Strategic Approach to Philanthropy Boosts Impact and Donor Satisfaction
Over the holiday season, most of us were inundated with appeals for our money from alma maters, churches and organizations addressing every imaginable social cause. Our response to each request was probably somewhat arbitrary. We dashed off checks to those that rose above the clutter without really taking the time to figure out how much we could truly afford to give or how our donations would make a difference.

For most of us, regardless of asset level, personal philanthropy boils down to ad hoc responses to appeals from charitable organizations, rather than a proactive exercise in determining an affordable level for our giving, prioritizing causes and assessing the best means of making an impact. Yet just as disciplined investing generally yields greater financial returns, a more focused approach to personal philanthropy often results in greater impact - and greater personal fulfillment. Click here to read full article

The Health Benefits of Volunteering in Later Life
When Virginia Sturwold retired from her job with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and moved back to San Francisco from Atlanta in the late 1990s, she decided she wanted to do something to help children. So she began looking for volunteer opportunities in the city, and soon found a position with Experience Corps, a non-profit program that brings volunteers aged 55 and up into urban public schools to serve as mentors and tutors.

For the past six years, Sturwold, 82, has volunteered twice a week, for three hours each session, at Francis Scott Key Elementary School in the Sunset District. She spends her time there mentoring third and fourth graders on a one-on-one basis, helping them with reading and teaching them how to knit. Her students are "a great source of fantastic thinking," she says. "I get a great deal of satisfaction from working with these children." Click here to read full article

The Peace Corps: It's Not Just for the Young
Like many members of her generation, Marilyn Petersen was inspired by President Kennedy's call to serve in the Peace Corps and its mission of promoting world peace and friendship.

But by 1961, when the Peace Corps was launched, her way was barred by family life. "I got married right out of high school and I had a baby pretty soon after that," says Petersen, a 66-year-old Novato resident. "But it was always in the back of my mind that I'd to do that some day."

Her chance finally came in the mid-1990s, following the deaths of her husband and mother. "The time was right and I thought, 'I'm going to fulfill this dream I've always had and join Peace Corps,'" says Petersen, who worked for 20 years as a teacher at Marin County schools before joining the Corps. Click here to read full article

Coalition Recruits Older Adults to Volunteer at S.F. Schools
A coalition of four nonprofit organizations in San Francisco has launched a campaign to recruit older adults to be volunteer tutors and mentors to the city's elementary and middle-school students.

The new effort, called Generations for Education, is led by Experience Corps, San Francisco School Volunteers, the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) and Foster Grandparents. This is the first time the groups have collaborated on an initiative of this scale, and Generations for Education is one of the largest intergenerational efforts in California.

Generations for Education now has about 180 volunteers age 55 and older working in San Francisco schools, and the goal is to recruit at least 100 more. The coalition aims to use each volunteer's skills in finding them a placement - such as reading to elementary school students or tutoring high school students in English. The minimum commitment for volunteers is one hour per week. Click here to read full article

A Conversation with Career Counselor Linda Artel
According to recent research by AARP, 79 percent of baby boomers expect to continue working in some capacity after retiring from their midlife careers. Some will need to work in order to make financial ends meet, while others will choose work that keeps them active and engaged with other people. Whatever the reason, experts predict that by 2015, the number of people working after age 55 will reach a record 31.9 million, compared with 18.4 million in 2000.

To learn more about the opportunities and challenges facing mature workers considering a next-stage career, Bay Area Summit spoke with Linda Artel, a counselor at the Bay Area Career Center who often works with mid-life career changers. Artel, who is 59, has personal experience with mid-life career transition, having made a major career shift from museum educator to career counselor in her mid-forties. She has an M.A. in psychology and career development, and she teaches "Renewal at 50+" classes at San Francisco State University's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Click here to read full article

Service to Schoolchildren Boosts Learning, Volunteers Health
For Rich Dana, helping 5th graders at Francis Scott Key Elementary School grasp geometry concepts is every bit as challenging and rewarding as the Internal Revenue Service job he retired from in 2001.

Not only does it keep his mind sharp ("I'm learning concepts I should have learned in 5th grade!"), but it keeps him engaged with his retired professional peers and with his community. "It’s a great way of giving back," says Dana, a volunteer with Experience Corps, a national non-profit program that channels the talents and energies of Americans aged 55 and older into serving the needs of youth in urban public schools and after-school programs. Click here to read full article

Small Businesses Hit a Home Run with SCORE
Nine years ago, Marketing Designs, a Belmont-based real estate marketing firm, was stuck in neutral. "We’d been in business for a couple of years and we were doing OK. But I didn’t know how to take the next steps to grow the business," says Jayne McCann, the company’s owner and founder.

Then she heard about SCORE at a small business trade show and, as the saying goes, the rest is history. After consulting over a period of months with the retired advertising and financial specialists SCORE provided, McCann made business adjustments that helped Marketing Designs grow from four employees to 20 and sent its revenues soaring. Click here to read full article