Purpose Prize

Marc Freedman Portrait

The Latest from CoGenerate

Want to Recruit Younger People? Look Within

Want to Recruit Younger People? Look Within

For the past five years, I’ve been working as an advocate for the causes I believe in and for more intergenerational collaboration. Young people like me want more opportunities to work across generations for change, but we also want to be treated as equals.  To...

What Young Leaders Want — And Don’t Want — From Older Allies

What Young Leaders Want — And Don’t Want — From Older Allies

We know from our nationally representative study with NORC at the University of Chicago in 2022 that 76% of Gen Z and 70% of Millennial respondents wish they had more opportunities to work across generations for change.  In a new report, What Young Leaders Want — And...

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Bob Jonas

Wild Gift
Purpose Prize Fellow 2007

Inspiring a new generation of leaders dedicated to sustainable human communities and lifestyles.

When Bob Jonas sold his outfitting and guiding business in Sun Valley, Idaho, at age 60, he turned his passion for wild nature into a new career. He founded The Wild Gift, a nonprofit helping to ensure that communities and individuals build futures characterized by a commitment to the stewardship of nature and secure in the hands of an inspired new generation of leaders who are dedicated to sustainable human communities and lifestyles. Jonas’s philosophy: If the initiatives of outstanding new leaders are supported and they participate in a powerful deep-wilderness experience, they will remain committed to environmental design and implement a human enterprise that is in harmony with nature. The Wild Gift program helps launch ‘better world’ entrepreneurs, US citizens between the ages of 21 and 30, whose work – during personal careers that will span a half century or more – will impact social, environmental, economic and political spheres both in the US and internationally. The 17-month learning opportunity includes a 20 day trek in America’s biggest wilderness lands along with one year of project mentoring and financial support. The diverse projects undertaken include the founding of a successful for-profit solar construction firm in Ladakh, India, establishing a profitable, environmentally friendly demonstration farm in the Ozarks of Arkansas, and reducing the operating costs of affordable housing projects in Boston using green building retrofit techniques.