Older Americans Could Provide Significant Boon for Nonprofit Groups

If more people volunteer for charities after they reach traditional retirement age, the nation’s gross domestic product could increase by 5 percent by 2050, predicts an economist cited in a Time magazine article about the changing nature of retirement.

John Shoven, director of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, says the nation’s gross domestic product could increase by as much as 10 percent a year if pensions were distributed based not on how old a person is, but on how much longer he or she is expected to live. Mr. Shoven also says that if retired people volunteer, the gross domestic product would increase by another 5 percent.

Marc Freedman, founder of Civic Ventures, a nonprofit think tank that promotes career opportunities for older adults, encourages retirees to seek flexible jobs in government as well as in education, health care, and other types of nonprofit organizations.

Mr. Freedman believes the movement of older people into different types of jobs would have a significant impact. He says, “You hear oxymorons such as ‘young old’ and ‘retirement job.’ Anytime the language starts collapsing on itself, something big is about to happen.”

For more on older workers, read Regeneration, a regular series of articles on the subject, in The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

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