Anthony Shriver
Founder, Chairman, & CEO of Best Buddies
In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, I recently chatted with Anthony Shriver, the founder, chairman, and CEO of Best Buddies, a foundation dedicated to supporting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (“IDD”). Together with his team, he has improved millions of lives. Our conversation covered everything from sibling competition to the benefits of diversity in the workplace.
Anthony’s connection to the Special Olympics
Prior to founding the Special Olympics, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Anthony’s mother, hosted what was known as Camp Shriver. This camp was designed for intellectually and developmentally disabled people to learn and play sports while enjoying the outdoors in rural Maryland. She would bring people in by bus and show them the joys of swimming and riding horses, among other activities. This was a bit of an early precursor to what would eventually become the Special Olympics in 1968. Although today the organization is large and more centralized, it started as a more decentralized, grass roots movement with local chapters, similar to how Camp Shriver operated.
What does Best Buddies do?
Best Buddies is a nonprofit that helps create opportunities for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This is done, in part, by allowing volunteers to be paired up with a buddy from the program, providing them with friendship and mentorship along the way. In addition to this, there are several other arms of the operation—one of which is an employment arm that helps people find great quality, profitable jobs. There is also a housing program that helps find homes for individuals with IDD and pairs them up with a volunteer. Anthony believes that we can build a community that involves and supports people with IDD by supporting their unique needs and providing them with a network of people that they can talk to—and even go to for assistance, if needed.
The need for DEI
Although DEI was very popular a few years back, it’s slowly losing its popularity, as some large figureheads, like Bill Ackman, denounce it. Although Anthony is the CEO of one of the leading foundations promoting inclusion, even he thinks that the pendulum of DEI swung a little too far one way. He believes that although DEI is very important, there were a few years where it seemed that DEI was the only thing that companies were honing in on. Ultimately, DEI should not be used to just check boxes. Instead, it should be used to promote a wide range of thoughts and ideas, as diversity of thought and opinion is really what helps shape the future.
Want more?
I regularly get the opportunity to sit down with some of the most influential and generous people of our time, like Anthony. To see who our next guest is going to be, check out the Walker Webcast.
The Power of Inclusion with Anthony Shriver, Founder, Chairman, & CEO of Best Buddies
Willy Walker: Good afternoon, everyone. And in typical form my friend Anthony comes flying in at the last moment. I'm literally calling him. I'm calling friends. I'm like, “Where did the guy go.” This is Anthony passing me on a bike. He comes really hard. All right, I'm going to dive into an intro and then we'll dive in here Anthony, it's great to have you in.
Anthony Shriver: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Willy Walker: I'm really pleased to have my friend and mental health advocate Anthony Shriver joining me on the Walker Webcast today. Before I introduce Anthony, I'd also like to mention that May is Minds of All Kinds Month, as well as Jewish American Heritage Month. Given the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza and the growing incidents of anti-Semitism across the United States, we should all remember and celebrate the extremely important role that the Jewish people, their religion, and their culture have played in the history and success of our country.
Anthony Paul Shriver is an American activist for people with intellectual disabilities. In 1989, he founded Best Buddies International, an international organization that helps people with intellectual disabilities find employment and social opportunity. He is the nephew of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Senator Edward Kennedy. He is currently the chairman of his first cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr's We the People Party. He's an amazing athlete, a father of five, a graduate of Georgetown University, and a brother to Maria, Tim, Mark, and Bobby.
Anthony Shriver: I don’t know whether I like the last part. You didn't have to put that in there. The John F. Kennedy part was okay, but you didn't have to put the rest of them in there.
Willy Walker: Given the banter that you and I and two of your brothers have had over the last three days, I got to tell you, I'm happy I'm not a member of that clan, man. There's some true love, and there is some true competition amongst the Shriver group.
Anthony Shriver: I guess a lot of the latter. I don't know how much of that former partner, but.
Willy Walker: So we'll dive in in a moment. Anthony does a bunch of that stuff. But I want to wind the clock back. Your late uncle President Kennedy founded the Peace Corps by an executive order in 1961. And your dad was the first director of the Peace Corps? What did you learn from your dad as you talked to him? Reflecting upon that part of his very illustrious career as it relates to running that agency, growing that agency, and a little bit as it relates to what you've done with Best Buddies. But what are some of the things you recall your dad telling you about his time of launching the Peace Corps and growing the Peace Corps?
Anthony Shriver: I think that the most important lesson is he always communicated to us that there's no greater life than a life of service. And there's no more joy that's brought into your life than a life of service. And that if you're working day to day and trying to figure out ways to support others and to give back and to be other centered instead of self-centered. You're going to have a really happy life, and you're going to have a life full of faith, love, and joy. The Peace Corps is really an extension of the war on poverty an extension. And Special Olympics, all these programs are really extensions of the challenge that we have in our particular faith which is Catholicism. And it's the message of Jesus Christ and the way we were all raised. And I think there's so much joy in service and there's so many great people you meet and such a great sense of having a life of purpose. And every day you finish the day and how different your day is and how dynamic your day is and how interesting it is and the people you meet and how you feel it's hard to imagine any other career. And I think he used to just repeat that over and over, and we would see it around the dining room table. My mother and my father would have the most interesting dynamic conversations challenging each other, and inviting people who were involved in service around the table. And it just became so stimulating and so exciting and the places we would travel and in the United States and outside the United States all revolving around this incredible work. It's just hard to do that and then decide you want to be a dentist. It's just hard nothing against being a dentist.
Willy Walker: Thank you for that. Thank you for not saying just be a businessman like me. I appreciate you going after the dental profession, not the business world. Thank you.
Anthony Shriver: They made it become so addictive. The energy of it is super addictive. And I think Daddy's energy was always so high because I think every day he woke up with an innate and amazing sense of optimism and a day that was super challenging and would have ups and downs. But if he was lobbying for federal funding under the Peace Corps. Just because President Kennedy wanted to launch the Peace Corps, doesn't mean the money's coming from Congress. So he's used to talk about going up onto Capitol Hill and lobbying senators and congressmen and trying to get the Peace Corps Act authorized which is a whole process. But how dynamic and exciting the whirlwind of running around Capitol Hill just to get the money. And then you get the money and then what do you do next? And then running all over the world trying to launch these programs in these poor countries and trying to develop local bases of support and training the volunteers and setting up a whole organization that's training volunteers and educating volunteers and teaching them a foreign language. He just made it so exciting and dynamic and carried through the war on poverty under President Johnson with all the programs he started, whether it's Head Start or Job Corps, Vista, or Foster Grandparents. The list goes on and on. But the challenges are so similar. And building great teams and teams that execute and deliver set goals and follow through on the goals. And don't make excuses when there's failure and accept responsibility. Just all these great messages and ideas that you learn when you're involved in something that is only successful because you have to build a great community and you have to invest in people. And unless you give your time and your energy to other people, these things don't work. So it's a great way to grow up. It's a great message I think he gave to all of my siblings and of course to me and carried it through in his whole life. But it was really rooted always in his faith and his faith played a huge role in it all and always came back to that challenge. For us, Jesus Christ gives us every single day to be others-centered and just surrender to his plan not to our own plan, and release and let go and know that he's in charge. And I think Daddy was really a genius at surrendering and letting go and letting the big guy be in charge. And I think that's why he was so successful.
Willy Walker: In 1968 your mom started Special Olympics. So here's your dad launching the Peace Corps and then your mom founding the Special Olympics. That was 1968 you were three. There was also the same year that your late uncle was killed. What do you remember about that era Anthony? In the sense of both the excitement of your mom launching the Special Olympics. But then obviously, the tragic death of your uncle.
Anthony Shriver: I don't remember anything related to Uncle Bobby dying. I remember the evolution of the Special Olympics like it was a second ago. Because that carried over. We lived on a farm in Maryland and that carried over for many years beyond ‘68.
Willy Walker: There was a farm, but now it's a suburb. You realize that.
Anthony Shriver: Yes, sadly.
Willy Walker: I remember when Potomac, Maryland had beautiful long vistas and big rolling green hills. And today it's a bunch of McMansions. But anyway.
Anthony Shriver: Sadly, yeah. And we were actually where our farm was called Timberline. It was in Rockville and there are thousands of homes there now and a huge superhighway through it. But that went on for many years, ‘68 was really what happened at Soldier Field in Chicago. But what we call Camp Shriver was before ‘68, and Camp Shriver continued after ‘68. And Camp Shriver started again. Honestly in Potomac, Maryland my parents and that was the home they lived in before they passed away. She started Camp Shriver up again in her ‘80s and used to do that in the month of June at our house in Potomac, Maryland when she was literally in her 80s. So she was a super grassroots person, always was about the grassroots, really focused in on the mission at hand, really focused on the people with special needs and really getting right to them and working directly with them one on one. She wasn’t an operating person at a business level. She wasn’t a great fundraiser, to be honest with you. She wasn’t a great team builder organizer. That wasn't my mother's strength, my mother's strength which is shared grit, energy, determination, and a real focus on the mission at hand. Staying true to that and not getting bogged down in the execution of the administration and the operation of a business, because obviously, a special needs evolved into a really big business. So that really wasn't her strength. So she was in the pool and she was on the track field and she was right out there day in, day out. I think her real calling was to be a coach, to be honest. She loved sports, she loved coaching. She loved being in it day in and day out. And she was really good at it, as we all know. You have to figure out what you really love. And then when you love it, you're really good at it. So that's what she was good at. And then Special Olympics evolved into an organization. But its structure really has evolved it's all built out at the state level. And there are separate organizations in every state. And they have their own board of directors and their own executive team. So, it was a very decentralized operation because that really wasn't what she was interested in. But it was a whirlwind. Camp Shriver which started in Timberline was crazy. I remember a second ago, we bussed in big yellow school buses with people with intellectual disabilities. And in those days, it was the ‘60s and ‘70s, and they came dressed in a variety of different ways and all different types of shoes and sneakers and all different hygiene and haircuts. And it was quite a show. It'd be quite a show even today. But it was really a show then. We lived next door to, our property bordered a facility that housed people with intellectual disabilities who actually lived there on this campus. It would be like Willowbrook which is very famous from New York State. It was a very famous institution. And my actual Uncle Bobby was instrumental in closing in New York State. Geraldo Rivera did a big exposé on that which is an interesting thing to watch if your viewers ever have time. Anyways, Uncle Bobby went to visit that, but the place next door to us was similar to that, and she would bus a lot of them in and bussed them in from other institutions in the Maryland area to get out there and start getting engaged in sports. And in those days, they didn't have shorts and they had shirts and there were no uniforms and no training. But she did it. She put them on the field and she created obstacle courses. And we had some horses. She put them on the horses and put them in our pool. And the list goes on and on. But when she was doing that, Daddy was doing his thing. He was over and became ambassador to France under Lyndon Johnson. So we went over to France in the late ‘60s and early '70s, and she brought that to France. You can imagine that even more shocking experience for people with intellectual disabilities in the embassy in Paris and trying to get that going in Paris was quite a scene for the French, in particular. But I do remember France, I was young, but I do remember that. Then, of course, Daddy came back in the ‘70s and ran with George McGovern for vice president against Richard Nixon. But that was great.
Willy Walker: Final thing on your folks Anthony, just one quick thing on your mom before we move on because I want to get to you and Best Buddies and all that stuff. Your mom went to Stanford. When I think Kennedy, I think Harvard for your uncles, Yale for your dad, Yale for your brother. Seems you all are pretty much New England, East Coast Ivy League schools. Was your mom something of a rebel by going to Stanford?
Anthony Shriver: Nobody can quite understand it, and we never could get a straight answer from her. What was going on there? But there are still some family secrets. I don't really know the ins and outs of that. It's very strange. Always watched us and we'd sort of bring it up and she'd look at us and smile and move to change the conversation. So I don't know what the dynamic was going on there, but to go all the way across the country and be a woman and go to that university was very unusual in that era.
Willy Walker: In that age, very much so.
Anthony Shriver: I have no idea what was going on. I still don't know exactly what was going on, but I'm sure there's something sketchy going on and I don't want to know more about it. I find it really unusual. I think everybody in the family found it really unusual. We were completely a northeast family.
Willy Walker: You went to Georgetown Prep, which, some of our listeners may know, happens to be the school where two Supreme Court justices went as well as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. As someone who went to Saint Alban's School, I don't like saying that about PREP. So how many illustrious alums PREP have? But you went from PREP to Brown and then transferred from Brown to Georgetown. Why the transfer from Providence to DC?
Anthony Shriver: Wow. You really do your research and you get all this details. I think everybody in my family wants to know about that switch. I just had a lot of different things going on in my life and that situation. And I think it was probably encouraged for me to move back to Washington, DC, and have a little bit more supervision. I guess that would be the best way to put it. But it just wasn't the right time? And I think being closer to my parents at that time was probably the right move for me. That worked out great. I don't think they say God's plan. I don't think I ever would've started Best Buddies if I had been at Brown because the spirit of service and giving back was really embedded in the culture at Georgetown more than Brown University, to be honest with you. I think it was the right fit for me. And we all get to where we belong in mysterious ways. But I certainly left Brown in a mysterious way. And then Georgetown and unusual way. But it all worked out definitely for the best. So I'm happy about that. Honestly, when I was at PREP, we never had a sense that we thought Saint always was where the big shots went and smart people went. And all the political people's kids all went to Saint Alban’s. And that's where the brains went. And the people that were more middle-of-the-road sports-oriented and wanted a Catholic education went to PREP. But Kavanaugh was there when I was there and both of them were actually there when I was there. Powell wasn’t there when I was there. But it's incredible. And, I have very good memories definitely of him. He was always very conservative even when he was a student. And, at PREP, most of the PREP kids were pretty conservative I would say as a general.
Willy Walker: You were the head of the Young Democrats and he was the head of the Younger Republicans. The two of you went at it.
You were a history and theology major at Georgetown. You mentioned a moment ago how important your faith is to you, Anthony. I've also seen you both running Best Buddies. The way you manage your life and the people around it. And you talked a moment about your faith and about letting go. But talk for a moment about the role that faith plays in your life and being a very type A person yet allowing your faith to allow you to let go.
Anthony Shriver: It's a good question. Honestly, I haven't thought about that. Seems diametrically opposed, I guess when you really think about it, it doesn't sort of go together. Although it does go together. I guess at the end of the day it went really well. I'm still working at it, so I don't want to come across at all as preachy or that I've got it down. I definitely don't have it down. It's a work in progress and I try hard to be focused on it as much as I can, day in and day out. Days I slip and go back and grab and grip and hold on tight. And then there's days where I really let go and I try to really surrender. And I see the incredible response and incredible success as a result of doing it, which builds my confidence in my faith because it's scary. I think that's the first thing I always remind myself it's normal to be scared and have a lot of fear about where you're going to go. If you really let go and surrender you try to not take control and own every single situation. I think it's super hard. And if I'm a young person, I think it's even more difficult to someone young. I think it's hard. I talk to my kids about it a lot. But I think it's a process as everything is and it takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of patience. It takes a lot of prayer, I guess. I don't want to come across as preachy at all, but a lot of prayer. And I think it takes a lot of time to develop your relationship. And again, in my religion, Jesus Christ is this central figure in our faith. And whatever faith people have I have the most respect for. But I don't know how people get through their daily life without faith. Honestly, I just don't know how they do it. And I certainly wouldn't be able to get through it and wouldn't be able to figure out how to get on first base without it. But I think it's a lot of practice. I think it's God who shows you that when you surrender, you'll see things start coming your way much more easily and in a much more calm, more successful way. I think it builds your confidence, or at least builds my confidence, and reassures me that I'm doing the right thing and reassures me that the more I let it go, the more it comes to me. They seem to work in the opposite, but they actually work perfectly in tandem. Before I let it go, push it away, the more it comes closer to me.
Willy Walker: Was there a seminal event or a person who, if you will, whether it be a father or not, a father in the church who got you down that path of surrender?
Anthony Shriver: I grew up really engaged in faith. So I saw it all the time. I think my surrender thing, a lot of it. I would say in many ways, when my marriage ended and going through that whole process, the tension and the emotion and the stress of all that kind of brought me closer back to recognizing that I was so powerless in the process. The only way to get through that and to achieve any calm and steadiness in my life, my emotional, and spiritual life is to turn it over to God. And that he's got a plan for me and it's got to be his plan. Otherwise, this wouldn't possibly be happening. He wouldn't want this for me. And the more that I kept reminding myself and recognizing that and saying you're in charge, you do whatever however you see fit. So everything started working out and got calmer and steadier and the process evolved and everything worked out for the best. But it didn't work out for the best when I was trying to hold on. And that I was worrying about all the different things I was losing or changing or my finances and all those things that people worry about when they go through a process like that which is incredibly draining. Anybody that's been through it, I think probably the most emotional thing you go through in your life is that you would think the more that you hold on and you try to control it and manage it the more success you have. But I found that when I started to do less and turn moreover, I actually was making more progress and things were going smoother and I was calmer and my kids were calmer. That was really, I guess, the most pivotal moment for me to really see it the most in action because before that, I've been to a lot of funerals in my life and we've had a lot of crazy stuff happen in my family. But nothing hit me in the same way that looked me right in the eye that I had to manage and deal with myself which was emotionally overwhelming. Even beyond going to a funeral, to be honest with you. And, when I started seeing it work in that situation, I started really building my confidence and started using it more, and then it just kept growing and growing. And it's really, I think grown for me in a big way in the last 5 to 7 years since I've gone through that and how helpful it's been and then how I've been able to use it so many other things in my life. And the more I've done it in my job, the more Best Buddies has grown crazy in the last 5 to 7 years. I wake up some days and I can't believe the corporate lineup that we have and all these blue chip companies now and I sometimes go, where did this all come from? Or how do we keep getting all these people? And it comes so much easier before I would hunt them like crazy and I work, I travel, I’d call like crazy. And I still travel and call, if they don't respond or I don't get them, I just move on to the next one and I don't worry about it at all. And then the next one pops up out of nowhere. If someone calls and says, “Hey, you want to check out BMW, they want to do this, but they just come out of nowhere.” So I just built a lot of confidence as a result. And it just keeps going. And it happens with my fitness. It happens really with everything. So I've just become a big believer in it.
Willy Walker: There's so much in there. You mentioned you've been to a number of funerals. I wasn't planning on talking about this, but your father's funeral in 2011 was honestly, of all the celebrations of life that I've gone to, your dad's funeral was truly one of the most amazing events I've ever been at. Obviously, because he was such an incredible person. And the people who were there, but also, what you and your siblings said about your dad? You got out of college, what ‘85, ‘86? And you started Best Buddies in ‘89? What was it Anthony that gave you that entrepreneurial spirit in the sense that there are plenty of other things you could have done? There were plenty of political campaigns you could have plugged right into. As you said previously, you didn't want to be a dentist, I got it. But what was it that said to you, “I need to create my own organization.” There was the Special Olympics. There was the Peace Corps. You could have gone down the Peace Corps. There are lots of things that you could have plugged into. What was it that said, “I not only need to focus on this, but I need to do it myself.”
Anthony Shriver: I've always been entrepreneurial. I'm sure you learned this with your kids. Since I was a little kid, I have always had side hustles and side deals. Whether I was selling puppies or selling pigs or selling candles in the summer or stealing wax out of a dumpster boiling it on the stove and then selling them on the street. I always had a little deal. I was trying to hustle stuff because I was just creative, and I thought it was fun and exciting and dynamic and I loved building something. So the entrepreneurial thing has always been part of my nature from when I was really young. And I think it's just the way I am, the way I was born. And I'm sure you've got the same experience in your own career. You probably were where like you are now when you were 10 or 8 or even maybe younger. I find it remarkable and we try to mold our kids and push our kids in certain ways. And it's God's plan. God made him in a certain way. And if they want to hustle and work ten hours, 15 hours a day, they want to wake up super early and build their own thing they will. But if they don't, you can ask them all day long to do it, and it's just not going to do it at the end of the day.
Willy Walker: One thing on that, let me cut across you for a second. That's what I find to be so incredible about your family, is that parents can push kids to do this or that. But your parents had the ability to instill in you and your four siblings this incredible sense of service. For all your entrepreneurial spirit you pursued entrepreneurship in a nonprofit give-back mode rather than I'm going to go be some billionaire, which I find to be really interesting and special. And obviously, that loops back to the faith portion of it, and being a big piece of it. But hearing you say that as you were talking about your parents and what they instilled in you. I do find it to be exemplary that you and all of your siblings have focused on lives of service rather than going and doing your own thing.
Anthony Shriver: So now you're super nice to say it. It goes back to what I was trying to say from the beginning. I think when you start doing it, it's just super addictive. And you look at these other things that are out there and I go to all these businesses. I was at Coca-Cola headquarters last week. It's an incredible company. But Rolex is a huge sponsor. I'm up there at their corporate headquarters. I've been to Geneva to their global headquarters and the one in New York on Fifth Avenue. And I've been to Jersey Mike's headquarters. And it's just so hard. And I love those companies, and they're so good to us. But I walk in the halls and I have meetings or I go to the conference rooms or I meet with the environment. The Coke team was really amazing. The history of the company and the founding CEO was a great guy, and how he gave back. And it's really an incredible business. And it's part of American history. It's not the same and it doesn't feel the same. And I think within the Best Buddies environment would have been able to be super entrepreneurial. We have a whole for-profit business division here where we've opened up all these bakeries and we're opening up Jersey Mike's co-branded stores now with the founder of Jersey Mike's. And to make money on a cash flow basis so that we're not asking people for money. And you came to one of our camps and I hope you feel we have a camp that's a good product in the marketplace. And the fact that Best Buddies owns that camp. It isn't run any differently than it if I owned it and I was putting the profit in my pocket. So those are all little entrepreneurial things that I can continue to do. Best Buddies allows me to come up with an idea with you right now, and we want to do it. I can start it tonight and go with it. To be in any kind of other environment, it's super hard. I find that I have that freedom.
To go back to your original thing about the Best Buddies thing and doing my thing. I think just to be candid with you part of its ego. I come from a family with big egos. I'm just being honest. And I think wanting to do your own thing and breaking out on your own was a big thing for me. I grew up in Washington, DC. I had the whole evolution of coming back to Georgetown from Brown and being supervised a little bit more closely in Washington, DC. Wanting to get out of there and do my own thing and come to a new city that everybody thought was pretty much a dump in the South and Miami was full of immigrants and people that didn't speak English. And which I always found interesting; the diversity of it all. And trying to make a mark on my own way. There was nobody in my own family here at all. I was nobody even in Florida, much less Miami. I found that challenging and exciting and followed my spirit of wanting to do my own thing and start my own thing and be my own man. For lack of a better word or lack of a better explanation, to be candid with you. And I think I found my way here and for a variety of different reasons. And I definitely was able to develop my own reputation. I was definitely able to build Best Buddies. There were no other global nonprofits headquartered in Miami. Everybody was in New York and everybody was in Washington, D.C. that's where all the big charities were.
Willy Walker: How that is changing today.
Anthony Shriver: I don't know, but I look like a genius. I picked Miami 35 years ago now. Everybody and there sisters coming here. But the city is such a different place. But I think it's wanting to do your own thing. I think that was also instilled in my family. Everybody, even though we were in similar businesses and some of them were in politics, I think everybody always had this spirit of wanting to break out on their own. Somehow prove their stripes. For the lack of a better word. Business as you said, “it's so competitive.” And it is really competitive. And the competitive thing it's good and it's bad. It gets you up early in the morning and makes you hustle. The bad part is it's competitive and you get competitive with the people in your own family. And that can create emotion and that can last for years and years and carry on even for decades. And it's hard to get rid of that spirit in the competition with people in your own family and your own cousins. And I think you see some of that going on. And my cousin Bobby Kennedy's campaign for president, I think there's a lot of competition there. I think there's a lot of jealousy there. There are a lot of people in the family themselves who would like to be running for president who aren't. And whether Bobby had the courage or the gumption or the desire or the ego whatever you want to call it, to do good and to be in that position. I think is challenging for a lot of people. So whether we were playing on the football field or we were sailing a boat, racing each other we were always in a very competitive environment that our parents put us in. I think my grandfather started that by having his kids compete against each other. We grew up in an environment where we competed against each other straight on. So I think it's funny and everybody laughs about it. But, at the end of the day, some of it is serious. And it does get people cut to their core and can be, I think, emotionally challenging for a lot of people. And I think honestly, a lot of that you're seeing that on a national stage with my cousin, but that goes on at a much more local level in Hyannis Port or on a football field or on a tennis court, or in our jobs and in our careers. And I think in a lot of ways that's partially why I'm sitting here in my office in downtown Miami.
Willy Walker: By the way, you and I are taking down Tim and Mark in that two-on-two-volume. Just so we're clear on that one. I think they'll watch this.
Anthony Shriver: And they're not really competitive. There is not really competition anymore. (laughter)
Willy Walker: Yeah, exactly.
Anthony Shriver: It's easy for us. It's too easy.
Willy Walker: With your height on my team, I feel very comfortable.
So Best Buddies now, you've got a number of different what I would call services that Best Buddies focuses on. Let's just for a moment, I want to move from that to the philanthropy of it. And because you've been masterful, I think, Anthony, as it relates to how you have created the fundraising machine that propels Best Buddies into new areas. But, right now you have Best Buddies friends in about 3000 schools across the country. Just for a moment, to anyone who's listening, who doesn't understand what Best Buddies Friends does, what does Best Buddies Friends do?
Anthony Shriver: Well, it's a mentoring program. So we're in about 3300 schools globally, where we pair people with intellectual developmental disabilities, 1 to 1 with young student volunteers who mentor. And so that's been super effective. And I think it is really meaningful to create lasting friendships where people with special needs develop social skills. Because if they don't have good social skills and they don't have a good network and support, encouragement, and confidence, like all of us, it's really difficult to find them a job or to find them a place to live in the community and for them to be actively engaged in community life. And I think it's a good starting point for everybody to have a strong social network and to build your confidence through a network of friends. I don't know how anybody gets anywhere in life without a great network of friends. They're the great derby of all of our lives. So I think giving people intellectual disabilities is critical for the long term. So that's why we start with that.
Willy Walker: And then Best Buddies housing.
Anthony Shriver: So we have five pillars of the organization. We have our school-based programs which have programs that mentor middle schools, high schools, and universities. We have an adult-based mentoring program. We have an employment program. We find them good solid competitive jobs.
Willy Walker: Give the stat on the number of people with IDD who are unemployed.
Anthony Shriver: It's about 84% in the United States. Higher outside the United States. On a gross basis, the people who participate in Best Buddies they generate revenue for themselves about $28 million a year. So it's a significant number that they get paid on an annual basis. They pay taxes on that money. But more importantly than paying taxes, they feel part of a community, part of a company, and they do a great job. And we have a lot of people that are star employees in major companies whether it's TJX, they've hired 500 people. Jersey Mike's just committed to hiring 3000 people. So we have some of these big multinationals that are committed to major numbers of jobs. But our people come in and like we have a buddy that works in the NFL and he's a statistician in the NFL, and they've got about 20 people that are statisticians. And our buddy's got autism. And he's rated number one every single week above everybody else. He's the only disabled person because his attention span and focus on the screens and on each play is better than anybody else. So he's the perfect person for that job. So I think the key to our employment program is to me. The key with every job is you got to find the person and they got to have the passion for the job and they got to have the skill sets for the job to succeed. I think many of our participants have the skill sets and the passion to do a job. This guy in particular loves the NFL, loves football, and also has autism where he has the concentration or the ability to focus in a very narrow way to watch a screen all day on Sunday and Monday night and Thursday Night Football to do his job really well. So we have thousands of people working in our jobs program, which is I think hugely important and really allows them to transition into staring at a television or being on Social Security income and earning a good solid wage, paying taxes, and being part of the culture of a company that believes in hiring and having diversity in the workforce. So we have our jobs program and then we have a housing program where, again, it's unified and it's people living side by side non-disabled with disabled. We connect it to our university program so that the buddies can find jobs at the universities and can be part of the whole fabric of a university with sports and culture and community which is so important. So we try to find our ability to place them in housing programs that are literally within a mile of the universities. The idea even across the street is even better if we can find those locations. So we've got a great corporate partner who's the largest producer of student housing in the United States called Landmark out of Georgia. And so we have a good partnership with them which is allowed.
Willy Walker: I know Wes very well.
Anthony Shriver: Oh, yeah.
Willy Walker: Oh yeah, very well.
Anthony Shriver: My God, what a small world. So he's given us some good deals on these properties, and we're trying to go into all the Landmark properties around the United States because the products that they're building meet the standards that we want to try to deliver for our people with intellectual disabilities. And they're living in the community there. And it's worked really well. I think they were renting a bunch of their apartments, and we supervise it through our program. And they're scaling that housing program really fast and they're building them all over the place. So anyway, having a partner like that is really helpful. And he's a really nice guy and a good guy and obviously super smart.
Willy Walker: Wes has done absolutely well. The way you talk about the buddies, I've met a number of them being with you both in Miami as well as in California. When someone, if you will, gets into the Best Buddies program, how long are they typically a buddy? Once you become one, you stay one for your entire life. Do you have a certain period that you will be actively engaged with Best Buddies and then move on or how does that work?
Anthony Shriver: It varies. To be honest with you, the minimum commitment when someone joins is a year. But I was at our event in Nashville on Saturday. We did our Mother's Day event. And multiple people came up to me. I've been paired up with my buddy for 12 years. I've been paired up for 15 years. I've been paired up for ten years. And then you have buddies that are paired up for our school year and they stop and they leave, or someone pairs up their senior in high school and they go off to college and they may keep in touch with their buddy, or they may not, like normal friendships. Some of them are at people's weddings. One of the buddy pairs I was with on Saturday gave me the story that her buddy was a bridesmaid at her wedding. So that's a great success story. I have a buddy down here, my official buddy. Although I have so many, my official buddy, I've known him. I met him when I first moved to Miami and got paired up 32 years ago. So he's been around a long time. And he's been in our jobs program now for probably 28 years. So that's a long time. So they vary all over the place. But the school programs, we recruit kids, we get them in. We want them to have the experience, and we ask that they do it for a minimum of a year. And some do it long or some do it for the year. And they're not all home runs. I don't say everything works out perfectly. Not every pair that we set up, not every relationship works out great. Some of them we have to shut down. Some of them don't work at all. Some of the student volunteers are terrible. In some cases, they say they're going to do it and they don't. And they flake and they never reach out to the buddy, which is heartbreaking. But it happens. And I want to make sure I don't misrepresent what's going on here because we have the success stories. But then we also have stories that are super challenging and students who are disappointing and don't do what they're supposed to do and aren't focused. And we haven't been able to motivate them successfully.
Willy Walker: The way you run Best Buddies, having participated in a number of your events. I believe Anthony, have an incredible customer service mentality. And I think it's somewhat unique in the nonprofit world. A lot of people in the nonprofit world think you like my cause, and I'm not going to pick if I pick some name out of the ether. I don't want to in any way be implying that they don't get customer service. But you give to some environmental cause, some education institution. And there's a sense that because you either went to the university or because you're deep into environmental conservation, it's a one-way street. Write the check, I’ll have you all cocktail party and it's all good, but thanks. We've got the policy, we've got the engagement, and you're here as a contributor but not an active participant. And the way I watch you and your team engage with people who support Best Buddies is as good as any service organization in the country. What I did with you two weeks ago in California, from top to bottom, the service level, the attention to detail were as good as any corporate event I've ever gone to with unlimited resources. But I mean that. There are plenty of things I can compliment you on. What I'm key on here Anthony is this, where did you get that service mentality? Because that's not usual. There are tons of companies that know that if they could be better at customer service, they'd be better customers. Their customers would stay longer, they'd spend more money, but they don't get it. They don't know how to apply service and have people come out of an experience feeling fully delighted. And I will tell you that in my personal engagement, I've been engaged with lots and lots of organizations, for-profit, nonprofit, hotels, concerts, and all sorts of things that you and your team pull it off better than almost anyone. Where does that come from?
Anthony Shriver: As you know, from running all these businesses, I have an incredible team. So, I know it's a cliche, but it's really true. And I have a lot of people that stay here for a really long time, and really buy into the culture that we have here that I've tried to build from the beginning. I still have the first guy I ever hired out of college who still works here. So I think having continuity in staff and having a real sense of culture and understanding the culture and the dynamic of the culture is super important. So I put a lot of time and energy into that. I’ve always had the spirit of gratitude, honestly. I lead really with gratitude. And I have so much gratitude for the people who share their treasure with us. And for the work that it takes to generate and raise money, I know how much work it takes for those people to make money in whatever businesses they're in. And I know every business is super competitive, and I have that in my mind all the time. And I know when someone shares your treasure with us, it's really a lot of work to write a check for ten grand or 20 grand or 100 grand or a million, 5 million, or whatever the money is or for $100. And I just know it's really hard for people to part with your treasure. I think typically it's just a challenging thing to do. And I've always wanted people to know I'm super grateful, and I take it with the utmost sense of responsibility to ensure that what they did to earn that money, that we manage it in an efficient and meaningful way, and that we put it to good use and that we show appreciation all the time. And I think we try to show appreciation by constantly trying to understand how we can be more supportive of what I always call as our customers. What do they need and what do they want? And whether it's a customer who comes through a camp, who needs a bike that works or needs nutrition that feeds them so that they can perform to their best, or that there's a camper and it's got a candle in it because it should smell good when you walk into the camper. Or whether it's Rolex and what signage they want in order to drive revenue to sell more watches, or whether it's Jersey Mike's and being able to build their culture and support it by working with our people and being able to deliver on our end of the bargain. I don't ever view my work as a handout. And I think I always tried to have a sense that you have to earn your stripes and you have to work super hard, and you need to remind yourself constantly that whatever success you have, it's by the grace of God and that you need to be grateful for it. And you need to continue to express gratitude on an ongoing basis. And I try to articulate to the team that those are the ways that we can show gratitude by treating people well when they arrive, by giving people an experience that's hopefully unique to Best Buddies. And that they understand if we treat them that way, that we're treating the participants that we work with the same way because I never go to anybody and meet them and there’s one aspect of their business or one aspect of their life that’s really organized, really tight, really efficient. And then the other part of it's a disaster and a mess and sloppy. It's so many of these really wealthy people that I meet you go to their business and it's super tight. You go to their house, it's super tight. You look in the refrigerator, it's really organized. And I think it goes to everything that you do. And I say to them constantly if people who are investing in us come in, they see we're running. They're part of what their experience is super tight. They're going to know that the thing that they're investing in the programs that they're investing in, they're going to be run the same way. It would be absurd for me to be super interested in having the bikes work really well at a camp or the candle of their food good. And then all the programming I have for all the students would be a disaster. It just would be inconsistent with someone's personality. People just in my judgment, don't really work that way. So I think it's a lot of different things. I'm also just really for lack of a better word, super anal. I pay enormous attention to detail and try to constantly take care of the things that I've been given and the treasures that I have. And it's again my personality. I've been that since I was little. I care for my bikes. I care for the office. I try to care for our employees. I try to care for our customers. I try to eat the right foods. I'm caring for the body that God has given me. So, I think it is all my nature, I guess, the culture that we have here. But I appreciate a lot what you said means a lot to me. And trying super hard to continue to do it well and to try to deliver excellence in everything that we do.
Willy Walker: You've had a number of GOATs. Be active fundraisers and supporters of Best Buddies. There are not many organizations that have a number of GOATs who have been engaged. They get one big name or whatever. But you've had Muhammad Ali, Carl Lewis, and Tom Brady, three GOATs in their respective field. Be big supporters of Best Buddies. First of all, just for a second, what was Ali like?
Anthony Shriver: Yeah, don't forget all our cycling GOATs.
Willy Walker: Look, we got plenty of cycling GOATs, but when you and I talk about Chris Froome and the others that you and I love, and most of the people on this webcast are like, kudos. I hate to say it, but our love for cycling doesn't exactly go across like Muhammad Ali or Tom Brady. But first of all, Tom has been… You talk about people who give you their treasure and who invest and see it come back. Tom has been a supporter of Best Buddies for over two decades. 20 years, correct.
Anthony Shriver: 25, almost.
Willy Walker: That's incredible to have somebody with his... Everybody wants a piece of Tom. And so the idea that he keeps connecting and you're about to do your event in Boston?
Anthony Shriver: Correct.
Willy Walker: But for a second, go to Ali. Because I'm just intrigued by Ali. My mom met Ali once and didn't really have the ability to talk to him. She was just photographing him. But I'm intrigued because there's only one Muhammad Ali.
Anthony Shriver: I'm lucky. He was great. And he came to so many of our events, and he came to my house so many different times and participated in such a big way for Best Buddies participating when we were a really small organization and it didn't have big budgets and huge events all over the world. So it was great. These people, their character is so clear to me. And who they really are truly is so clear when you really spend time with them. And I think he was such a guy focused on the underdog. And I think he was such an underdog his whole life. And I think his relationship and his connection with and the empathy that he had. And I think just the way he gravitated to people that had intellectual disabilities and his empathy to those people because I think he felt their struggle and he felt their sense of being isolated and segregated against and didn't have a seat at the table. And I think through his whole life, I think in so many different ways, you never felt like he had a seat at the table, and he fought so hard to have a seat at the table. Obviously, his life, his history, and his activism is obviously extremely famous. I don't need to go through it all, but I think there's a lot of how he grew up that I think resonated with the way people with intellectual disabilities grew up and were treated. So I think the connection of our cause for him, I think was strong. I think it was stronger for him than for any of the other people that we've had, or that you even name there, to be honest with you. So I think we had that, as I always say, “our magic, is our buddies.” They are the secret sauce. And I think the more that we try to get people to connect to that without beating them over the head and getting to see, the joy that these people bring into our world and the incredible contributions they can make when given the opportunity, I think, is what is the best way to sell what we do and to keep people who are super successful connected to it, where they feel our mission in action. They feel the enormous success with their participation and what the success and impact they can have on people with intellectual disabilities. I think Ali was acutely aware of his celebrity, his influence and his power to move people in a direction, especially at the end of his life. And how people would absolutely going insane over him anywhere he went, the biggest star that I've probably ever been around, I think. And I've seen a few of the movie stars who are big and they got a lot of attention. But I think Ali was a special, unique figure in the history of our country for so many reasons.
Willy Walker: And will Brady already ride a bike when you guys do your bike thing. Does he still ride?
Anthony Shriver: The only time he ever rode a bike was when he rode a bike the first year, he ever did it, and then he got to be. I guess what everybody would refer to now is the GOAT, and he went off the bike and never got back on the bike. But he did the other stuff threw out the football. We had a football game at Harvard. He played in the game, he was the quarterback, and he gave us a lot of time. He was there Friday. All day Saturday. We used to do a criterium race on tandem bikes with a buddy on the back and football players in the front. He rode in those every year. He shot a PSA, we sold Tom Brady t-shirts and we have Tom Brady licensed plays in the state of Florida now with his face on the license plate. So we honored him in November. He showed up and sat at the table at dinner, gave a speech and threw out the football. I have nothing but good things to say about him. And I think he's had great relationships with many of our buddies over long periods of time. And when they've been sick, he calls them on the phone. And he's really been genuine. I give example after example, but I've tried to also make it a two-way street for him. I've tried to connect with the mission, make him feel great about what he's doing, and hook up with some of our corporate sponsors. And try to do deals for him. Audi became a huge sponsor of Tom, and he had cars and drove them. And we did a deal on the side. He got paid for that. Every person I bring in I try to think about how this can be a mutually beneficial relationship. How can we do this together? It doesn't have to be a one-way street. It doesn't have to be all about Best Buddies. It can be about the cyclist as well as Best Buddies. It's like, I hope you come to the camp, you have a great experience and you also know that we're getting a lot out of it because we're raising a lot of money to deliver on our programing. But celebrities can come to these things and also, we can figure out ways to support them. We just have Drake Maye who's the third pick of the NFL draft. We actually just announced that he's going to become the new chair of the ride in Boston.
Willy Walker: Neat
Anthony Shriver: Because you know, he's 21, he's young and he's new and he's playing. And I think we got to keep it moving. Tom is still definitely involved. And he's an ambassador. But we have to bring new blood into everything that we do and certainly be respectful of the people who have already participated. Carl Lewis has been helping for, I don't know, 31 years probably. He's one of the first people I ever got to Best Buddies on the East Coast. He showed up and displayed all his nine gold medals in our events before and held events at his house. And to me, it's a lot of work for these guys. But again I think trying to keep them connected, try to show them respect, give them good service, and try to give them a good experience I think is key and not take anything for granted. You know. And I think we have to keep reminding ourselves how lucky we are to have these people who participate and show them the love that they deserve.
Willy Walker: Final thing Anthony, there seems to be a big push back on DE&I these days. Bill Ackman is one of the most vocal people out there as it relates to at least corporations moving away from DE&I and not being quite as focused as if you will, Larry Fink and Blackrock would like corporations to be focused on DE&I. Given that Best Buddies is all about inclusion and diversity and bringing in diverse talent. What do you say when you hear people like Bill Ackman out there saying, “We should downplay DE&I and inclusion and diversity and inclusion across the country?”
Anthony Shriver: I think there's a middle ground. The country went pretty crazy on it and pretty extreme. And so people see like me here at Best Buddies seeing enormous amounts of pressure to be doing things in the way that we both had to do them. Otherwise, we got into trouble. So, I think we came to the issue and he did fire up the gaslighting environment. And I think it started to settle back down. I think there's a place for it. And I think diversity in the workforce creates great companies and great businesses. And if you don't have different opinions at the table, I think you fail in the long run and you lose. And I believe that in my core. But I think having the pressure and being hammered to do certain things and to check certain boxes, I think is wrong and not effective. And I think great leaders want different views. And I think great leaders and great companies thrive long term. I think the best way to do it is to show that you have a diverse workforce and that you're bringing people in who are qualified and you're not bringing people out just because you want to check a box.
So I think a way to do it and do it really well and have a really great business and to be really successful and make money and grow your business and know that those businesses are the businesses that have diversity in the workforce. But not to overwhelm them and pick them and go knock on them, if they don't have X percentage of this group or X percentage of that group, I think a lot of that was going on and a lot of people felt pressure, including me, I felt a lot of pressure. So I think we've got to find a middle ground that works well. But I think the whole card and people being victims and that you have to allocate certain slots for certain people because they've been victimized. I don't think that mentality is positive. And I don't think it gets us to where we want to go. And it doesn't build great companies and doesn't give employees the right environment to work in.
Willy Walker: So given that we're in the month of minds of all kinds, I'm super appreciative of you joining me, Anthony. It's been…
Anthony Shriver: Oh, thank you.
Willy Walker: Super insightful. Finally, how does it feel to be a granddad? And how does it feel to have your daughter, Carolina graduate from your alma mater? Those both have got to be fun things. But making you feel a little old.
Anthony Shriver: I thank God my grandchildren don't call me grandpa. By the grace of God, that name faded real quickly. But, yeah, I'm super proud of it. Going to Georgetown next weekend, and she's graduating and walking down the aisle finally. We're getting one, another one through that. So I'm proud. And she's doing some stuff here with Best Buddies, which is great too. And, I don't know, God is great. And as you're on the bike and you're doing your job and you're working hard and waking up early your family's healthy. And you got God at the center of it all. It's pretty hard to beat that life. So I'm eternally grateful and on my knees all the time thanking God for my wonderful life and for good friends like you who take your time and pay attention to the things that we do, and that you realize that these things do matter and want to make people aware of them. So I appreciate that very much.
Willy Walker: Thanks for taking the time, my friend. Great to see you.
Anthony Shriver: Have a great day. Thank you.
Willy Walker: Great one. Bye.
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