As the days shorten and we near the end of the year, we have much to be thankful for in 2018. Here at Encore, we are still basking in the afterglow of our recent 20th Anniversary Summit in Los Angeles in November. It was truly inspiring and energizing to connect with 250 Encore leaders and with Encore Fellowship partners from across the U.S. Together, we celebrated a successful year of fellowships during which we matched 127 fellows to date with non-profits in 19 states.

We covered a lot of ground during our EF Pre-Meeting and Summit breakout sessions with two key issues emerging. The first is about the impact that Encore Fellows™ have in building the capacity of non-profits, whether it’s leading a strategic planning process, starting up new programs, or finding ways to streamline operations to enable rapid growth. In a bid to find ways to more powerfully communicate this value to funders and corporate partners, we have set up a working group to tackle this topic. We are also exploring how to support fellows with tools and resources so they can, more independently, follow their passion and source their own fellowships. Watch this space for future updates!

Thank you so much for your engagement and support this year. It’s been a big year! For the first time, we have ventured beyond business fellowships with the launch of a pilot program to match retiree physicians with clinical roles at community health centers in the San Francisco Bay Area. Under the energetic leadership of Gerald Bourne, a retired cardiologist, the program is off to a strong start.

I am also delighted to let you know that we will be further expanding our city of San Jose pilot project, that places encore fellows into civic fellowships in 2019.  As I reported earlier this year, Mayor Sam Liccardo has already committed $300,000 over three years to test and implement new encore fellowship models with a longer-term goal of developing a blueprint for other cities to leverage encore talent. Now, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation has stepped in with additional support to enable us to add a further 6 fellows in the next 3 years.

We are so grateful for our foundation supporters and our corporate partners across the U.S. Please stay tuned for details of a new pilot fellowship program with AARP in early 2019. Happy Holidays and much appreciation for all that you do to create a better America and for lending your talents, skills and experience to strengthening our social sector.

Photo credit: S. Smith Patrick / Encore.org

Published: November 29, 2018