Fast Company's Top 10 Social Enterprises 2009: Civic Ventures

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2009-01-21 14:34:00 UTC
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Each year, my favorite magazine Fast Company publishes a list of their top ten social enterprises, organizations who use market forces to achieve social missions. Over the course of the next few weeks, I'll be making it a point to feature some of these excellent organizations

It seemed appropriate, after this morning's post about Obama's good news for social entrepreneurs to write about Civic Ventures. The idea behind Civic Ventures is pretty simple: the incredible talent and experience accumulated by retiring Baby Boomers should have the opportunity to be put to use towards social change. With so many people interested in "encore careers," and so many organizations in the nonprofit and social enterprise space looking for experience and specific skills, it seems like a real opportunity to connect supply with demand.

From their website:

Civic Ventures is leading the call to engage millions of baby boomers as a vital workforce for change. 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 and health care to homelessness. Founded in 1998 by social entrepreneur and author Marc Freedman, Civic Ventures works to define the second half of adult life as a time of individual and social renewal.

One of Civic Ventures' best known programs is the Purpose Prize, a $100,000 award given to social innovators over 60 who are tackling some of the world's greater challenges. To learn more about Civic Ventures, check out their website, read this Fast Company profile, or watch the video below about 2006 Purpose Prize winner Suzanne Mintz, founder of the National Family Caregivers Association.

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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