When officials at Mercy Health Clinic, in Germantown, Md., wanted to start a new health and exercise
program for immigrants, their initial thought was to get grant money to help cover the cost of investigating the idea. But when that plan fell through, the Montgomery County Volunteer Center stepped in with an alternative approach: Seek out people who had recently retired — and who have the skills to do the research.
By working with the volunteer center, which is located here in an affluent suburb of Washington, D.C., the clinic found Linda Fox and Gail Nachman, two women who previously worked for health organizations and who were excited about the project. They spent about three months examining similar fitness programs, putting together a proposal, and applying for grants.
The result was $50,000 in grant money from three foundations to start the program, which includes fitness classes held in game rooms at apartment complexes that house large numbers of immigrants. Alvina Long, the clinic's executive director, says the program has been so successful that the foundations have just agreed to renew their grants for a second year.
As members of the baby-boom generation near retirement age, the pool of potential volunteers with professional skills and time on their hands is expected to grow rapidly. But as the Montgomery County Volunteer Center has found, few charities are ready to accept these volunteers.
To bridge the gap between the volunteer options charities traditionally offer and the opportunities baby-boomer volunteers seek, the center has started a volunteerism program aimed at people older than 50.
The idea grew out of discussions with local charity leaders in 2003 about how the center could help them take better advantage of the skills of retired doctors, lawyers, and other professionals, particularly baby boomers, says Della Stolsworth, who oversees the program. The center learned that many groups needed help with projects that required specific knowledge in areas such as technology or strategic planning, she says.
The resulting program is now being watched as a model for others around the country, says Bandana Shrestha, a program director at the Points of Light Foundation, in Washington, which promotes volunteerism.
Big Pool of Volunteers
About 33 percent of Montgomery County's more than 900,000 residents are considered to be in the baby-boomer age bracket, which includes people born from 1946 to 1964. That is higher than in some other parts of the country. According to figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, only about 27 percent of the national population are baby boomers.
While the numbers are impressive, turning baby boomers into volunteers has many challenges, as the volunteer center has learned.
Even finding a name for the program proved difficult, says Ms. Stolsworth. The original idea was to call it the Fifty-Plus Program.
Ms. Stolsworth recalls conducting an exit interview with a volunteer for one of the program's pilot projects, a woman who was a public-relations and marketing specialist. The woman said: "The first thing I have to say is I absolutely adore this program. I absolutely hate the name. You have to do something about this name, it's atrocious."
"We checked with other volunteers, and they said, 'Yeah, it really kind of stinks,'" Ms. Stolsworth says. Their attitude, she says, was "I don't mind being called experienced. I don't mind being called professional. But don't say I'm over 50, don't call me a senior citizen."
The center came up with a new name: the Pro Bono Consultant Program.
Looking for a Cause
Through the program, the volunteer center has recruited people like Ms. Fox and Ms. Nachman to work with one of an initial group of five charities.
Ms. Nachman, who just turned 60, says she was drawn to the program because she was looking for something to ease the transition from a 40-hour work week at the county's department of health and human services to full-time retirement. She wanted something that offered a limited time commitment but produced measurable results — and she wanted to work for a cause she cared about.
"I don't play golf; I don't garden," says Ms. Nachman. "So I knew when I retired, I needed some kind of meaningful activity to keep busy." The opportunity at Mercy Health Clinic provided a good fit.
Another volunteer, a retired vice president of human resources at a large health system, has joined with a charity to develop a human-resources manual.
"Because the volunteers have such experience, they jointly develop the project with the management of the charities," says Ms. Stolsworth. "It's very much a collaborative process."
Ms. Long of Mercy Health Clinic says the project has helped her rethink volunteer activities, with an eye toward short-term projects that hold particular appeal for baby boomers. "Many people who retire now do not wish to commit a day a week for the rest of their lives," she says. "They would prefer to do short-term projects because they're traveling or they have other seasonal interests."
Ms. Fox, for example, spends much of her time in her second home in Colorado. And Ms. Nachman was still working at the time she volunteered on the Mercy clinic project, so having a flexible volunteering schedule was the most important factor in finding a volunteer opportunity, she says.
Ms. Long says people who have recently retired bring a different set of skills than some previous groups of older volunteers. "We have some older volunteers, and it's hard for them to learn from scratch how to use a computer effectively," she says. "So it's wonderful to get someone who's had that training already and has all the skills in place."
Mark Bergel, executive director of A Wider Circle, a social-services charity in Bethesda, Md., echoes Ms. Long's praise of boomer volunteers. "I'm not prejudiced against non-boomers," he says. "But I find that boomers get it. They're ready to use all the wisdom they have and all the experience they have to make a difference."
He points to people like Pam Feinstein, a 56-year-old volunteer who until 2003 worked in the human-resources department at Georgetown University Hospital, in Washington.
Ms. Feinstein says she learned of the volunteer job at A Wider Circle after helping another organization develop a human-resources manual. In addition to that work, she learned that the group needed help organizing a joint fund-raising event with A Wider Circle, which helps needy people through a wide range of services, including workshops on how to stay healthy and distributions of donated furniture.
Now Ms. Feinstein is chairwoman of A Wider Circle's board of directors. She estimates that she contributes about 12 to 15 hours a week to the group, although the work is flexible, a structure she really enjoys.
"That's sort of selfish on my part," Ms. Feinstein says. "I want to have some flexibility."
While she appreciates the flexibility, Ms. Feinstein says that first and foremost she was looking for a volunteer opportunity that would make an impact. "I wanted something more meaningful than just sorting clothes," she says. "I wanted to be more involved."
In addition to joining the organization's board, Ms. Feinstein decided to complete a nonprofit-leadership program this past spring at Georgetown University to prepare herself for her new duties.
Ms. Feinstein says her work with A Wider Circle signals her "transition from one kind of career to another." She adds: "I sort of cringe at the word 'retire.' I wasn't looking for a nine-to-five job, but I wanted to use my skills."
Suzanne Perry contributed to this article.
