Few visitors to the Nation's Capital ever make their way to Anacostia, the predominantly black neighborhood located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River. While downtown Washington buzzes with activity and new business construction, Anacostia largely remains bereft of good jobs and opportunities to get ahead.

But that situation began to change for the better last December with the opening of a shoe and apparel store unlike any other in the United States. Apart from its urban setting on Alabama Ave. S.E., the Timberland Community Store looks just like its many counterparts in shopping malls across America. But this is a store with a difference: It's operated as a franchise by a nonprofit organization dedicated to hiring local residents and pumping a large share of its profits back into the community.

"There needs to be a new way, a third way, that merges nonprofit and for-profit organizations," explains Greg Taylor, executive director of Community Impact, the non- profit agency that was awarded the store franchise, the first in Timberland's history. "What is different about this store is that it marks the first time that a for-profit and non-profit have joined forces to commit to a specific neighborhood with real geographical boundaries."

The store, adds David Milner, Community Impact's president, aims to "harness economic power for social strength."

The Timberland Community Store represents a new trend on the American philanthropic scene: non-profits that seek to make a profit. Anyone who has ever sifted through a pile of junk mail or been interrupted by a phone caller seeking a donation can attest to the growth of philanthropies in recent years. But as the number of unmet social needs and charities to address them have grown, private giving to charities has not kept pace, prompting some philanthropies to seek out new revenue sources.

As Bill Shore of the Washington-based nonprofit Share Our Strength explained in a prior issue of The New Democrat, "to meet the challenges of the future, nonprofit organizations must be reinvented to create new wealth --community wealth, or resources generated through profitable enterprises to promote social change." ("Nonprofits That Turn a Profit," TND, November/ December 1997)

The Timberland Community Store, which will pump 30 percent of its profits back into the Anacostia neighborhood in the form of college scholarships and other social aid, is a prime example of the new breed of community-wealth enterprises.

Calvin Johnson, a community activist and entrepreneur whose company, Urban Hospitality, owns a chain of Athlete's Foot shoe stores, manages the Timberland store on behalf of the franchisee, Community Impact. Johnson says he has always tried to use his other stores as a means of giving back to the community. For example, he hires most of his employees from the community and offers veteran managers the opportunity to buy shares in the company. Johnson says in the past he had financed a handful of scholarships for local youth, paid for in part through bake sales, car washes, and other small-scale fundraisers. But he recognized that to do more, "we needed to make some real money."

Meanwhile, Taylor's group Community Impact was also seeking out new sources of funding. Among other activities, it sponsors leadership classes in local high schools and awards scholarships weighted toward participation in community-service projects, in hopes of prompting local youth to "recognize that my community is larger then myself and I'm going to do something about it," says Taylor.

Jeff Swartz, the president of Timberland, was at the same time thinking about opening an entirely new, socially conscious Timberland store. According to Ken Freitas, the company's vice president of social enterprise, Timberland believes that "doing good and doing well are not separate things. Businesses can have a real role in society."

Swartz and Milner, Community Impact's president, are both members of an informal group of business and association executives under age 40 who are committed to aiding young people. It was during one such meeting that Milner asked the Timberland president "to imagine if every low-income neighborhood hired young people, gave scholarships and grants, and sent a positive message of hope and community." Milner also told Swartz about the business acumen and community consciousness that Johnson might bring to such a project. In February 1999, the three organizations signed an agreement laying the groundwork for the Anacostia store.

The location was chosen because of the relationship that already existed between Johnson and Milner. According to Freitas, "the store requires community, and both of these men and their organizations have a deep-rooted involvement in the community."

Johnson said the store came into being through "thought, wish, hope, prayer, and constantly beating the bush every day." Urban Hospitality and Community Impact found both the location and additional investors. According to Alonso Johnson, the store's chief operating officer, "about five of us built it with our own hands." Workers from Timberland arrived later to help design the store's interior for merchandise.

Although the store has been open only for several weeks, the partners in the enterprise are already thinking about expansion. According to Freitas, "we are working to see how the program can work in other places and are very excited about the opportunities."