Nyanya Project

Winston-Salem’s Mary Martin Niepold Honored as 2009 Purpose Prize Fellow for Innovation, Extraordinary Contribution in Encore Career

Entrepreneurs Over 60 Win $50,000 - $100,000 Each for Using

Creativity, Experience to Solve Long-Standing Social Problems

Winston-Salem, N.C. - Mary Martin Niepold has been named a 2009 Purpose Prize Fellow, an honor for social entrepreneurs over 60 who are using their experience and passion to take on society’s biggest challenges. Now in its fourth year, the six-year, $17 million program is the nation’s only large-scale investment in social innovators in the second half of life.

Niepold, founder of the Winston-Salem-based Nyanya Project, was named a Fellow for her work  training skills to African grandmothers caring for their grandchildren orphaned by AIDS. The Nyanya Project, started in 2007, has programs in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda to assist nyanyas (Swahili for grandmother), who live on less than $1 per day with no government assistance. Grandmothers learn skills to generate sustainable income. More than 140 grandmothers have been trained. Niepold calls the grandmothers “the forgotten face of the AIDS Crisis.”

Niepold will join 46 other Purpose Prize Fellows at a Summit on Innovation on Oct. 31 - Nov. 1 at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business’ Center on Social Innovation, one of the world’s leading academic centers focused on social entrepreneurship.

The Fellows underscore a trend in entrepreneurialism later in life. According to studies by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the 55-64 age group is the most active in creating new ventures. Counter to stereotype, people ages 20-34, the study found, are the least entrepreneurial.

“More than ever, the problems facing our communities, country and world call out for creative solutions,” said Marc Freedman, co-founder of The Purpose Prize and author of Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life. “Fortunately, we don’t run out of ideas as we age.

“Like so many others in this new stage of life between the end of midlife careers and the beginning of true old age, The Purpose Prize fellows combine creativity, experience and passion with a desire to do something bigger than themselves,” Freeman continued.

“For me, the honor of being named a Purpose Prize fellow really goes to the African grandmothers,” Niepold said.  “They provide love and sustenance to their families and AIDS orphaned grandchildren under incredibly harsh circumstances.  They inspire me, and I am privileged to know them.”

The Purpose Prize supports Fellows by helping develop their capacity, linking them with funders and venture philanthropists and connecting them to other social innovators over 60. It is part of the Encore Careers campaign run by Civic Ventures, a national think tank on boomers, work and social purpose. Funding for The Purpose Prize comes from The Atlantic Philanthropies and the John Templeton Foundation.

Sherry Lansing, CEO of the Sherry Lansing Foundation and former chair of Paramount Pictures’ Motion Picture Group, chairs the jury that selected this year’s winners. The 24 judges are leaders in business, politics, journalism and the nonprofit sector - including actor Sidney Poitier, social entrepreneur Thomas Tierney, former Senator Harris Wofford and journalist Cokie Roberts.

The Purpose Prize is a program of the Encore Careers campaign (www.encore.org), which aims to engage millions of boomers in encore careers combining social impact, personal meaning and continued income in the second half of life. The goal: produce a windfall of human talent to solve society’s greatest problems, from education to the environment, health care to homelessness.

For more information, visit www.encore.org.