ReServe Overview

Mission

ReServe connects experienced retired professionals with compensated service opportunities that challenge them to use their lifetime skills for the public good. ReServe is working to educate civic institutions about the experience and wisdom that retirees can bring them, to work with the institutions to create service opportunities, and to recruit, place and support retired professionals in the workplace. ReServe’s ultimate goal: to bring fulfillment to the lives of retirees and to strengthen the institutions, the communities and the populations they serve.

History

The inspiration for ReServe came from Jack Rosenthal and Herb Sturz, New York residents deeply engaged in philanthropic activities. They were struck by the lack of post-retirement public service opportunities for the rising wave of retired professionals, and resolved in early 2005 to create an institution to make these connections.

ReServe set out to test two propositions. The first is that retired professionals are eager to put their skills and experience to use by working for monetary compensation at nonprofit and public agencies. The second is that such agencies will recognize the value of the service that retired professionals can offer. The response to these propositions has been strong: ReServe is growing faster than ever imagined. It is now possible to envision that this pilot experience in New York City can one day become a model for other cities.

The Challenge

The current generation of retirees is already the healthiest, longest-lived, best educated and most affluent in America’s history. Between the years 2000 and 2030, the number of Americans over 65 will more than double, from 35 million to 71.5 million. By 2030, one of four Americans will be over 65.

These statistics encompass those Americans born between 1946 and 1964: the baby boomers. The first baby boomers turned 60 in 2006 and their number will rise for each of the next 19 years. Life expectancy, meanwhile, keeps growing, while the retirement age remains static. The baby boomers will thus accelerate the already substantial growth of our aging population, which can expect to live more vigorously than any prior generation.

Benefits of Social Engagement

As retirement lengthens, older adults increasingly regard it as an active, engaged phase of life that includes work and public service. They have entered another stage of life, one that may extend for as much as 25 years. Americans over 50 consider feeling vital and physically active, being intellectually stimulated, and working as part of a group of people with a clear and important purpose important elements of happiness in their later years. In the words of one ReServe participant, a retired market analyst: “my mind wants to work. My heart wants to work.”

Engaging Volunteers

Retirees can face challenges in finding meaningful nonprofit work. And once they do, working within nonprofit agencies can be challenging. In the words of a retired executive who spent two years approaching nonprofits and was asked to do work that was boring or ignored his business expertise, “I felt like a trainee again… I found an entrenched group of agencies that did not accept the skills that I could provide for them.”

Reaching Retired Professionals

ReServe specifically targets educated adults, serves them as direct clients, arranges stipends and works with nonprofits to identify service opportunities. A qualified ReServist observed: “The key word that attracted me was ‘stipend.’ Some volunteer opportunities are so disorganized. It can be daunting, especially coming from a structured, corporate background. When I read about ReServe, I immediately got excited. It sounded like you were addressing the very problem I kept encountering.”

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