“The reason people are drawn to him is that he brings things back to everybody’s understanding,” says his sister, Debbie Shore, Share Our Strength’s associate director. “He could visit monuments or war sites or an art gallery and he can appropriately and perfectly tie it into the work we do. That’s his brilliance. That’s what keeps me so inspired by him.”

Besides inspiring his staff, Shore’s letters have served as the basis for three books on social values and civic responsibility. The latest, The Light of Conscience, published last year, centers on decisions and their consequences—moments of choice that can change a person’s life and the lives of countless others: A white ballplayer from the South, “Pee Wee” Reese, who chooses to put his arm around his black teammate, Jackie Robinson, to quell the racial invectives shouted from the stands. A doctor who picks up a fallen nurse infected with the Ebola virus and contracts the deadly disease in the process.

Or, in Shore’s own case, a political operative who learns about a famine in Africa and decides to do something about it. In 1984, Shore read a story in The Washington Post reporting that 200,000 people would die that summer in Ethiopia. He had just finished working on the presidential campaign of Colorado Senator Gary Hart, for whom he’d begun working shortly after his Penn graduation, starting as an intern and ultimately rising to legislative director and political director. Prompted by the news story, Shore traveled to Ethiopia and saw people starving because the cattle they relied upon for sustenance had died in a drought. At first, he considered what his boss should say and what legislation he could introduce to help the situation. But then, he says, he began to think for himself about getting more people involved than just those in the Capitol building. He shared his idea with his sister Debbie, who had also worked on the Hart campaign, and together they started a different kind of nonprofit in Share Our Strength, one that would generate its own money to help the hungry without government or foundation support.

“We had to find our competitive niche and say we’re not going to create something big and high-profile; we’re going to create a long-term lasting institution and one that will be self-sustaining and a reliable source of funding,” says Shore. “We didn’t just want to fight for our share of the charitable pie. We wanted to make it grow. We had to find ways to create wealth. That was what was guiding our thinking.”

Shore solicited chefs to cook for fundraisers, with the proceeds channeled to food banks and anti-hunger programs. In 1988, he established Taste of the Nation, an annual event in which chefs in cities around the country contribute 100 percent of ticket costs from food and wine tastings. Other programs include the Great American Bake Sale, begun in 2000, for which people hold bake sales in the summer and donate the proceeds to Share Our Strength; and Operation Frontline, a nutrition-education initiative started in 1993. About 18 percent of the organization’s funding goes toward international development via organizations that apply annually for the funds raised through Taste of the Nation, the Great American Bake Sale, and other revenue-generating platforms.

Shore also established a for-profit consulting firm called Community Wealth Ventures, an idea that sprung out of his first book, Revolution of the Heart (his second book, The Cathedral Within, focuses on people who have improved their communities). Established in 1997, the firm educates nonprofits on how to generate their own money and advises corporations on investing in their communities. Shore cites one client, a childcare organization based in Washington, that expanded its existing food-service operation to schools and assisted-living centers, creating revenues of about $400,000 a year.

In fact, he says he finds the wealth spreading everywhere he goes. At a gathering in Minneapolis, a man who ran a family-service organization told Shore he had heard him speak about community wealth several years before. He then went into real-estate development to support his nonprofit, a venture that amasses 20 percent of its budget. Moments later, a woman Shore didn’t recognize hugged him in an elevator. Inspired by Share Our Strength, she told him, the woman started a small beer company; 100 percent of the profits go to a program benefiting the working poor and at-risk youth.

“I think most people are looking to be challenged to think differently, to be inspired in terms of finding a connection between what they do and how to have meaning in their life,” Shore says.

A major source of wealth for Share Our Strength is through corporate partnerships. For example, in a highly publicized campaign that ran from 1993-96, American Express donated three cents to Share Our Strength every time a consumer used its credit card, for a total of $21 million. AmEx, which continues to sponsor Taste of the Nation, did not do this purely out of altruism, of course. At the time, the company was vying to gain acceptance for its card in restaurants, and the charitable venture increased its reach. Another current partner, poultry giant Tyson Foods, Inc., has been criticized for its treatment of both chickens and the company’s own workers.

Shore’s students debate the ethics of these kind of corporate and nonprofit partnerships in a class he teaches on social entrepreneurship at New York University’s Stern School of Business, where is he an adjunct professor. While he has at times rejected corporate partners who want to burnish their own company, as a social entrepreneur he doesn’t object to helping a company’s bottom line or reputation if it is also sincere about helping his cause.

Jeffrey Swartz, CEO of the Timberland Company and a Share Our Strength board member, says his partnership with Share Our Strength does indeed enhance the company. But not just on the balance sheet. “It gives us a chance to see ourselves—to use Billy’s words—as cathedral builders and see ourselves living our own revolution in our own hearts,” he says. “It’s a very powerful thing that Billy and Share Our Strength grant us as a gift. We translate that in a form of passion and excellence both from the commerce side and the justice side that I think is very good for our shareholders in the end.”

As a business executive who prides himself on a commitment to the pursuit of social justice as well as sales of his company’s boots, Swartz shares a natural affinity with Shore, who also serves on Timberland’s board of directors. The two men exchange e-mails frequently, often in the middle of the night, developing their passions and ideas, says Swartz. “[Billy] has the madness of vision. He pushes me, and I push him. He’s my guru.”

page 1 > 2 > 3