The Purpose Prize honors "what may be a new trend — retirees taking on some of the country's biggest social problems."

The five winners of the first-ever Purpose Prize, all 60 years or older, will split half a million dollars.

"The finalists include a used-car salesman who now provides low-interest car loans to the poor, a retired CEO who helps poor kids get to college, and a woman who uses her antique store to give job training to people who have some of the worst job prospects." …

Civic Ventures, a San Francisco think tank, sponsored the new initiative to invest in Americans who are leading a new age of social innovation. Using their experience and entrepreneurial skills in the second half of life, they are helping to solve long-standing problems, including intolerance, racial disparities in preventable deaths, job opportunities for the disabled, housing needs of the elderly poor, and the disrupted lives of millions of children who have a parent in jail.

"Today's boomers and older Americans are an extraordinary pool of social and human capital that – with the right investment – could yield unprecedented returns for society," said Freedman. "Instead of being a lifetime achievement award, the Purpose Prize is an investment in what these amazing individuals will do next to solve important problems."

The $100,000 winners – selected by a jury comprised of 21 leaders in business, politics, journalism, the arts, and the nonprofit sector – include:

The ten $10,000 winners are:

Seventy innovators – the top five percent of the 1,200 Purpose Prize applicants – have been invited to participate in a "Purpose Prize Innovation Summit," September 7-9, at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. The event is cosponsored by Civic Ventures and the Stanford Graduate School of Business' Center on Social Innovation, one of the world's leading academic centers focused on social entrepreneurship.

At the Summit, social innovators can learn from presenters and one another, build a network that will link and support innovators working in the second half of life, discuss ideas with funders and venture philanthropists, and explore how individual efforts can create a wave of social innovation that could transform America.

(See some video at NPR's All Things Considered)