With Purpose Success, part 5

2. Boomers are maturing. This large generation is by no means going it alone in the field of giving back. But boomers are now migrating through their "mature" years, and they will put their unique stamp on philanthropy as retirees-and rehirees. This generation is now entering the sweet spot in life, where their careers are becoming less important, their child-rearing obligations are receding, and they still have the energy and the desire to be engaged and productive. We are on the cusp of the largest class of retirees in history-a staggering legion of well-schooled and accomplished individuals who, if they stay true to form, will leave their mark on this period of life as they have on every other period that preceded it. Will boomers volunteer and otherwise give back in waves large enough to change the world? Only time will tell. But this generation has itched to make its mark on a global scale since the first Vietnam
War protest.
Despite their me-first reputation, boomers are a deceptively generous lot. A 2005 study by Craver, Mathews, Smith and Co. and The Prime
Group found that boomers gave an average of $1,361 annually to charities and political causes-compared to $1,138 for older Americans, including the so-called greatest generation. Boomers are also the most likely cohort to volunteer, and they compare favorably with older generations when they were at this same stage of life. It is now estimated that the number of older volunteers will increase by 50 percent as boomers reach maturity.
Typically, people who volunteer during their working years double their hours of service after retiring. So when boomers really do step back and ponder what's next they may finally have the cumulative impact longed for in the classic 1970s anthem by Ten Years After: "I'd Love to Change the World."
3. The world of giving has a revolutionary new face. The rich tradition of giving something back dates to prehistoric times and was first given form around 500 bc with Greek writer Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound.
According to Greek mythology, Prometheus stole fire from the gods and out of goodness gave it to humans. In so doing, Prometheus incurred the wrath of his less egalitarian superior, Zeus, who then bound him to a mountain for centuries. But Prometheus regarded the sacrifice as well worth the result. The act of selfless giving has inspired countless stories since, cementing philanthropy as a worthy endeavor in the human psyche.
Yet the social purpose of philanthropy has, like the institution of retirement, undergone profound change over the millennia and is today at another tipping point. Those who give their money or their time have become frustrated; despite billions of dollars given each year to eradicate poverty, illiteracy, and other blights it sometimes feels as if relatively little gets accomplished.
Big-money philanthropy increasingly is driven by the new-age rich, who earned their money as hard-driving entrepreneurs-not as the heirs of old-line wealth. Titans like Larry Ellison at the software firm
Oracle, Oprah Winfrey, Phil Knight at Nike, and Bill and Melinda Gates at the Gates Foundation are relatively young and bring an entrepreneurial zeal to the world of charity. There are many others, and they span the globe and include titans such as Hong Kong's Li Ka-shing, who has pledged to leave one-third of his $32 billion fortune to charity;
Anil Agarwal, who has committed $1 billion toward creating a new university in India; Malaysia's Leonard Linggi Tun Jugah, who puts his donations into preserving the culture of the Ibans, an indigenous group on Borneo; and Yang Huiyan, China's richest person, and her father,
Yeung Kwok Keung, who donated $32 million to charities in a single year.
Venture philanthropy is one of the top trends in British charity too, according to trackers at www.philanthropyuk.org, a relatively new and comprehensive clearinghouse of advice, information, and news on the