The Gap Between Desire and Virtue  

A conversation with The Gap Foundations'sBobbie Silten

Written by Peter Laufer

I meet Bobbi Silten, the Chief Foundation Officer of Gap Foundation, in the company's impressive corporate headquarters on San Francisco's Embarcadero. In the sprawling executive conference room, a wall of windows shows off a sweeping view of the Bay Bridge and boats on the bay. A gorgeous San Francisco day, complete with blue skies, emerald water and sweeping mountains, serves as the backdrop for our conversation. In these opulent offices Silten looks relaxed in a denim jacket. She accents her responses to my questions with sparkling eyes and a wide smile. Her casual manner contrasts with the intensity she brings to her observations on life and death issues. Her answers are infused with passion.

Silten joined Gap in late in 2005, moving down San Francisco's waterfront from Levi Strauss & Company, where she served as president of the Dockers brand and as a member of board of the Levi Strauss Foundation. Prior to her work at Levis Strauss, she spent almost a dozen years in advertising at Foote, Cone & Belding. Her degree in social science comes from the University of California at Berkeley.

Gap is a primary participant in (Product) Red, an innovative operation founded by music superstar Bono and businessman, philanthropist and Santa Monica city council memberBobby Shriver. As participants in the (Product) Red campaign, companies such as Gap, American Express, Motorola, and Armani create a new product line specific to the Red project. Portions of the profits from the various Red lines go to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Global Fund was created after United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed the idea of an organization that would solicit and disburse government and private funds which would be used specifically to prevent and treat disease. Gap has signed on for a minimum five-year commitment to the (Product) Red campaign.

Peter Laufer: I'm intrigued that you come to the Gap Foundation from marketing, but perhaps it's not that uncharacteristic given the changes in world of philanthropy.

Bobbie Silton: I actually started in business because I wanted to do something that was socially good. My husband defends people on death row. I remember one day when I was working in advertising, I finally told him [dramatically], "I can't do this anymore!" We think it was fate that I ended up in this job because I understand business really well, so I understand how business can be leveraged to impact the community in a positive way.

PL: You arrived at Gap just as the hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Suddenly there was a huge need even before you knew your way around corporate headquarters.

BS: Katrina happened the week before I started. This probably was fate because the biggest natural disaster in our country happened the week before I started this job, which then all of a sudden brought to bear the importance of doing this kind of work.

PL: Were you able to do something immediately, involve the Gap Foundation in Katrina relief efforts?

BS: Yes, my first week on the job, that Friday, our CEO approved a commitment to invite fifteen thousand kids from the evacuee centers into our Old Navy stores for a shopping spree. Prior to that decision, we quickly assessed the situation, and although we could have sent a bunch of clothes, we realized the shelters couldn't handle the intake. They didn't have a process for getting the right size to the right person. One of the biggest things that particularly the kids were being impacted by was that their daily routine had been taken away from them. One of the things that kids need is that kind of daily structure. They also are kids, and they want to have fun. Clothes are way that they express themselves. What we have are stores. Gap knows how to make fun, we know how to give people a good time. Instead of shipping a bunch of clothes, we said, "Why don't we bring the kids to us?"

PL: That's terrific. So you opened the Old Navy stores in the region to the affected kids and you let them pick and choose what they wanted. The distribution system was already in place.

BS: And that was a way that we could leverage what we do well. We call it "leveraging our distinctive company assets for the greater good," which is what has really influenced my whole philosophy in this job. That's what I'm trying to do: figure out how we leverage the might of a $16 billion company in an appropriate way for a for-profit venture, but while doing things that are good for the community.

PL: Let me play the cynic for a minute. How do you answer the question, "Isn't that really just cheap advertising and promotion?" Where is the balance between genuinely doing good and doing good to benefit the company?

BS: We call it the virtuous cycle. I believe that there's always going to be cynicism regarding the motivations of a corporate, for-profit organization. I don't think it's a bad thing if there's some benefit to the company, because if we want to actually sustain investment in the community, we have to look at everybody's agenda. Whether it's the community agenda, the consume r agenda, the employee agenda, the stakeholder agenda, everybody has an agenda and the way you keep something going is ensuring that everybody's needs are met.

PL: So what's the difference between "agenda" and "greed?" Are we a greed-based society that does something good to assuage our consciences and to make ourselves show well in public?

BS: No, I wouldn't say that we're a greed-based society. People understand that when you invest in the community there are benefits beyond the immediate social issues you're trying to address.

PL: Perhaps the more a company helps out in the community, the more customers it creates and the better the company's bottom line. Can you make this direct equation: if the foundation chose to abandon its work, would Gap not do as well?

BS: I'm not sure. I haven't been here long enough to have those results yet. But what I can tell you is that one of the key assets of the company are its employees. Keeping employees loyal and engaged is important. One of the questions that's important to employees, because they're a part of the community, is, "What are you doing for the place I come from?" They want to feel that the company they work for isn't just about profit. Research tells us that employees are four times more likely to be loyal if a company invests in the community.

PL: So you don't see the recent surge of interest in philanthropy as a fad?

BS: I would like to think of it as beyond being just hip, beyond what's in today and out tomorrow. I think it's more of a consciousness. People are realizing, particularly after 9/11 and the war, that there's more to life than just stuff. They're looking for the other things that fill them up. There's a phrase a researcher used, "the armchair activist," because many people would love to do more, but either they're time constrained or they don't have the financial means to write big checks. What they can do is buy something for themselves or for someone else that also does something for the greater good. They can feel good about both the purchase and doing something good for the community.

PL: And that's the formula for your Red project.

BS: Red first of all is a new business model, predicated on the notion of a healthy tension between desire and virtue.

PL: At Gap you've created a new line of clothing and fifty percent of the profits you earn from the Red products go directly to the Global Fund to fight disease in Africa. What's the formula?

BS: It's about creating product that people want, but at the same time, that product is doing something good. We historically think about a lot of for-benefit products as, "Well, it's for a good cause so, it may not look as good or feel as good or taste as good, but I'll buy it because it's doing something good." The proposition behind Red is to create a product people really want, whether it's a Gap Red T-shirt or a Red iPod. And it's doing good; that's what I think is so powerful about the idea.

PL: Throwing off fifty percent of your profits from the Red line is quite a statement. The Gap is offering about twenty Red items currently. What percentage of your overall product line is that?

BS: Small. We don't have the exact percentage because it's fluctuating.

PL: How did that happen? What was the procedure? How did you and Gap get involved in the project?

BS: The Red folks approached Gap and said here's this idea, we're looking for pioneer partners, would you like to consider this? We didn't bring it into just the foundation. One of the key things about Red is that if you're going to deliver both desire and virtue you've got to do it across the whole company. It involves everyone from people in design to people in corporate to people in the Foundation.

PL: So Gap Foundation and the for-profit side were in it together?

BS: Yes, from the very beginning. We believe the power of corporate philanthropy resides in the business. We want to play more of a consultative role and address how we can leverage the talent in the business to actually do good things for the community.

PL: This sounds too dreamy, doesn't it?

BS: I think you have to dream. You have to create a vision of what you think could happen. It's not going to be perfect. We're going to make mistakes. Ultimately I'd like to see this type of work not being done in a department or as an activity, but actually being embedded in the business.

PL: You must get approached daily by people who want to do something such as Red did with you.

BS: We do.

PL: So how do you differentiate? How do make the decisions and say, "Yes, this one's for us," or even more difficult, "No, sorry, we can't help you."

BS: Red was thinking about a new model in a compelling way, and it's a business model. They told us that main purpose is to provide the Global Fund with a sustainable flow of income, and they turned to the commercial sector to do that. But in order for it to be a sustainable flow of income, the people who are providing the funding need to have a vested interest in the success. The profit piece from Red is a small part of our business. (Product)Red, as an idea, is a new model we wanted to explore, this whole for-benefit concept. But it has other benefits as a lab for new ideas. Because it's smaller [than the regular Gap product line] we can push the envelope on some product ideas.

PL: Was the star involvement a factor in your decision-making process? It must be pretty seductive when Bono shows up on your doorstep and asks you to come out and play.

BS: The model is so compelling. When I saw the first presentation, I thought this is a fascinating idea. Yes, it happens to be connected to a very compelling personality, but it's the idea. We made a long-term commitment to this program. We weren't going make a commitment if we felt the model was sketchy. They really thought through the sustainability of it. That's one of the biggest challenges in the sector, trying to sustain sources of income for social change.

PL: Is your job sometimes frustrating and depressing? You must get many really good ideas and spectacular causes that you have to say "no" to. You certainly can't accommodate everything.

BS: Yes.

PL: How do you deal with that when you go home?

BS: What I've had to do is to realize, all right, we actually want to drive social change. If we just try to do a little bit for every-body it's not going to really do any good. The analogy that I like to use with my team is that I have a jar of peanut butter and I can only make so many sandwiches. At some point if you spread the peanut butter too thin, it ceases to be a peanut butter sandwich. We have to make tough choices.

PL: You must also get some dogs too. What kinds of things have come into your office that are almost laughable?

BS: I think that most of what I see are good causes where there's a reason why people are motivated. Either they've been personally affected or there is an obvious need out there. I don't feel like my position is to judge whether or not something is good or bad. I ask, "Does this fall within what we are trying to do?"

PL: Do you feel the Red template and Gap's five-year commitment is an example to the sector?

BS: Yes-and it may not be the exact replication of this-but this notion of creating product that people actually want, that's just the first gate you have to get through. Start there. Create something people want and have it do something good, but have a model where you can actually afford to keep doing it. I think that's something that is a movement for the future because there are so many nonprofits today. They're going to have to start figuring out ways to generate income rather than just asking people to write checks and donate money. They are going to have to look for ways to earn income, just as corporations do. As we look at the business models that will play in the philanthropic sector, Red is one of them.

That's why I think it is exciting to be bringing a new way of thinking to philanthropy, and I'm sure there are many organizations out there now trying to figure out how to do something like this. I think it's very exciting that people are looking at the Red model and saying, "What are some other things that could be done?" Corporations grow and stretch themselves through competition. Ideas get generated, innovation happens and innovation in the social sector is really how we'll take philanthropy to the next level.

PL: Does part of the motivation and part of the demand come from the government's failure to provide adequately? We saw that in the Katrina example.

BS: I think it's more about infrastructure. There are more needs and more demand than can be fulfilled. I do think that's where the corporate sector can step in and help, whether it's with disaster relief or mediation of health issues around the world. I think because we are a part of the community, we also should play a role in helping.

PL: Are you having fun while you're doing good?

BS: This job has exceeded my expectations. I feel like I get to apply my business training, but that I'm doing it for something that really fills my soul. I feel very lucky.

PL: Now when you talk about business with your husband you can say, "You're defending death row inmates? That's nothing, I'm saving the world!"

BS: [Laughs] I do feel like I am tapping into a different part of me, and that I'm really being able to bring my personal passion together with my business skills. One of the things I'm trying to do with our employees is match professional skills with community needs. It's great for us to go out and do these events where we give our people a rake or shovel or paintbrush. I believe in those as great team-building efforts, but what I think is more powerful is when you can actually take a marketing person or a finance person and put them in a nonprofit and say "Use your professional skills because if they had to pay for you it'd be a lot of money." That's one of the things we're trying to do more: engage our talent at the professional level with organizations. And that's not just senior executives, that's from associates in the store all the way up.

PL: Do you go out in the field so you get to do some follow-up and see the effects of your work? Have you gone over to Africa and checked to see where this money is going?

BS: Yes. I was in Rwanda. We went to an AIDS clinic in Rwanda where, unfortunately, there are still three children to a bed, with the moms sitting next to kids. That was hard to see, but the clinics were very sophisticated. We were in a village up in the hills of Rwanda and they had just gotten electricity a few days before we arrived. Access to medication is keeping people alive. I just got back from India where we're setting up a new program for women who work in apparel factories, and we're providing them with opportunities to get educated so that hopefully they'll have more choices in life.

PL: You must come home from that kind of trip ecstatic and crushed at the same time.

BS: I feel that we are very privileged, and part of our privilege is to do something about these problems. That's what I feel is my purpose now, to take all these skills that I've been given and convert them into making a dent into what's going on in the world.