Quit your job; save the world

At 56, Gary Maxworthy had a successful career running a food brokerage company, a $200,000-plus salary, a country club membership and a company car -- "which was a Jaguar, by the way," he says.

But to his way of thinking, he wasn't making enough of a difference in the world around him. And like many whose youth was colored by President Kennedy's famous "ask not what your country can do for you" challenge, he wanted to trade the daily grind for work with more meaning. So he left behind the company car and plush paycheck and took a job with a San Francisco Bay Area food bank.

"My starting salary was $7,000," says Maxworthy, laughing. "But I figured if it didn't work out, I could always go back to the profession."

Not to worry: Fourteen years on, Maxworthy is still toiling away, getting California's fresh produce bounty into food banks for low-income individuals. This year, he expects his group to distribute 60 million pounds of 38 crops to more than 40 food banks across California, serving a million people every month. 60 million pounds of produce

New kind of retirement for boomers

Volunteering may be a long-standing retiree tradition, but baby boomers seem intent on pushing their social activism a step further than their parents and grandparents have. Some are drawn to philanthropy with an entrepreneurial spin; others, like Maxworthy, dive into new careers that carry big pay cuts but bigger rewards.

And an adventurous few tackle Peace Corps assignments in exotic spots such as Thailand and Burkina Faso. In the months since the Peace Corps rolled out its Peace Corps 50+ initiative targeted at boomers, applications from that age group have jumped 63%. After bike crash, volunteering in Ukraine

Many boomers are thinking on a much larger scale than their predecessors did, says Tom Rogerson, the director of wealth management services at BNY Mellon Wealth Management in Boston. "The more successful my clients are, the more they are focused on finding the right way to be sure that success is meaningful," he says. "That is what helps them feel they have earned their own well-being -- the ability to spread it around." Slide show: 9 volunteers saving the world

For a generation that grew up breaking the rules, self-determination is a prime concern, Rogerson notes. "They have built and controlled their professional lives. Now the question is, 'What else can I control that will be fun and exciting and worthwhile?'"

Some are channeling their work through new family foundations and donor-advised funds, whose numbers continue to soar. But boomers are venturing further

into the world of philanthropy in retirement. In addition to financial assets, they have experience and time in abundance, and they want to put those to good use, too.

"There is a recognition that they have enough time left that they can accomplish something significant, create a legacy that they can be proud of," explains Marc Freedman, the founder of Civic Ventures, an organization that encourages retirees to ponder post-retirement "careers" that benefit society. "What is better than knowing that your life has had purpose and meaning?" Freedom to . . . keep working?

Small changes make a big difference

After running an e-commerce business for a car dealership, Robert Chambers found himself reeling in disgust at some of the practices of the dealership system.

"People were getting ripped off horribly, and the worst off were those who could least afford it," he recalls. So Chambers launched Bonnie CLAC (Car Loans and Counseling), a nonprofit organization that gives his low-income clients access to new, fuel-efficient cars at affordable loan rates.

Credit counseling helps the group's clients with basic budgeting tasks, but sometimes just a low-cost, fuel-efficient vehicle makes all the difference. "I had one client spending $800 a month on gas alone, commuting, and every month ended up spending $200 more than she could afford," Chambers recalls. After the client got her new car -- financed with a 6.4% loan rather than one carrying 19% annual interest -- her gas costs plunged to $150 a month. "Suddenly, her whole financial picture was brighter."

So far, Chambers has helped 1,000 people. With the help of a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, he plans to roll out Bonnie CLAC from his home base in Lebanon, N.H., throughout New England. "I'm here forever," he says forcefully. "This is my next life, and I'm not retiring from it."

For all the euphoria that people such as Maxworthy and Chambers display when talking about their philanthropic passions, Freedman cautions boomers not to get a romanticized idea of what philanthropic engagement involves. "Remember, the boomer generation may have been a generation of idealists, but they also have proved to be a generation of entrepreneurs," Freedman says.

'A better start in life'

Robert Jacobs, now 63, retired when he was 55 after a career spent selling medical devices. In search of something new to do in retirement, he took a trip to Mexico with a group that built homes and clinics in the Yucatán and later went to India on a Habitat for

Humanity home-building expedition.

Ultimately, however, he decided that rather than participating in other groups' work, he wanted to sponsor his own small-scale projects, with a focus on education. "After seeing the people, meeting them, living among them, I felt that one of the most important things I could do was to meet some of the educational needs," Jacobs explains. "That was the key if they were going to move up in the world and not stay locked in place."

Contacts in the Yucatán helped select students they considered to be smart and motivated but who didn't have the resources to pay school fees, buy books or uniforms. And that's where Jacobs steps in.

"I probably now sponsor a dozen of these kids," he says. "One girl is now in college and planning to go to law school. Another wants to be a nurse. A third is approaching a master's degree in education."

One of the hallmarks of baby-boomer philanthropy is the need to feel personally connected to the projects they back, and Jacobs is no exception. "I can visit the kids; I can watch them progress and become responsible citizens," he says. "I don't have unlimited resources, but I can see that I am having an impact."

Jacobs calculates that his foundation distributes about $10,000 a year to his philanthropic projects, which also include construction of a dormitory for an orphanage in Kerala, India, and support for a Lakota Sioux woman on the Eagle Butte Reservation in South Dakota. "She is starting a day care center, by herself," he says. "We're trying to help her give these kids a better start in life."

Jacobs admits he sometimes dreams of winning the lottery. But the Cleveland resident wouldn't use a windfall like that to buy a retirement home in a warmer climate or go on a cruise.

"We are kind of spoiled in this country," he muses. "If I had more money, I could do more projects and make a difference to a few more people. To me, that is what makes these years worthwhile."

Produced by Anh Ly / Graphics by Joe Farro

Published May 29, 2008

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