Kicking the Grant Habit

Hello. My name is Michael and I'm a grantaholic. I've raised millions in foundation money over the past two decades, and I admit that the next time I need a financial fix, I'll be tempted to raise more. I have a problem. And here's what I'm doing about it.

Six years ago, when I stepped down from directing the Institute for Policy Studies, I started working with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to design a community-friendly poultry operation called Bay Friendly Chicken, a company designed to undo most of the anti-labor, anti-environment and anti-consumer-health practices of our principal competitors, Tyson and Perdue. Soon BFC will be issuing its first stock--available only to residents of the Chesapeake Bay bioregion, so we can keep ownership local.

BFC has multiple bottom lines. It will serve its investors, including the initial nonprofit sponsor, Community Ventures, which earned stock for writing a feasibility study and business plan. It will improve the lot of the myriad stakeholders in chicken production on the Eastern Shore. And it will serve as a model for how to create diversified ownership of a company through stock that is still rooted in community.

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