arc Freedman has put his finger on a huge, largely untapped, source of renewable energy in America. They’re called retirees. Or in Freedman’s vernacular, “the experienced generation.” The Founder and President of Civic Ventures, Freedman believes the over-60 segment of the population cannot only be a major contributor to society, but also lead the way with social innovation. “Some of the best ideas and the most creative solutions to the issues we all face are going to come from places we least expect,” he says.

To help stimulate social entrepreneurship amongst retirees, Freedman, the author of Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America has joined together with the Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies to initiate the Purpose Prize. This new three-year award is offering $100,000 to five carefully screened social innovators over the age of 60.

Purpose Prize winners will be selected by a jury, including Sherry Lansing, recently retired President of Paramount Pictures; Harris Wofford, former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania and former CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service; journalist David Gergen; Bob Buford, Chair of The Leadership Network; Tom Tierney, former CEO of Bain & Company; journalist Cokie Roberts; Rosabeth Moss Kanter from the Harvard Business School and Wendy Kopp, Founder of Teach for America. The first year’s prize will be announced September 2006.
(for The Purpose Prize panel of judges click here)

Interest in the Purpose Prize has exceeded initial expectations, with over 1,100 nominations from 48 states. The goal of the Prize is to support a wide range of people who are using their life experience to not only focus on improving their communities or the country, but also to innovate. “Rather than highlighting the Paul Newmans of the world, we want to support less well-known people who are working in the same philanthropic spirit,” says Marc Freedman.

The timing of the Purpose Prize converges with two major trends already reshaping the social fabric of the country. “Every day, for the next 25 years, 8,000 people will turn 60,” says Freedman. As these 77 million baby boomers look to the next phase of their lives, they are also facing another transformative trend: longer life spans.

This seismic shift in the demographic landscape represents an enormous opportunity to redefine how we think of people over the age of 60, 70, 80 and beyond. “It’s the intersection of the longevity revolution and the demographic revolution and either one of those alone would be a significant social development, but the combination brings things to a magnitude we’re only beginning to grasp,” says Freedman. “It’s really the nature of the lifecycle that’s under dramatic revision. This period between the end of midlife and the beginning of true old age, when people really are focused on independence and health concerns, is getting to a point where it’s as long as midlife in duration.”

Freedman, a student of the ways in which different eras have redefined the phases of human life, points out that 100 years ago we created the category of adolescence. “I really think there’s a new stage of life being fashioned for people over 60 in much the same way that we created adolescence 100 years ago when there was proliferation of young people who weren’t quite children and weren’t quite adult.”

“Right now these older people don’t know how to describe what stage of life they’re in. They say they’re retired, but in fact they’re still working. They joke that they are senior citizens, but even their parents don’t fit that characterization. It’s such an extended state of time to be in a state of dislocation. When you get tens of millions of people in this state for a protracted length of time, it’s really remarkable we haven’t come up with language that helps these people define: What is success in this period of life? What do I aspire to? What’s my dream for right now?”

To ensure the Purpose Prize’s mission of stimulating social innovators over age 60, The Atlantic Philanthropies and the Founda­tion have contributed over $8 million to launch the program.

Click here for The Purpose Prize Finalists
Click here for The Purpose Prize Winners

www.leadwithexperience.org