‘Think Boldly and Have Audacious Goals’

Pallotta’s philanthropic life started while he was in college. He graduated in 1983 from Harvard University, where he created Ride for Life, a transcontinental bike ride in which he and 38 of his classmates rode 4,256 miles from Seattle to Boston to raise money and awareness for Oxfam America.

Pallotta says the problem begins with “nonprofit ideology,” which, he says, has its roots in 400-year-old Puritan ethics that removed self-interest from the realm of charity. Today, charities are monitored by watchdogs and rated according to “efficiency” measures.