August 10, 2000 | Read Time: 1 minute
By THOMAS J. BILLITTERI
Retired business executives who seek to become charity volunteers could be in for a rude awakening, according to Fortune magazine (August 14).
The magazine details the ill-fated efforts of several former executives to lend their business acumen to charitable groups.
Don Spieler, a former Eastman Kodak Company executive in Rochester, N.Y., went first to the local United Way. It asked him to work in fund raising — “not what I’m interested in at all,” he said.
Over the next two years, Mr. Spieler went to seven non-profit groups in hopes of finding a suitable volunteer post, Fortune says. “At nearly all, he was asked to do work that was boring or that ignored his expertise as a businessman,” the magazine writes.
Eventually Mr. Spieler joined the Service Corps of Retired Executives, which links former business people with young entrepreneurs. He is now running for the organization’s national board, Fortune says.
Ed Kahn, a consumer-products executive, wrote to 10 organizations in the Philadelphia area in hopes of using his skills in a volunteer capacity. “Three organizations did not respond,” Fortune says. “Six sent letters thanking him for his interest, but telling him that there was no place for him.” Mr. Kahn decided to rejoin the business world.
Concludes the Fortune article: “The leading edge of the 76-million-strong baby boom is beginning to retire” and many retirees “will move effortlessly into volunteerism.” But “others will run for the golf course or part-time jobs if they are asked to stuff envelopes.”
The article is available at http://www.fortune.com.
