Five years after Mr. Peters and his partners, all friends he met at Microsoft, bought the association for an undisclosed sum (estimated at $5 million), it is on track to become profitable next year. Revenue has more than doubled over that span, and the number of 18- to 34-year-olds watching the tour's events on television has increased 80 percent. Corporate sponsors, which did not exist when they bought the tour, now number 19, and include Denny's, Pepsi and Motel 6.

"I love bowling. I wanted to save bowling," Mr. Peters said. "The only way to do that was to make it profitable."

Ms. DeVaan's passion was also rooted in her childhood. She said she created her first protest poster with her mother when she was just 10. Her grandmother continued to register voters for the National Organization for Women when she was 84.

The idea of working to support abortion rights came several years after Ms. DeVaan left Microsoft, at a meeting with friends over satay at the Wild Ginger restaurant in Seattle. The women -- whom she described as entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, lawyers and others -- decided to focus their time and money on abortion rights because they felt that its support around the country was not reflected in national politics.

Besides donating money to political candidates and helping to connect them to wealthy Democratic Party donors around Seattle, group members -- now numbering about 70 -- also work directly for campaigns as volunteers.

Ms. DeVaan says her Microsoft experience is serving her well. "When you're at Microsoft, you're working with an incredible group of talented, passionate people," she said. "You really hit a groove and get things done. That's imprinted on you, and when you leave, you want to find that again."

RICH TONG said he knew that it was time to leave Microsoft when he made a presentation to its chief executive, Steve Ballmer, and was no longer scared. "I realized that if I could confidently tell him how I thought the company should be organized, then I was qualified to run my own business," Mr. Tong said. In his 12 years there, he led several marketing teams. One helped raise sales of Windows to about $400 million a year, from $50 million, in two years.