FunderView - June 2008 - Bonita Tindley

"We're Not Getting Any Younger Here..." - "Aging in place" and other soon-to-be hot topics...

“The number of Americans ages 65 and older will more than double over the next 40 years, reaching 80 million in 2040. The number of adults ages 85 and older, the group most often needing help with basic personal care, will nearly quadruple between 2000 and 2040.” – Urban Institute

A handful of Washington Grantmakers members, including the Agua Fund, AARP Foundation, and Consumer Health Foundation, recently met to discuss issues related to aging in the District of Columbia. Bonita Tindley is a program officer with the Agua Fund.

“FunderView” June 2008 Tindley

WG: Why has the Agua Fund decided to focus on aging issues?
Bonita Tindley: The vulnerable, low-income elderly are a rapidly growing group in DC, with many unmet needs, and relatively few foundations are paying attention to them. In 2003, soon after the Agua Fund became its own private foundation, we looked into how we could make the greatest difference in providing high quality social services to the needy in Washington, DC. This emerged as one of the areas where a small family foundation like ours could make the most difference. In 2006, our Board formally decided to focus social service grantmaking on the low income elderly in DC, so we’re really just at the beginning of our work.

WG: How is our region positioned to handle an aging population?
BT: We could do and need to do a lot better given the many unmet needs today and future growth projections for the elderly. And compared with other cities, a higher percentage of DC's elderly are poor, with a greater need for supportive services.

Over 8,000 grandparents living in DC are sole caregivers and providers for their grandchildren. That’s 50 percent more grandparents raising grandchildren than any other place in the U.S. apart from Baltimore.

DC is also behind many cities on providing home- and community-based services. And finding safe, affordable housing for the elderly is also a tremendous problem in this region, in part because of the hot real estate market.

WG: Anne Allen, former Executive Director of the Cafritz Foundation, is now an activist promoting “aging in place.” Do you think that as grantmaker population ages along with the rest of the boomer wave, we’ll see a natural increase of funder interest in these issues?
BT: Perhaps, but it’s important to start learning and funding yesterday. Given what we’ve heard from both DC-based and national foundations, DC is behind the curve already when it comes to the elderly, which is hurting the low income elderly and, in some cases, costing the city more than it should. For example, according to the 2006 Seniors Working Group Report to Mayor Fenty, nearly 3,000 DC residents live in nursing homes at a cost of more than $175 million Medicaid dollars in 2006. If DC developed more home- and community-based care alternatives to nursing homes, most elderly people would prefer this (wouldn’t you?) and costs per person would probably be less.

WG: What’s your advice for grantmakers who are interested in learning about aging issues?
BT: A couple of months ago and with help from Washington Grantmakers, we joined with the AARP and Consumer Health Foundations to start a working group on the vulnerable elderly (formal name TBD). We had our first meeting in late February and our first field trip last month. Because we’re all interested in promoting “aging in place”, we decided to visit two “villages” (Capitol Hill Village and Pennsylvania Avenue East) that provide a set of services to help the elderly remain in their homes. We welcome others! If you want information, get in touch with me (tindley@aguafundinc.org), Rachel Wick at the Consumer Health Foundation, or Mimi Castaldi, AARP’s DC State Director.

National groups we’ve found helpful are Grantmakers in Aging (GIA) and the American Society on Aging. When you join GIA, you can choose to have a "mentor" for a year to help you understand the field more quickly.