24 Philanthropy • November/December 2008

Service with a SmileMeet S. Truett Cathy, Winner of the 2008 William E. SimonPrize for Philanthropic Leadership

By John J. Miller

One thing is certain: Cathy has done an awfullot of giving, both of his time and his money. He haswelcomed children into his home as a foster parent.He has taught Sunday school. He is known for tak-ing an interest in the welfare of strangers. He hasalso poured out the contents of his wallet. Last year,Cathy’s WinShape Foundation spent $18 million onfoster homes, college scholarships, a summer camp,and marriage-counseling programs.

Soon, the WinShape Foundation will have alittle extra cash to donate. Cathy has been selectedas the 2008 winner of the William E. Simon Prizefor Philanthropic Leadership. The award “honorsliving philanthropists who have shown exemplaryleadership through their charitable giving, high-lights the power of philanthropy to achieve positivechange, and seeks to inspire others to support char-ities that achieve genuine results.” It carries a purseof $250,000, and will be formally presented toCathy on November 7, 2008, at The PhilanthropyRoundtable’s Annual Meeting in Naples, Florida.

The 87-year-old Samuel Truett Cathy is bald,stocky, and jowly. His eyelids droop a little. For all hiswealth, he is a surprisingly humble and frugal man.He and his wife, Jeannette, still live in the same mod-est home that they moved into more than half a cen-tury ago. If Cathy allows himself a single indulgence,it appears to be collecting cars. He has quite a collec-tion—including a Batmobile. (Yes, an actual Batmo-bile!) It was used in Batman Returns, the 1992 moviestarring Michael Keaton as the Caped Crusader.

Contributing editor John J. Miller writes for National

Review and is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John

M. Olin Foundation Changed America.

S.TRUETT CATHY IS A WALKING PARADOX.He started his career at the Dwarf Grill, butwent on to become a restaurant industrygiant. He is the founder and chairman ofChick-fil-A, Inc., whose ads use cows to

sell chicken. And he thrives in the competitiveworld of fast food, where profits are squeezedfrom drive-thru windows long after midnight,even though he closes all of his stores each andevery Sunday.

In at least one important respect, however,Cathy is anything but a paradox. A captain ofthe hospitality industry, he has given his life toservice, in just about every sense of the word.One of his most significant services, of course, ishis invention of the boneless breast of chickensandwich. For that contribution alone, thehuman appetite will remain forever in his debt.

Yet Cathy has done much more than comeup with a great idea for a sandwich. His notionof service influences everything he does, fromhow he insists that Chick-fil-A employees treattheir customers to his deep personal and finan-cial commitments to philanthropy. “My wifeand I were brought up to believe that the moreyou give, the more you have,” says Cathy. “Fewpeople actually believe in this, but we do.”

C AT H Y ’ S N O T I O N O F S E RV I C E

influences everythingH E D O E S .

Philanthropy • November/December 2008 25

The Simon Prize is by no means Cathy’s firstaward. Chick-fil-A keeps a tally of his honorarydegrees, prizes, and other recognitions. In smalltype, the list scrolls for three pages. Cathy wonthe Horatio Alger Award in 1989, the NormanVincent Peale Award in 1998, and the NationalFatherhood Award in 2004. Ernst & Youngnamed him the Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000,and Sonny Perdue, Governor of Georgia, desig-nated May 23, 2006, as “Truett Cathy Day.”

When he isn’t stockpiling accolades, Cathy is incharge of an Atlanta-based company that sold morethan 234 million chicken sandwiches last year. If allthose sandwiches were laid end to end, they wouldstretch between Atlanta and Seattle six times. (The1.64 billion chicken nuggets the company soldwould cover half of the earth’s circumference.) Rev-enues were $2.64 billion, up 16 percent from theprevious year. Based on this figure, Chick-fil-A isthe second-largest quick-service chicken restaurantchain in the country, with some 1,400 stores in 37states and the District of Columbia. Its corporatesymbols—like the Chick-fil-A cows that hold upsigns full of misspellings, lousy grammar, and comicpleas (most famously, “Eat Mor Chikin”)—areamong the most recognizable in America.

In truth, one of Cathy’s sons, Dan, is thepresident of Chick-fil-A and runs its day-to-dayoperations. Another son, Bubba, is a senior vicepresident. Their father, however, is the author ofthe company’s success and remains its CEO. “Istill hold the title,” Cathy says, “and I remindthem of that every now and then.”

THE BOY FROM EATONTONTHE STORY OF CATHY’S REMARKABLE ASCENT

from rural Georgia to the “Moral Tycoon” (as anewspaper once dubbed him) began in Eatonton,Georgia, a small town about halfway betweenAtlanta and Augusta. There’s something poeticabout a restaurant magnate coming from a placecalled Eatonton, but Cathy spent only the firstthree years of his life there and barely remembersthe place. His family was religious, and Cathy’sunusual middle name—Truett, as his friends callhim—comes from a popular Baptist preachernamed George W. Truett (1867-1944). Times weretough even before the Great Depression, andCathy’s father went broke as a real-estate investor.The family moved to Atlanta so he could sell insur-ance. He was not very good at it. To help pay thebills, Cathy’s mother took in boarders. Truett Cathy gets a hug from a visiting schoolchild during a tour of

Chick-fil-A’s corporate headquarters in July 2006. (AP photo/Ric Field)

26 Philanthropy • November/December 2008

S E R V I C E W I T H A S M I L E

She spent much of her day in the kitchen,but she never used a recipe. “She had an instinct,or an intuition, that guided her through every-thing she cooked, from fried chicken to sweetpotato pie,” says Cathy. “She salted and pep-pered her chicken and left it in the ice box allnight before she fried it. The next day she fried itin a big iron skillet with a lid. The lid steamed thechicken as it fried, and kept it more moist.”Cathy never forgot how his mother fried herchicken. Years later, her technique would revolu-tionize the fast-food industry.

No less important, however, were the entre-preneurial qualities in Cathy’s character, acquiredand developed at an early age. As an eight-year-old, he went door-to-door selling bottles of Coca-Cola. He discovered that he could buy a six-packof Cokes for a quarter and sell them for 5¢apiece—pocketing a nickel for himself in theprocess. He began to buy Coke in larger quanti-ties, reaping higher profits. Before long, he hadenough cash for a major purchase—his first bike,used, from a kid who lived down the street. Cathygraduated from Coke to magazine subscriptionsand newspaper deliveries. The family continuedto have trouble making ends meet, and sometimesthe boy would chip in, using his proceeds to buygroceries that his mother wanted.

On his newspaper route, Cathy learned thevirtue of hard work—and the value of good ser-vice. “The key to succeeding with a paperroute—and the restaurant business, I wouldlater learn—is to take care of the customer,”says Cathy. He was unfailingly polite with hissubscribers, cheerfully battling bad weather andalways placing newspapers exactly where hiscustomers wanted them. “The most effectiveway of promoting my business didn’t cost meanything but a little kindness.” By putting theinterests of others before personal considera-tions, young Cathy planted the seeds of whatwould grow into his adult philanthropy.

Cathy graduated from high school andjoined the Army. He did not leave the country,even during the Second World War. A civilianagain in 1946, he never seriously considered col-lege. Instead, he and his brother Ben decided togo into the restaurant business together. Theypooled their money and took out a bank loan,coming up with a sum of $10,600. They boughta lot near a Ford assembly plant, not far fromthe Atlanta airport. There they built a small

The Philanthropy Roundtable isgreatly honored to have been askedby the William E. Simon Foundationto administer the William E. SimonPrize for Philanthropic Leadership.The foundation is named for itsprincipal benefactor, the late financier,philanthropist, and Secretary of theTreasury, William E. Simon.

The purpose of the William E. SimonPrize for Philanthropic Leadership isto highlight the power of philan-thropy to promote positive changeand to inspire others to supportcharities that achieve genuineresults. The prize is intended tohonor living philanthropists whohave shown exemplary leadershipthrough their own charitable giving, either directly or throughfoundations they have created. The prize honors the ideals and prin-ciples which guided William E.Simon’s many philanthropic initia-tives, including personal responsibil-ity, resourcefulness, volunteerism,scholarship, individual freedom,faith in God, and helping people tohelp themselves.

The Philanthropy Roundtablewould like to thank the 2008 Selection Committee, composed ofKimberly O. Dennis, Betsy DeVos,Adam Meyerson, Fred Smith, JohnM. Templeton Jr., M.D., J. PeterSimon, and William E. Simon Jr.

Philanthropy • November/December 2008 27

restaurant. They called it the Dwarf Grill (laterrenamed the Dwarf House). Their first menuoffered breakfast food, hamburgers, steaks—but not chicken. Chicken took too long to cook.

For six days a week, the restaurant wasopen 24 hours a day. From the start, however, itclosed on Sunday. It was the brothers’ way ofhonoring God. Moreover, they were exhaustedfrom working long hours Monday through Sat-urday. “If it took seven days a week to make aliving with a restaurant, then we needed to be insome other line of work,” says Cathy. To thisday, Cathy regards this as the best business deci-sion he ever made. Chick-fil-A still abides by it.Although Sunday is a popular day for eatingout, none of the company’s restaurants areopen. “I find no conflict between biblical princi-ples and good business practices,” says Cathy.Besides, the policy gives him a chance to scopeout the competition. “I generally eat out on Sun-day,” he admits. “We go to the drive-thru afterchurch. I won’t mention where.”

Some people feel a call to be preachers.Cathy says he feels likewise summoned to hisline of work: “I see the restaurant business as adivine calling that fills physical, emotional, andspiritual needs.” With his employees, he empha-sizes the importance of faith. “I’m a strongbeliever that the Bible is a roadmap for life,” hesays. “How to start a restaurant isn’t writtendown in there, but we do have the Golden Rule.At Chick-fil-A, we are motivated by a servingspirit. We can compete with the toughest compe-tition simply because of the kindness of our peo-ple.” When customers say, “Thank you,” teammembers are encouraged to respond, “My plea-sure.” Cathy insists that developing these habitsmakes an enormous difference. “It doesn’t costyou any more to be gracious in a service indus-try, but it sure pays great dividends,” he says.

FROM LITTLE DWARF TO CHICKEN GIANTCATHY SAW DIVIDENDS EARLY IN HIS CAREER,though he confronted many setbacks, too.Tragedy struck in 1948, when Ben and anotherbrother were killed in a plane crash. Suddenly,Cathy was running the Dwarf House by himself.He opened a second restaurant and thoughtabout adding others, but decided that two kepthim sufficiently busy. Then, in 1960, a firedestroyed one of his restaurants completely.“When I had two restaurants, I had one toomany,” he says. “So the Lord burned one downand gave me the chance to start Chick-fil-A.”

Around the same time, health problems puthim in the hospital. The experience frustratedhim, but it also gave him time to think about

Although Cathy regularly worked 36-hour shifts at the Dwarf House, healways closed the restaurant on Sunday. (Photo courtesy of Chick-fil-A)

Cathy poses in a replica of the Dwarf Grill, housed at the Chick-fil-A corporate museum, on November 8, 2001. (AP photo/Ric Field)

Cathy, behind the counter at the original Dwarf House. In the foreground areTruett’s sons, Daniel Cathy (left), current president and COO of Chick-fil-A,

and Donald (“Bubba”) Cathy (right), senior vice president of Chick-fil-A.(Photo courtesy of Chick-fil-A)

28 Philanthropy • November/December 2008

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tried that and found that the chicken indeedcooked faster, and remained more moist as well.Then I discovered the recently introducedHenny Penny cooker, a pressure cooker thatused oil and could cook a boneless chickenbreast in four minutes, start to finish. Cookingso quickly meant we wouldn’t have to cook ourproducts ahead and hold them in a warmingcabinet or under a heating lamp. All our chickencould be served fresh.”

Rather than serving the chicken on a plate byitself, Cathy put it on a buttered bun. Through aprocess of trial and error, he came up with a specialrecipe for breading and seasoning. Finally, hetopped the chicken breast with a pair of dill pick-les. Thus was born an item he called “a chickensteak sandwich.” A lawyer told him that hecouldn’t trademark a generic name like that, soCathy tried to come up with something more dis-tinctive. “It occurred to me that the best cut of beefis a fillet; why not call ours a chicken fillet? Orchick fillet? Or Chick-fil-A? The name literally justcame to me, with the capital A—for top quality—on the end.” He registered the name in 1963, andthe logo has barely changed in 45 years.

At first, Cathy sold Chick-fil-A through otherrestaurants, but this left the preparation to peoplewho did not work for him. Cathy grew frustratedwith the uneven results and began thinking aboutwhat to do next. His sister ran a gift shop at alocal mall. “Why don’t you bring your chickensandwich down here and sell it?” she asked. Cathyloved the idea, but at the time it was outlandish—nobody operated fast-food restaurants in shop-ping malls. The proprietors worried about litter,smells, and smoke. “They didn’t want us, not nextto the fancy dress shops,” says Cathy. But he per-sisted, and Atlanta’s Greenbriar Shopping Centeragreed to take a chance on Chick-fil-A. The firstone opened in 1967.

The timing was perfect. The country wasabout to go through a boom in mall construction.Americans also began to see health benefits in eat-ing chicken as opposed to beef. Meanwhile,nobody else offered quite the same product. “Icannot explain why the fast-food giants did notcatch on to the idea of a chicken sandwich—somesay it was divine providence—but for many yearswe had the market to ourselves,” says Cathy. (Itwas not until 1980 that Wendy’s began to offerchicken sandwiches; three years later, McDonald’sfollowed with Chicken McNuggets.) From the

Chick-fil-A opened its first restaurant in Atlanta’s Greenbriar Shopping Center in 1967. Its second restaurant, pictured above,

opened in Savannah. (Photo courtesy of Chick-fil-A)

something other than getting out the next short-order meal. “My life is made of taking advantageof unexpected opportunities,” he says. This wasone of them. He had noticed the growing popu-larity of McDonald’s and other fast-food restau-rants, where customers placed orders at thecounter and cleared their own tables. He decidedto change the way he was doing business.

Before long, another innovation occurredto him as well. Cathy had experimented withfried chicken on his menu, but he had not caredfor the results. Then he thought back to hisboyhood. “I remembered my mother’s methodof covering the pan with a heavy top, creatingsomething of a pressure cooker,” he says. “I

C h i c k - f i l - A h a s a t w o - p a r t c o r p o r a t e p u r p o s e :

“TO GLORIFY GODby being a f a ithf ul steward of

ALL THAT IS ENTRUSTED TO US.T O H AV E A P O S I T I V E I N F LU E N C E O N A L L W H O

come into contact with Chick-fil-A.”

Philanthropy • November/December 2008 29

mall owner’s standpoint, providing a fast-foodoption generated a new revenue stream and evenwound up encouraging shoppers to linger longer.Today, of course, no mall is complete without anelaborate food court—and Chick-fil-A is in manyof them. There are plenty of Chick-fil-A restau-rants outside of the malls, too. In 1986, the com-pany started to build free-standing operations.

Chick-fil-A’s growth has been almost unin-terrupted. In 1982, however, it suffered adecline in same-store sales for the first (andonly) time. Cathy saw this as a bad sign andbecame worried about his business. He stoppedtaking a salary and invited his executive com-mittee to a two-day retreat, where they couldtalk about what they were doing away from thedaily activities of the office. As they prepared topore over statistics, charts, and projections, DanCathy asked three questions: “Why are we inbusiness? Why are we here? Why are we alive?”

His father almost dismissed these concerns asirrelevant, but they managed to spark a conversa-tion about first principles. When the retreat wasover, Chick-fil-A did not have a revolutionarynew product idea or a fancy business plan, but itdid have a two-sentence Corporate Purpose: “Toglorify God by being a faithful steward of all thatis entrusted to us. To have a positive influence onall who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.”

Cathy believes that this marked a turningpoint for the company. “Wonderful things beganto happen,” he says, pointing to a growth rate of29 percent the next year. “I felt confident in thefuture.” Cathy was so confident, in fact, that hedecided to be not merely a world-beating busi-nessman, but also a life-changing philanthropist.

A PHILANTHROPIST IN FULLIN A CERTAIN SENSE, CATHY WAS ALWAYS A

philanthropist. As a boy entrepreneur who soldbottles of Coke and then as a grown-up small-business owner who sold entire meals, he under-stood the importance of service to others. More-over, from the first days of marriage, he and hiswife Jeannette had tithed 10 percent of theirincome. Cathy credits another inspiration forthat practice as well: “Sir John Templeton, the[late] financial investment expert and creator ofthe Templeton Funds, tells audiences that thesafest recommendation and the one that pays thehighest dividend is tithing—giving 10 percent ofyour earnings to honor God in the way you seefit.” Cathy once asked Templeton about it per-sonally: “He confirmed the statement and addedthat he had never known anyone who had tithedfor 10 years who was not rewarded.”

Much of Cathy’s early philanthropy was per-sonal. At the Dwarf House in the early 1950s,Eddie White, a teenage employee who hadworked at the restaurant for several years, talked

about dropping out of high school so he couldearn more money for his family. Cathy workedout a plan with Eddie’s father to guarantee the

From the first days of their marriage, T RU E T T A N D J E A N N E T T E

tithed 10 percent of their income.

Chick-fil-A has seen 40 consecutive years of annual sales increases, includingdouble-digit increases for each of the last 14 years. (Photo courtesy of Chick-fil-A)

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ar Awards offer an extra $1,000 to the top 25Leadership Scholars. Since its inception in 1997,this program has given away $300,000.

Programs such as these help explain whyChick-fil-A is renowned for its loyalty amongboth customers and employees. Many of itsoperators—the men and women who run indi-vidual franchises—have been with the companyfor more than two decades, and annual turnoveramong them is less than 5 percent. “I can’t imag-ine a serious discussion of loyalty in businessthat does not reference the accomplishments ofthe Cathy family and their company,” says Fred-erick F. Reichheld, a consultant who has writtenfor the Harvard Business Review and is theauthor of The Loyalty Rules!: How Today’sLeaders Build Lasting Relationships. “By focus-ing on helping others around him make the mostof their lives,” writes Reichheld, “Truett Cathyhas achieved outstanding success on his own.”

Not every Chick-fil-A employee benefitsfrom a company scholarship—but all of thembenefit from that company-wide policy that letsthem take Sundays off. With blue laws a relic,the rule is positively countercultural. It surelyforfeits millions of dollars in sales. Yet Cathyclaims that it gives him a competitive advantage.For one thing, it provides a day of rest. “Com-panies that are open seven days a week may tryto rotate days off so that everybody gets one dayoff every week,” says Cathy. “But if the businessis open, you’re going to be thinking about it,even if it’s your day off. That takes away fromyour relaxation.”

Moreover, Cathy believes that shuttingdown on Sundays attracts employees who areoriented toward faith and family. He wants hisemployees to devote themselves to Chick-fil-A,but not at the expense of something greater. “It’ssad when people neglect their families,” he says.“You can gain the whole world and lose what’smost precious.” This is hardly conventional cor-porate philanthropy, but it is nevertheless a giftto the people who work for Cathy.

Another form of unorthodox corporate phil-anthropy can be found inside every Chick-fil-AKid’s Meal. To be sure, many fast-food chains offertoys with their meals for children, but these itemsare usually lucrative promotional tie-ins to newmovies or television cartoons. Chick-fil-A, howev-er, tries something different. “Very early we distin-guished our Kid’s Meal by including a prize that

Truett Cathy and his wife, Jeannette, share a Chick-fil-A shake. (Photo courtesy of Chick-fil-A)

boy sufficient hours on nights and weekends.Then, when customers complimented the qualityof their food, waitresses would bring by a mayon-naise jar labeled “Eddie’s College Fund” and say,“The young man who prepared it wants to go tocollege.” These donations went a long way, butthey did not cover all of Eddie’s expenses—so

Cathy made up the difference himself. Eventually,Eddie earned a teaching certificate and became anassistant superintendent of schools.

Since then, Cathy has found more formalways to involve himself and his company in edu-cation. In 1973, Chick-fil-A established a schol-arship program for employees. In 1996, itupdated this with what it calls the LeadershipScholar program, placing more emphasis oncommunity service and leadership skills. Alto-gether, the company has provided more than$23 million in scholarship assistance to morethan 23,000 employees. This year, Chick-fil-Aexpects to contribute $1.4 million to this ongo-ing effort. Separately, the S. Truett Cathy Schol-

All of Cathy’s employees

TA K E O F F S U N D AY.With blue laws a relic, the rule isP O S I T I V E LY C O U N T E R C U LT U R A L .

Philanthropy • November/December 2008 31

reflected our values,” says Cathy. “We haveoffered books on history, geography, weather,plants, animals, and dozens of other subjects. Sto-ries on tape have helped children learn the impor-tance of establishing certain character traits. Andwith interactive educational cards, kids haveenjoyed English, social studies, geography, math,and science.”

Separately, Cathy has authored a short bookof fatherly advice: It’s Better to Build Boys thanMend Men. It includes nuggets of wisdom such asthis: “Don’t be too concerned that your childrendon’t listen to you. But be very concerned thatthey see everything you do” and “When we sharetime with children, the little things often becomelifetime memories for them.”

For Cathy, family is so important that hedecided to enlarge his own beyond his wife andtheir three children. “Not many men can claimthat more than 150 children call them ‘Grand-pa.’ It’s my proudest distinction,” he says.Cathy’s experience as a foster parent began withmeeting a young boy. The boy’s father was miss-

ing and his mother and grandparents were dead.Cathy met the boy through his church, invitedhim over to his house several times, and took agenuine interest in his well-being. “Jeannette andI grew to love him and wanted him to become apart of our family,” says Cathy. After highschool, he essentially moved into the Cathyhome. After college, he went to work at Chick-fil-A and eventually became a vice president.

The relationship with that young man wasjust a start. Following Chick-fil-A’s adoption of itstwo-sentence Corporate Purpose, Cathy institu-tionalized his philanthropy through the establish-ment of the WinShape Foundation in 1984. Thename, says Cathy, tries to convey an idea: “shap-ing individuals to become winners.” Its headquar-ters are located on the campus of Berry College inRome, Georgia, and one of its first major activi-ties was to build a home for foster children.

Today, the foundation runs a dozenWinShape Homes, each of which is operated bya husband-and-wife team. The goal is “to pro-vide a loving, nurturing home to those children

“Not many men can claim that more than 150 children call them ‘Grandpa.’ It’s my proudest distinction,” says Cathy. (Photo courtesy of Chick-fil-A)

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• WinShape College Program: Almost 25 yearsago, Cathy and his wife visited the rusticcampus of Berry College, in Rome, Georgia.They fell in love with the school, and identi-fied it as a promising opportunity for carefulphilanthropic investment. Today, theWinShape Foundation helps students attendthe college with four-year scholarships worthas much as $32,000. Over the past twodecades, nearly 900 students have benefitedfrom the program. The foundation wants tohelp them earn college degrees, but moreimportantly, it wants to help form their char-acters. It emphasizes integrity, service, unity,and “Christ-followership.” Recipients ofthese scholarships live in special dormitories.They aren’t always former Chick-fil-Aemployees, but, as the program’s websiteexplains, experience with the company is“preferred.”

• Camp WinShape: Founded in 1985 at BerryCollege, Camp WinShape aspires to offer “acamp experience that [goes] just a littledeeper.” It brings in more than 1,900 boysand girls each summer to participate in typ-ical camp activities, such as archery, artsand crafts, hiking, horseback riding, marsh-mallow roasting, mountain biking, andswimming. But there’s also time for Biblestudy, which allows the camp to fulfill itsmission of helping children and their fami-lies “enhance their Christian faith.”

• WinShape Wilderness: This program, startedin 1991 and also located at Berry College,offers team-building courses to businesses,schools, and church groups. By combiningrock-climbing challenges and back-countrycamping with Bible study, it seeks to “glorifyGod by creating adventure experiences thatencourage transformation.”

• WinShape Marriage: “Today, more thanever, America is missing the strong familiesthat grow out of healthy, lasting marriages,”said Truett’s son Bubba in a 2007 interviewwith Philanthropy. “We have a rising gener-ation of young people—kids of divorceespecially—who want good, lifelong mar-riages, but who aren’t sure that it’s reallyeven possible.” To address this concern,

who are victims of circumstance and need a sta-ble, secure family environment in which togrow and mature.” The homes accept boys andgirls between the ages of six and 13, and theycan accommodate as many as 12 children at atime. As a result, the homes have the capacity tokeep groups of siblings together.

In deciding where to put the WinShapeHomes, the foundation looks for good real-estate deals as well as aesthetic appeal—many ofthe houses are situated on beautiful properties.Geographically, they’re clustered in the South:eight in Georgia, two in Tennessee, and one inAlabama. There’s also a home in Brazil, whereCathy’s daughter performed missionary work.

“We like to concentrate on kids—grown-ups have had their chance, and they’ve blownit,” says Cathy. “I can tell you success storiesand disappointments. Some kids inherit weak-ness from their parents. They learn to lie andcheat. Some who have had the most potentialhave gone on to become the biggest disappoint-ments. But I think we’re successful at least 75percent of the time. This is worth my effort.”

One of those success stories is Leslie HoganHitchcock, who lived in a WinShape home as ateenager. “Mr. Cathy made a special trip to campto meet me and to tell me how happy he was thatI had chosen to live in one of his homes. He intro-duced himself as ‘Grandpa,’ and I thought that itwas really great to finally have a Grandpa in mylife.” She finished high school, went to college,and got married. “I am now equipped to breakthe generational cycle of poverty,” she says. “Hetruly saved my life and helped me to become abetter person.” Eventually, Hitchcock became afoster parent for WinShape Homes. “ThroughMr. Cathy, I have been able to give back to thecommunity because he first gave to me.”

The WinShape Foundation funds a widevariety of other initiatives, including:

C AT H Y F R E Q U E N T LY Q U O T E S

P R OV E R B S 2 2 : 1 ,“A good name is rather to be chosen

THAN GREAT RICHES, AND LOVING FAVOR

rather than silver and gold.”

Philanthropy • Novmeber/December 2008 33

WinShape Marriage provides retreats andcounseling services for men and women introubled marriages. It also has encouragedchurches and corporations to take astronger interest in family life. “The missionis simple: strong marriage, strong family,and a strong nation,” says Bubba Cathy.

• WinShape International: Three years ago, thefoundation started WinShape International,which seeks to develop Christian leadersthrough service projects around the world.This year, it intends to participate in 27 mis-sions to 20 countries. Next year, it plans tosend people to Colombia, Ghana, Russia,South Africa, and the Ukraine. Most of its pro-jects aim to include Chick-fil-A franchise own-ers and employees, though “selected businessand professional leaders” also may participate.

Just as Cathy tithes his personal income,Chick-fil-A routinely donates 10 percent of itsprofits to the WinShape Foundation. The com-pany does not discuss its profit figures publicly,nor does it have to, since it remains privatelyheld—one of the largest privately held restau-rant companies in the country, in fact. “In theearly days,” says Cathy, “we did not offer stockfor sale because I could not predict how fast thecompany might grow or what dividends wemight pay to anyone who might invest.”

Nowadays, however, Chick-fil-A’s philan-thropy provides an extra incentive for continuedprivate ownership. What would happen if thecompany went public? “The value of that stockwould always be determined by the profits of thecorporation, and if I cut into those profits by giv-ing away a bunch of the company’s money,employees and stockholders might resent mycharity,” says Cathy. And that leads to anotherworry: “I’m afraid the directors, if we had a badyear, might tell me I’m old fashioned and fire me.Too often Wall Street analysts are more interestedin profits than they are in principles and people.”

This is a common theme for Cathy. Six yearsago, in the wake of the Enron collapse and other cor-porate scandals, he appeared before the House Sub-committee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Pro-tection: “We all in America are covered up in greed,”he said. Nevertheless, he insisted that capitalism, theprofit motive, and faith need not clash: “I see no con-flict between Christian principles and good businesspractices.” Cathy also frequently quotes Proverbs22:1, perhaps his favorite verse from the Bible: “Agood name is rather to be chosen than great riches,and loving favor rather than silver and gold.”

Cathy speaks at Berry College in Rome, Georgia, which he has funded for nearly 25 years. (Photo courtesy of Chick-fil-A)

Cathy greets visiting schoolchildren at Chick-fil-A’s corporate headquarters inJuly 2006. (AP Photo/Ric Field)

“I see no conflict between Christian principles and good business practice,”Cathy explained to the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and

Consumer Protection, in July 2002. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)

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could easily give money,” she says, “but whatthese people really need are my heart, my time,my listening ears. Someone right out there in thestreets with them to help heal them.”

This may be the most impressive aspect ofCathy’s philanthropy: not that he gives away a lotof money, which he does, but that he personallycommits himself to so many people. For 51 years,he taught Sunday school—he recently moved intosemi-retirement from this obligation, but says hestill steps in “when there’s an emergency.” “Thisis the fourth dimension of his philanthropy—what he does that isn’t seen,” says Buck McCabe,Chick-fil-A’s chief financial officer and a directorof the WinShape Foundation.

With management consultant Ken Blan-chard, Cathy wrote The Generosity Factor: Dis-cover the Joy of Giving Your Time, Talent, andTreasure. The 2002 novella is essentially a para-ble based on Cathy’s business and philanthropicpractices, showing how they can be applied toareas of life outside the chicken-restaurant indus-try. “Some people think of generosity as anevent,” says a character modeled on Cathy.“They get behind some cause and participate inan annual fund drive. When their big splash isover, it’s back to business as usual. But generosityis an attitude. It has to be cultivated daily.” Atanother point, a wealthy woman who workswith the homeless explains her behavior: “I

For 51 years, Cathy has taught Sunday School classes to 13-year-old boys. (Photo courtesy of Chick-fil-A)

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Most people do not know about this part ofCathy’s philanthropy. They can go on the websiteof Chick-fil-A or the WinShape Foundation andlearn all about its many programs, from pictureand stories of foster homes to information on howthe Chick-fil-A Bowl (formerly the Peach Bowl)donates a portion of its proceeds to charity. But alot of Cathy’s activities do not find their way intonews stories and press releases. Yet his unseen phil-anthropy leaves a clear impression upon those itactually touches.

Lots of people tell similar stories about Cathy.In an article for Christian Living, writer Lisa A.Rice remembered when Cathy visited her class of30 students at Georgia State College in the early1980s. Cathy was an immediate hit. He not onlypassed out coupons for free food—deeply appreci-ated by the students—but also provided a respitefrom the previous night’s speaker, whom Rice

describes as “a rather monotone bug extermina-tor.”

Yet Cathy’s words stayed with her. He told thestory of his career, and shared the biblical principlesthat he believed were behind his success. “He invitedeach of us to call him when we graduated to discussa possible career with the Chick-fil-A organization,”wrote Rice. “Most amazing to many of us was thefact that this powerful business owner with a rapidlygrowing national company would trouble himself tocome downtown and encourage such an ordinary—but grateful—group of business hopefuls.”

For Rice, it was a little thing that became a life-time memory. For Cathy, it was another ordinary actof kindness, further witness of his extraordinary gen-erosity of spirit. Truett Cathy may in many ways bea walking paradox, but beneath the paradoxes is asimple truth. He has lived a life of service—with asmile.

“This is the fourth dimension of his philanthropy—what he does that isn’t seen,” says Buck McCabe, Chick-fil-A’s chief financial officer and a director of the WinShape Foundation. (AP Photo/Ric Field)

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