Q: What are encore careers?
A: Encore careers combine social impact with personal meaning and continued income, enabling people who have finished their midlife careers to put their passion and skills to work for the greater good. As millions of boomers enter their 50s and 60s, the goal of decades of leisure time is giving way to a new form of practical idealism: real jobs tackling real problems, making real impact.

Q: Who’s interested in encore careers?
A: In a recent survey of adults age 44 to 70, more than half said they wanted encore careers – work that helps meet the human and social needs of their communities and provides personal meaning and continued pay.

Q: What are Encore Fellowships?
A: Encore Fellowships are designed to deliver new sources of talent to the task of solving social problems. These paid, time-limited assignments place highly-skilled, experienced professionals at the end of their mid-life careers into social-purpose organizations. During the fellowship period (typically 6-12 months, half- to full-time), the fellows take on roles that bring significant, sustained impact to their host organizations. While they are working, the fellows earn a stipend, learn about social-purpose work, and develop a new network of contacts and resources for the future.

Q: Why is a new social innovation like Encore Fellowships needed?
A: Bringing together the talent pool of the over-50 population with the growing nonprofit sector in need of increased capacity makes good common sense. However, switching from the private to nonprofit sector is not always smooth or straightforward, and few pathways are in place to support this transition. Civic Ventures, a think tank on boomers, work and social purpose, saw the need for new vehicles that connect nonprofits with talented boomers, to help experienced corporate employees transition to the nonprofit sector. Encore Fellowships directly address that need.

Q: What is the Silicon Valley Encore Fellows pilot program?
A: Launched in early 2009, this pilot program successfully tested the Encore Fellowship concept in California’s Silicon Valley with 10 Encore Fellows – highly skilled former corporate employees with deep experience in marketing, finance, human resources and team management. The fellows made an immediate impact at Silicon Valley nonprofits while gaining experience and insight that launched them into encore careers.

Q: What is the Silicon Valley Encore Fellows program model?
A: The program model includes high-impact transitional work assignments; rigorous selection and matching; compensation; peer learning; commitment from innovative nonprofit hosts; and help transitioning to encore careers.

Q: What makes this program different from other corporate volunteer and community initiatives?
A: The idea goes beyond traditional volunteer and board roles often accorded to the older population in new ways. Encore Fellowships, which are paid engagements, focus on the transition to encore careers and the talent available to boost nonprofit capacity and better serve communities.

Q: What's the value proposition for corporate partners?
A: Encore Fellowships leverage talent developed during corporate careers. Sponsoring an Encore Fellow significantly strengthens existing corporate community engagement programs and integrates well with work force management, marketing and public relations strategies.
>> See the corporate sponsorship fact sheet for more information

Q: What is the evidence of success?
A: The Silicon Valley Encore Fellows 2009 pilot scored a triple win:

• Local nonprofits received high-value talent to help drive their missions and transform their organizations. Of participating nonprofits, 80 percent requested fellows for 2010. Offering strong testimony to the value of the fellowships, these nonprofits have agreed to pay between half and all of the fellow stipend cost during 2010, compared with receiving a fellow without cost in 2009.
• Fellows received hands-on experience working in and directly contributing to social purpose organizations. Eight of the 10 fellows were offered longer-term staff roles with their host nonprofits, the great majority thus launching encore careers.
• Corporate sponsors benefited from an innovative program that enhances existing community engagement, work force management and market affinity strategies. New corporate sponsors and employees have signed up for the 2010 program.

Q: What is the evidence of national impact?
A: Although the idea of Encore Fellowships is new, it is already gaining momentum.

• Federal encore fellowships were included in the Serve America Act signed by President Obama in 2009.
• Fast Company named Encore Fellowships one of the 10 best new ideas of the year.
• Major national news outlets have covered Encore Fellowships, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report and National Public Radio.
  >> See “Encore Fellowships in the News” for more information
• There is growing interest from states, corporations, organizations, communities and individuals to develop and operate their own Encore Fellowships programs.

Q: Who funded the Silicon Valley 2009 pilot?
A: The David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Hewlett Packard Company provided grants to Civic Ventures – a think tank on boomers, work and social purpose – to run the pilot program in 2009. Since the huge success of Encore Fellowships in 2009, more corporations and community organizations have stepped forward to participate in Silicon Valley and beyond.

Q: What is the Encore Fellowship Network?
A: The Encore Fellowship Network was created by Civic Ventures to make it as easy as possible for organizations to start, sponsor and operate effective Encore Fellowship programs of their own. The network provides a wealth of online information, tools and communities that make the design, launch and operation of an Encore Fellowships program as simple and efficient as possible. Through the Encore Fellowships Network, Civic Ventures is enabling a network of high-quality programs nationally, operated by organizations whose missions are supported and aligned with the concept of Encore Fellowships. For more information, please go to www.encore.org/fellowships.

Q: What is Civic Ventures?
A: Civic Ventures was founded in 1998 by social entrepreneur and author Marc Freedman. Through an inventive program portfolio, original research, strategic alliances and the power of people’s own life stories, Civic Ventures demonstrates the value of experience in solving serious social problems, from education to the environment, health care to homelessness.