Jennifer Pierce, the founder of Share Our Shoes, has filed an appeal to restore the Raleigh shoe charity's state license to operate as a tax-exempt nonprofit.
Pierce, in a petition filed last week with the state Office of Administrative Hearings, contends the N.C. Secretary of State's office wrongfully pulled the nonprofit's license earlier this month. She said she submitted information proving that there was no misspending, and that she had reimbursed the charity for personal expenditures she made.
She also alleges in the petition that an investigator with the Secretary of State's office required her to take an test for alcohol use after she visited the office to deliver documents -- a test that she says showed no alcohol in her system -- and that he had her investigated by child protective services without proper justification.
George Jeter, a spokesman for the Secretary of State's office, said officials there would have no comment while the case is being appealed. The office revoked Share Our Shoes' license after determining that Pierce could not adequately document tens of thousands of dollars in expenditures ranging from meals to personal grooming that appeared to have little to do with the charity's stated mission.
Dan Kane has covered local and state government and N.C. State University at The News & Observer since joining our staff in 1997. Most recently, he and J. Andrew Curliss teamed to report “The Missing Money,” a three-part series that explored the state's growing number of tax breaks and the related rising revenue loss. Kane's reporting also exposed one of the worst academic fraud cases in U.S. higher education history at UNC-Chapel Hill. Contact him at