[2] Pike studied political science at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and became involved in the anti-war movement in the late 1960s.
[2][5] Pike was among the original founders of Working Assets (Credo), a San Francisco-based telecommunications company dedicated to progressive philanthropy and political activism.
[6] He founded Highwater, Inc., a real estate development venture designed to facilitate the provision of quality nonprofit workspace in metropolitan areas, in 1992.
The Tides Center provides grants management, administrative, financial and human resources services to charitable initiatives not yet incorporated as 501(c)(3)s.[7] Pike founded Groundspring.org in 1996.
[9] Pike along with George Soros and other Democracy Alliance members (John R. Hunting; Paul Rudd, co-founder of Adaptive Analytics; Pat Stryker; Nicholas Hanauer; ex-Clinton administration official Rob Stein; Gail Furman; real estate developer Robert Bowditch; Pioneer Hybrid International heir and congressional candidate Scott Wallace; Susie Tompkins Buell; real estate developer Albert Dwoskin; and Taco Bell heir Rob McKay) funded the Secretary of State Project, an American non-profit, 527 political action committee focused on electing reform-minded progressive Secretaries of State in battleground states, who typically oversee the election process.