Civic Ventures, founded in 1998 by social entrepreneur Marc Freedman, grew out of a desire to transform the aging of America – one of the most significant transformations of the 21st century, one many characterize as an inevitable demographic disaster – into a powerful source of individual and social renewal.

Originally, Civic Ventures was created to provide a home for Experience Corps program, a program founded by Freedman and others to engage people over 55 as tutors and mentors in some of the country’s poorest neighborhoods and lowest-performing elementary schools.

In the years since, Experience Corps has become an independent nonprofit now working in more than 20 cities, and Civic Ventures has grown as a national think tank on boomers, work and social purpose, leading the call to engage millions of boomers as a vital work force for change.

During that time, and largely through foundation support, Civic Ventures has worked to redefine later life, shifting from the idea of retirement as the freedom from work to a new life stage that offers the freedom to work in new ways and to new ends.

The organization’s current focus is to draw boomers to encore careers that provide personal fulfillment doing paid work, producing a windfall of talent to help solve the most challenging social problems of our time, including poverty, the environment, education and health care.

To make encore careers possible for millions of people, Civic Ventures manages an inventive program portfolio, which includes The Purpose Prize, the Encore Fellowships program, the Encore College Initiative and Encore Opportunity Awards. The organization publishes original research that illuminates society’s need for encore talent and the desire among boomers to start encore careers.

For more comprehensive information on the case for encore careers, read Encore: Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life by Marc Freedman.