The Purpose Prize is the nation’s pre-eminent large-scale investment in people over 60 who are combining their passion and experience for social good. The Prize awards individuals who create new ways to solve tough social problems. The 2015 Purpose Prize awarded $225,000 to six individuals.

The Prize was first awarded in 2006 by Encore.org, with funding from the John Templeton Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies, to showcase the value of experience and disprove outdated notions that innovation is the sole province of the young. It’s for those with the drive to make change and the experience to know how to do it.

Since its inception The Purpose Prize has garnered nearly 10,000 nominations, honored more than 500 winners and fellows, attracted millions of dollars in new resources for winners to expand their projects and merited hundreds of news stories in The Wall Street Journal, Time, NPR and other outlets.