What if there was one thing everyone eligible for senior discounts could do today that would reap rewards for the rest of our lives?  The newly launched organization Boomerang Giving asks you to take the Boomerang Pledge. and put your senior discounts to work for community good.

Signing on is easy, all we need is first name, last name, e mail and agreeing to this simple statement. I pledge to make my community stronger by reinvesting all or part of the money I save from senior discounts into charities of my choice.

Boomerang Giving takes advantage of the discounts that many seniors receive atuomatically, but do not need, and helps put the money back into community projects. I've been a non-profit activist for many years and and co-founded this innoavtive new way to “give back” and  think it could redefine the baby boomer generation, 3.5 million of whom turn 65 each year and become eligible for senior discounts.

Here's how it works. After taking the online pledge, participants look for discounts they could redirect to nonprofit organizations. They pay the discounted price and then send the amount of the discount to a favorite nonprofit. They can "save up" their discounts for a month and then send the accumulated amount directly to their preferred nonprofit or they can use the link on the Boomerang Giving website to make the donation through Network for Good.  

Boomerang Giving is working on ways to redirect discounts at the point of sale. This is an exciting development, which pledge participants can help implement by showing nationwide support for a simple but powerful new idea.

Encore.org is the national leader in engaging older Americans as a vital source of talent to benefit society. Encore leaders invited me to present Boomerang Giving the annual Encore conference a October. The presentation was received very enthusiastically, with Encore.org and many attendees committing to publicize Boomerang Giving and encouraging eligible older adults to take the Boomerang Pledge. (It was at the Encore conference that I met the folks from Grand Rapids who offered me this blog space).

By inventing multiple ways to give back, Boomerang Giving is creating opportunities for existing seniors and baby boomers to increase their charitable giving. Boomerang Giving was founded by seven community leaders from Seattle and Bainbridge Island, Washington and qualifies as an organization eligible for charitable donations under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

More information can be found at www.boomeranggiving.org and in this recent New York Times article.