Encore.org has announced that Families United in Educational Leadership (FUEL) Founder and Executive Director Bob Hildreth, from Boston, is a 2012 Purpose Prize fellow. The Purpose Prize honors Americans 60 and older and is the nation’s only large-scale investment in social entrepreneurs and other creative problem solvers in the second half of life.
Hildreth was named a fellow because of his work launching the nonprofit FUEL, which provides education, resources, connections and financial incentives to low-income families to help them get their children to college.
“Purpose Prize fellows are using their passion and experience to help solve some of society’s steepest challenges,” said Marc Freedman, founder and CEO of Encore.org and author of The Big Shift. “They represent a growing wave of people in their 60s and beyond who are using their know-how to change the world…”
The Purpose Prize program is funded by the John Templeton Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies. The Prize is awarded by Encore.org (the new name for Civic Ventures), a nonprofit that promotes encore careers — work that is both personally meaningful and serves the greater good.
Founded in January 2009, FUEL is now running successfully in Boston, Chelsea and Lynn.
