I need to make this very, very clear: I’m of the opinion that a calling or a vocation can take a number of different forms and that people can be skilled in a number of different ways and those skills, when combined with effort and dedication, can genuinely help people. Sometimes in unconventional ways.

So, if Todd Graves, the owner and founder of Raising Cane’s, is convinced that God gave him a unique skillset that allows him to thrive at selling chicken fingers with the end result being helping people, then I’m absolutely not going to argue against it. 

According to the man himself, he sure seems to believe just that. So I’m on board here.

During a 30th birthday celebration for Raising Cane’s, hosted at the original restaurant that helped start it all in Baton Rouge, Graves made it clear that he is focused on growing his business and helping folks (and critters) along the way. Much of that process involves leaning into a unique sort of skill that most people don’t have.

“I think God made me good at chicken fingers to help people,” Graves mused. “Really, that’s my purpose. And that’s why I get up in the morning early. That’s why I work late and continue to go and work with great people that have helped to scale us, and the great leadership to help scale us and to go into the future.”

Again, I’m convinced. The donations are certainly there and evident. And it’s not just Graves who has spoken about this. 

Raising Cane’s keeps giving money away and Todd Graves wants to keep that up

Back in November, at a Raising Cane’s in South Florida, Paul Skenes told me that, in a conversation with Graves during an LSU football game, the Raising Cane’s entrepreneur had mentioned one of his goals was to give away as much money as possible. 

“I hope to get more liquid in the next 30 years,” Graves said, briefly glancing over the philosophy for his restaurant’s growth for a bunch of folks who focus more on stringing together words for a living as opposed to crunching numbers on a daily basis. “We’re a capital intensive business.”

So if the plan is to steadily grow a thriving chicken fingers business to get capital to be able to give back and serve communities and a variety of other causes, then I think the plan might be working a bit.

“I’m going to look at you in 30 years and be able to give back billions to the community. And that’ll be really neat because we’ll all be in this room together in 30 more,” Raising Cane’s owner and founder laughed. “I’ll be 84 then. And that’ll be the dream, that’ll be the dream.”

Graves’ focus on building Raising Cane’s with a commitment to excellence is certainly obvious to those around him

Look, I’m here for it. 100 percent fully on board with this. I love that ambition. And it’s inspiring to get to hear Graves talk about that and those around him dive into it as well.

Keith Lee (a pretty notable social media creator with a very substantial following who I am pretty sure not related to, I think) said it well when he was talking about the restaurant and Graves’ ambitions here.

Lee referred to it as a passion project in addition to being a business for Graves. It really feels like that’s an incredibly accurate way to talk about this.

Duff Goldman of Charm City Cakes (who made the incredible, multi-tiered cake showcasing all of Graves’ near-mythological status and history of business building with Raising Cane’s) spoke to this similarly as he discussed the importance of getting the cake right for the occasion.

“Listen, every single cake that we make, when we make something like this that has so many sort of different biographical elements to it, that is always a real challenge. Because I love Raising Cane’s,” Goldman explained. “I love that chicken. I eat Raising Cane’s on every road trip whenever I see one, But for Todd and for everybody at Raising Cane’s, all of these things have deep personal meaning, right?”

The details matter on this one. It’s important to get things right.

“So, you know, I can make some chicken fingers out of sugar, but it’s really important for me to make sure, like, the way that we do the coleslaw, this is chopped as opposed to sliced, right? Chopped coleslaw like this, that’s the style of coleslaw that they make at Raising Cane’s,” Goldman continued. “You know, getting the color of the sauce right, making sure that all the dents, all the stickers, everything that’s on the hard hat is exactly the way that it’s supposed to be. Because it’s really meaningful to everybody here. And that’s what we do. We create meaningful things.”