My idea is to start a statewide “returnment” program that would help older adults give back and return to our communities through working for nonprofits on a discounted pay basis. I would title it “experience making a difference program”.
The essence of the idea is to have nonprofits offer discounted paid positions or projects that could be matched up to 50% the first year, 30% the second and 20% the third by Meyer Memorial Trust. The goal would be to leverage the value of experience, time and the desire to give back of older adults to the needs of our nonprofit organizations while at the same time compensating the older adults at some level. The positions or projects could either be new or existing.
Each party would be investing something into the” experience making a difference program.” The nonprofit would be offering a position or project and offering to compensate it at below market rates, the older adult would be offering their passion and expertise at a deeply discounted rate and the community through the funder would be reducing the overall initial cost for the nonprofit.
This hybrid model combines parts of the spirit of volunteering with the need for some level of compensation with the elements of partnership, potential scale and ease of foundation administration.
Finally I would use the million dollars as a challenge grant to be matched by other philanthropic investors to make the overall pool much larger.