AARP Named to 'Fast Company' List of Best Workplaces for Innovators

An idea emerged from the Innovation Lab for an interactive tool that could help people easily find needed support, such as grocery delivery, financial relief and phone check-ins. Over the next four days, employees across the organization developed and launched a website to help users access, organize and join local mutual-aid groups. Within two months, the site had more than 275,000 users and had helped form 700 such groups.

While AARP could not have anticipated COVID-19, the organization's focus on innovation had prepared it to serve a critical function in a moment of crisis. “It was exciting to stand up this platform in a matter of days and see how it was helping and changing people's lives all over the country,” Jenkins says.

Embracing change

When Jenkins took over as CEO in 2014, the organization was nearly 60 years old and on solid financial footing. Rallying behind Jenkins’ commitment to innovation, the organization now has annual pitch events and partners with start-ups to develop new ways to address issues such as medication management, menopause and brain health. And it taps the creativity of its own staff through internal innovation events, where employees submit their ideas for novel products. “We talk about being an everyday innovator,” Jenkins says. “That means that it's every employee's responsibility to constantly innovate and think about what our members and their families are going to need in the future."

For instance, last year's winning staff idea led to the development of an augmented reality app that allows users to scan a room and learn how the space could be improved to support aging in place. It's a product that reflects how the nonprofit is answering Jenkins’ driving question: “How might we redesign our life course if in fact we have this opportunity to live to be 100?"