What is the Encore Fellows Pilot Program?
Encore Fellowships are innovative "social purpose internships," designed to help individuals over 50 transition from the corporate world into encore careers in the nonprofit sector. A small pilot will be launched in late 2008 with the intention of refining and expanding the project in later years based on information and insights gained in the initial pilot phase.

The pilot design has been shaped in part by extensive interviews across the corporate and nonprofit sectors, and an in-depth examination of two dozen different fellowship and program models. The following elements blend together best practices and learning from these efforts:

• Encore Fellows will be recently retired (within 2–3 years) or soon-to-be retired (within 6 months) corporate employees who want to launch encore careers in the social sector. In its first year, the pilot will engage 5–10 Fellows nominated by their corporate employers.
• Corporate partners will recruit Encore Fellow candidates through their retiree and employee channels, contribute a portion of the Fellows‘ compensation, participate in branding opportunities, and connect with nonprofits they support – to expand their portfolios of philanthropic, community relations, marketing and human resources activities.
• High-impact work will be accomplished by placing Fellows in intensive assignments that significantly contribute to nonprofit capacity. Nonprofit sponsors will also have the option of testing new roles that might become ongoing.
• Nonprofit sponsors will be awarded a small ($5,000), but prestigious, innovation grant and assignment of an Encore Fellow through a two-step selection process. In its first year, the pilot will engage 5–10 education and environment nonprofits. Nonprofit sponsors will identify innovative approaches to engage former corporate employees in their work and will demonstrate their commitment and capacity through involvement of high-level leadership and assignment of personnel and other resources.
• Fellow recruitment, nomination and matching will be a highly selective process involving corporate partners, Civic Ventures, and nonprofit sponsors. Corporate partners will identify and nominate qualified candidates through their employee pipelines. Civic Ventures will then manage a three-step process to determine their level of interest and readiness for an encore career, and to align Fellow applications with specific nonprofit missions and job project descriptions. Finally, nonprofit sponsors, along with Civic Ventures, will select the candidate best suited to their organization.
• Fellow commitment and compensation will reinforce the value of the work to the Fellows and to the sponsors, with Fellows receiving a $25,000 stipend for working the equivalent of six months full-time at nonprofits with a track record of innovation and leadership in Silicon Valley. Nonprofit sponsors and individual Fellows will reach agreement on duration and schedule best suited to both.
• Fellow support and development will be provided by the nonprofit, Civic Ventures and outside experts. Each Fellow will have a clearly-defined role involving significant responsibility, along with a senior-level nonprofit mentor/sponsor. Fellows will also participate in group learning and networking opportunities that cut across their individual nonprofit experiences.
• Beyond the Fellowship transition to an encore career will be supported by Civic Ventures and others such as Commongood Careers and Bridgestar, which will provide individual coaching and support, as well as job search and placement services.
• Evaluation and learning will be an integral component of the pilot in order to identify conditions for success on the part of corporations, nonprofits and Fellows.
• Sustainability and scalability will be assessed, and the financial model to grow the Encore Fellows concept will be honed through the pilot experience. The plan over time is to develop a sustainable model that could grow widely. Sustainability will ultimately require financial participation by both the corporate partners and nonprofit sponsors to cover the direct costs of Fellows, with philanthropy supporting the infrastructure of the model. A significant portion of pilot costs – startup, operations, nonprofit innovation grants, and part of the Fellows compensation – is being provided by the Packard Foundation.