by Alexandra Kent, Director of The Purpose Prize

The aging of the boomer generation is accelerating. An average of 8,000 women and men turn 60 each day, a wave that will grow in the coming decades. Will the aging of our society drain precious resources as some predict, or will it be a tide of talent, purpose and experience that lifts us up and leaves us better off?

The Purpose Prize, which recognizes adults over 60 making extraordinary contributions in their community, shows the latter to be true. In the four years since the program was launched, nearly 4,000 adults have been nominated, more than 200 have been named fellows, and nearly 50 have been named Prize winners, taking home up to $100,000 to support and expand their work.

How are you using technology to expand opportunities for social change? When do you grab hold of your computer or your PDA to stay connected to others who are serving the greater good?

On Monday, May 4th, the Accelerating Social Entrepreneurship Conference, will take place in Washington, DC and bring together people interested in how connectivity fuels social innovation.

The passing of Sir John Templeton provides an opportunity to reflect on “The Big Questions” that were the focus of his philanthropic work.

Templeton, one of the world’s leading investors and philanthropists, died today in Nassau, Bahamas. He was 95. A native of Tennessee, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1987 for the philanthropic work he pursued in his encore career.

In 2006, the John Templeton Foundation helped establish The Purpose Prize to recognize social innovators over 60 with awards of up to $100,000, and remains a major funder. (The Purpose Prize is a project of Civic Ventures, publisher of Encore.org.)

Civic Ventures released a new survey today estimating that between 5.3 and 8.4 million Americans have launched “encore careers,” positions that combine income and personal meaning with social impact and nearly half of those surveyed are interested in finding their encore career.

Read Civic Ventures CEO Marc Freedman’s blog about the report in today’s Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-freedman/bill-gates-deserves-an-en_b_....

We’d appreciate it if you could read the post and comment on Marc’s piece directly on the Huffington Post site.

Sara Gonzalez, a 2007 Purpose Prize Winner, died unexpectedly yesterday in her adopted hometown of Atlanta, Georgia.

Gonzalez, 72, was selected from among more than 1,000 nominees to win a $10,000 Purpose Prize for her breakthroughs as President and CEO of the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. During her tenure, she incubated hundreds of Hispanic businesses, all after she turned 60, in a tremendously fruitful encore career.

Sharon Rohrbach. Photo by S. Smith Patrick.

2007 Purpose Prize winner Sharon Rohrbach’s success in channeling her lifetime of experience into saving the lives of vulnerable newborns was recognized with a $70,000 prize from a major healthcare organization.

Rohrbach, 65 years old, is a St. Louis neo-natal nurse who founded Nurses for Newborns to provide home visits from nurses to underinsured mothers and their special-needs babies.

Members of the Purpose Prize Innovation Network should consider applying for one of 20 scholarships to the Global Social Benefit Incubator.

The incubator brings together grass roots innovators and Silicon Valley executive mentors with university faculty to support the expansion of innovative solutions that serve the common good.