How JFK’s nephew is changing charity
Anthony Kennedy Shriver runs Best Buddies like a business
Having some of the most influential men and women in American history as uncles, aunts, siblings and parents, Anthony Kennedy Shriver could have done anything. Yet he decided to devote his career to society’s most disadvantaged children.
Run with business-like regimen, Best Buddies has 40 offices around the world, overseen by a powerful board of directors. Yet this a non-profit organisation, whose only goal is to help those who don’t fit the stereotype of success and normality. Its aim is to aid the intellectually disabled, by forging the kind of social bonds and offering the kind of opportunities that most able-minded people take for granted.
“It is an absolute civil rights issue that people with intellectual disabilities are not allowed the same opportunities that you and I have each and every day. We need to work relentlessly to provide them with friends, housing and employment. This is my passion,” says Shriver, 42, who founded Best Buddies over two decades ago and remains its Chief Executive Officer. While it might not have as high a profile as Oxfam or Amnesty International, Best Buddies attracts funding from the likes of Audi, Pepsi, BP and Hogan, all of whom have committed a share of their profits, year on year.
Shriver’s upbringing and background have both played a key role in fostering his passion. Helping disadvantaged people is something readily embraced by many members of the Kennedy clan.
“I have been exposed to people with learning disabilities from a very early age,” he explains. “My aunt Rosemary Kennedy was intellectually disabled, and my mother Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who started Special Olympics, encouraged us to ‘give back’ from a very early age.”
Indeed, Best Buddies’ uniquely social approach also has its roots in Shriver’s family tree. “I had the opportunity to see that loneliness is one of the biggest problems that people with intellectual disabilities face. But I also saw what a difference my mother’s organisation, Special Olympics, made in the lives of the individuals that participated in it. It’s amazing what a little encouragement from a friend – whether that friend is a teammate, classmate, or office-mate – can do.”
Shriver was still at college when he began helping the disabled but soon realised that, in order to turn his idealistic intentions into a viable and efficient worldwide organisation, he would need to learn a few tricks from the private sector. Fortunately, for a man who counts both JFK and Bobby Kennedy as uncles, leadership and executive panache came naturally.
“I am often asked if entrepreneurial and business instincts relate to the non-profit/charity sector,” he says. “My answer is that they are just as important to running a non-profit business as they are to running a Fortune 500 company. Best Buddies has 60,000 employees, offices in 40 countries in the world, and is continuously looking to expand. Our latest addition is an office in Milan and we are looking to set up one in the UK very soon. To run an organisation of this scale, you must think as if you were running a company, which aims to meet shareholders’ expectations.”
As in the commercial sector, Shriver realises that strategic diversification is the key to continued success.
“We are aware that we have to be active on different levels so our funds come from a wealth of sources: corporate sponsors, foundations, government partners, and individual donors. We work with a number of companies: some of them are sponsors, some of them are partners in cause-marketing campaigns, and some of them hire our programme participants.”
Just as large corporations are accountable to their shareholders, so large donors hold charities like Best Buddies to account.
“They want to see the impact Best Buddies has on the lives of our participants,” Shriver explains. “On a small level, that may mean watching a participant they know go out with friends, or get a job. On a larger level, that may mean watching Best Buddies continue to grow and expand, enhancing the lives of even more people with intellectual disabilities.”
Shriver lists the usual CEO gripes; locating and retaining good staff remains one of his biggest challenges, from grassroots volunteers through to grandees to serve on the organisation’s board. “It is a job which never ends,” he stresses.
Though the Kennedy connections clearly help, having a surname that opens certain doors only takes you so far: “The doors will slam shut as fast as they open if you don’t have a product and a strategy which is convincing, if you don’t bring results and make a real impact on the lives of the people you want to help.”
Still, there’s very much a family element to Best Buddies. “My wife, kids and I are very much involved in the lives of our Buddies,” he says, and you will often see him cycling around with one of them. Indeed, two-wheeled transportation plays a key role in Best Buddies fundraising strategies. “Cycling is something that almost anyone, regardless of age or ability, can do.”
Once funds are raised, Best Buddies distributes them through its six programmes: Middle Schools, High Schools and Colleges (each of which pairs intellectually disabled students with able-minded contemporaries, to help foster friendships), Citizens (pairing people with intellectual disabilities with individuals in the corporate and civic communities), e-Buddies (an email pen-pal program) and Jobs (an employment placement scheme).
This holistic approach to charitable work has had a profound effect on Shriver himself. “It is more than just a vocation; it is a way of life,” he says. “Best Buddies is today one of the largest and most successful non-profit organisations in the world. To me, success comes when one has a passion, whether it be for helping people, building automobiles, or developing software.”
From passion to expansion: “By the end of the present decade, Best Buddies aspires to operate offices in all 50 American states, expand our international programmes to 50 countries, and impact 500,000 people worldwide each year,” he says. “We have one main office in each of the 42 countries we have a presence in. Some countries, like Germany, also have regional offices. We are also establishing a regional office for Europe, which will be based in Milan.”
The current economic downturn hasn’t stymied these plans. “So far we have been very fortunate with our events and individual donors,” he says, “but we are down on government funding. “The good news is our funding sources are diverse, so when one sector is down another is up. Best Buddies will come out of the current recession stronger, smarter and as a more efficient organisation.”
This positive future in no small part thanks to Shriver’s own fortitude. As his late uncle JFK once put it: “Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.” www.bestbuddies.org
