Putting Retiring Baby Boomers to Work

As the first baby boomers are about to turn 60, a new advertising blitz is beckoning them not only to a new stage of life, but also to one built around making a social contribution.

“Lead the retirement revolution,” one advertisement tells sixtysomethings; swap your roots in the “counter culture” for a new life in “counter retirement.”

Another features a beaming boomer wearing a stethoscope, surrounded by children in the developing world. The banner reads: “Work for world peace. Feed starving children. Do what beauty pageant contestants talk about but never get around to.” The punch line: “Retirement is your chance to contribute in a whole new way.”

What’s striking about this new wave of ads is their source. The tens, perhaps hundreds of millions, being spent on these calls to action and idealism are coming from Ameriprise Financial, Fidelity, Lincoln Financial Group, and other financial-services companies vying for business from the boomers.

These campaigns are certainly commendable, but let’s not be fooled.

Corporate America is not pumping its advertising and marketing budgets into do-good causes aimed at the betterment of mankind. Those campaigns are the unsentimental product of extensive research on a generation of Americans emerging from midlife with a deep yearning for work that not only is personally meaningful, but also means something beyond the self.

The new financial marketers get it. But what about the organizations that should have the market cornered on meaningful work — the nonprofit world? Where are charities when it comes to recruiting a new generation of sixtysomethings searching for purpose and contribution beyond their midlife careers? All too often, off message, lagging behind, and missing out.

A survey released by the National Council on the Aging last spring found that nonprofit groups have displayed at best a tepid interest in engaging this vast and growing segment of the population. “Local executive directors, program directors, and volunteer coordinators did not show much interest in improving their organizations’ capacity to attract and retain older adults as workers or volunteers,” the council noted.

Meanwhile, the retail world is clamoring to capture the time, talent, and experience of people in their 50s and 60s. In search of new employees, Home Depot, in partnership with AARP, recruits with the slogan “Passion never retires.” And employers like Wal-Mart showcase older employees as leaders, gaining the kind of personal satisfaction normally reserved for teachers and grandparents.

But nonprofit groups can’t let “the golden years” become “the retail years.” Nonprofit officials simply can’t afford to cede this windfall in human and social capital to Wal-Mart and Home Depot, especially when charitable organizations face looming labor shortages and a deepening need for accountable, experienced employees.

As the nation faces a tremendous demographic shift, with large numbers of Americans crossing into their 50s, 60s, and 70s, it’s time for a turnaround. How can nonprofit groups make this shift and reap an experience dividend? Here are some key steps:

Move beyond musty notions of “senior volunteering.” Many of today’s volunteer opportunities for older adults were created in the 1960s and based on “activity theory” in gerontology. Simply put, the goal was to keep the old folks busy, to get their blood flowing. As a consequence, all too many volunteer opportunities were designed without much thought to accomplishing work of any significance.

The generation now nearing traditional retirement age is far more vigorous and much better educated than any previous generation at the same juncture. They don’t think of themselves as senior citizens or aged or elderly; use those terms and they will refer you to their parents.

And they don’t take kindly to busy work. Jobs like pushing the gift cart around the hospital or holding down the travelers’ aid desk at the airport are unlikely to capture their imagination or attract their commitment.

New research affirms that an appeal to idealism and making a difference can engage aging baby boomers in service. Even more important, research suggests, are giving people ways to make connections with others committed to similar goals, and a reason to get up in the morning. In sum, boomers want to work with others to make a measurable difference on issues that matter.

Focus new attention on work. Graying boomers are poised to invent a new stage of life in the decades that are opening up between the end of midlife and the onset of true old age, as well as a new stage of work. Nearly 80 percent of boomers plan to continue working, full time or part time, in their 60s and 70s, according to research by AARP.

That may mean less time to volunteer later in life, especially given boomers’ mixed performance as joiners. It may also mean that the most important way the boomers will want to make a contribution to society is through pursuit of jobs with a social purpose.

The MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures New Face of Work Survey, released in June, found growing interest among Americans age 50 to 70 in “good work,” work that combines the seriousness and income associated with a job with the spirit and fulfillment of service.

Nonprofit organizations must begin to think hard about how to take advantage of boomers’ inclination and experience by placing more older adults in paying jobs — as bookkeepers and information-technology specialists, fund raisers and marketers, coordinators of volunteers and executive directors.

Make nonprofit groups welcoming to older workers. If nonprofit groups are to capitalize on boomers’ desire for good work, organizations will need to make real adjustments to deeply ingrained work styles. We all know the nonprofit stereotype of intensely committed and underpaid staff members working impossibly long hours to achieve great results. It’s hard to see how older workers who want more flexibility will fit into that picture.

But some pretty hard-driving corporations that have historically relied on young employees have seen the opportunity that older workers present and have gone to considerable lengths to create the types of work settings and arrangements that appeal to older workers.

They have made adjustments — in hours, more flexible schedules, even the chance to work in different locations in different times of the year — that create favorable working conditions for older employees. And they have been rewarded with loyal, productive staff members who feel respected and valued. Nonprofit groups can follow their lead.

Raise expectations for older employees. As nonprofit groups seek out older Americans, they should look for leaders, entrepreneurs, and other innovators.

Nonprofit executives tend to believe that young people hold a monopoly on creative, innovative leadership. Yet growing numbers of women and men in their 50s, 60s, and 70s are demonstrating that those stereotypes do not stand the test of time and should be discarded along with other shopworn ideas about aging.

A new generation of older Americans are taking matters into their own hands, creating new nonprofit organizations and efforts aimed at producing significant social change.

Social entrepreneurs with this type of talent and drive deserve not only to be celebrated, but supported. Scrap the lifetime achievement award: Nonprofit groups need to invest in what these new breed of sixtysomething and seventysomething change makers are going to accomplish next.

Push for policy changes and incentives to encourage older employees and volunteers. Despite much abstract allure, making the most of the demographic revolution won’t happen easily or automatically. And good work at the ground level by nonprofit groups won’t suffice.

Pension rules need to be adjusted to encourage part-time and flexible work arrangements.

Incentives should be created to make work at nonprofit organizations — both paid and unpaid — especially attractive for the new generation of aging Americans. Government should also help with the costs of lifelong education and retraining.

Nonprofit groups can’t sit back and wait for these and other essential policy changes to happen; they must use their clout to push for new approaches.

There’s a lot of work to do, but the potential payoff is vast and compelling. Never before have so many people had so much experience — and the time to put it to good use. They constitute a potential windfall of human and social capital to nonprofit groups, a world with a surplus of goodwill and youthful ambition, and a shortage of experience and management skills.

We even have the financial-services industry promoting this opportunity for us. Nonprofit leaders need only seize it.

Marc Freedman is the founder and president of Civic Ventures, a nonprofit organization in San Francisco that focuses on ways to engage older Americans in community service. John S. Gomperts is chief executive of Experience Corps, a national service program for Americans older than 55 that is run by Civic Ventures.