surf.
Sure, he sports about town in shorts and a T-shirt.
And, sure, he’s a millionaire.
But for a week or so last year, Ferber’s life was less of an open book when he filmed an hourlong segment for the ABC reality show Secret Millionaire.
Ferber spent six days living among the homeless on Los Angeles’ notorious Skid Row, moving among them, day and night, eventually choosing three charities and writing checks totaling $100,000. The show aired the last Sunday in March.
“I still keep in touch with those people,” Ferber said. “I probably always will.”
Ferber, who developed software for online advertising that he and his brother sold to AOL for $497 million in 2004, has had a lot of personal and professional journeys, and his foray into reality TV began in January 2009, when producers for the ABC show approached him about appearing.
The show was already popular in Britain, which allowed Ferber to check things out a bit — and even speak with one of the early millionaire participants for the U.K. version.
“I watched, and I was really touched and moved by the whole concept,” he said. “It didn’t take much convincing.”
At the viewing party in downtown Delray Beach, dozens of people were visibly moved as they watched Ferber — certainly accustomed to a high-end lifestyle — check into subsidized housing, walk the tough city streets and live on boxed macaroni and cheese.
The premise of the show is to plunk a wealthy individual or couple into dire straits, have them experience how the other half lives, and then end the show with a cash donation that the recipients are not expecting.
Ferber gave to a shelter for abused women and children, an inner-city street basketball program and to a young businessman who spends a majority of his spare cash helping street people by providing them with clothing, shoes and hygiene kits.
Ferber said he “kind of lucked out” with his Section 8 housing, which was clean and safe.
Although the donations were all of his doing, producers did lead him to the people he eventually helped out.
“It would have been impossible for me to find these groups on my own,” he said. “They led me to them, but they didn’t tell me what to do.”
Since selling to AOL seven years ago — he was just 30 at the time — Ferber has nurtured his philanthropical side.
He said it really began after Hurricane Katrina, when he wanted to work one-on-one and help a family. But he couldn’t find the right match.
Since then, Ferber has started microgiving.com, which he runs out of Delray Beach. The online center matches interested donors with needy recipients and is viewed as the newest wave of “micro-lending,” which collectively raises millions of dollars for charity across the world.
“I’m very passionate about this,” Ferber said. ”People ask me, what’s my underlying motive?”
“I wake up every day feeling incredibly grateful and fortunate. There’s a strong, inner motivation.”
Photos by Tim Stepien
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