The Oasis Institute
Lifelong Adventure
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, every day 10,000 individuals turn 60 years or older. Eventually the 60-plus cohort will represent nearly 20 percent of the total population. Without structured social engagement, life transitions linked to aging such as retirement, children leaving home, loss of friends and family can increase the likelihood of older adults becoming isolated and experiencing preventable declines in health and quality of life. Based on research that individuals with social support cope better with problems and recover more quickly from illness than isolated individuals, Oasis offers a three-pronged, holistic approach to successful aging that engages older adults in meaningful learning, fitness and wellness activities that promote healthy habits and independence, and volunteer opportunities to foster a new sense of meaning by giving back to the community.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Lifelong Learning
Lifelong learning programs cover a wide range of topics based on participants’ needs and interests. Topics include history, current events, technology, arts and humanities, and finance, among others.
Volunteerism/Intergenerational Tutoring
Intergenerational programs, health volunteers, administrative volunteers, community involvement and class instruction
Health Programs
Oasis health programs, many that are evidence-based, keep older adults active, fit and healthy as they age.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
Better Business Bureau 2022
Generations United Program of Distinction 2017
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of clients served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Seniors
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Oasis primarily serves older adults, but we also support children in grades K-4 through our Intergenerational Tutoring Program.
Number of volunteers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Seniors
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Oasis is fortunate to have a number of older adults serve as volunteer instructors and tutors. Volunteers also assist with office support and administrative tasks, as well as committee/board service.
Percentage of teachers who report improved academic performance by students who were tutored.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Seniors
Related Program
Volunteerism/Intergenerational Tutoring
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Each year, Oasis principals, teachers, and tutors are asked to complete an evaluation indicating the effects of the tutoring program.
Percentage of participants indicating they gained useful skills or knowledge by participating in Oasis.
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Seniors
Related Program
Lifelong Learning
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Oasis conducts participant surveys every other year. 2018 results showed out of 3,557 respondents, 84% either agreed or strongly agreed they gained used skills or knowledge.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The mission of Oasis is to promote healthy aging through lifelong learning, active lifestyles and volunteer engagement.
The Oasis vision is to see that adults age 50 and older across the country have opportunities to pursue vibrant, healthy, productive and meaningful lives. Oasis seeks to positively impact their lives through partnership to share knowledge, offer research-based programs, conduct evaluations and adapt to meet the needs of diverse audiences.
Goals for 2020 are to:
• Increase and diversify participation while maintaining program excellence
• Increase financial sustainability and operational efficiency
• Increase social impact
• Increase volunteer engagement
• Improve the field of aging by the dissemination of research findings and the sharing of best practices
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Oasis recently completed a business plan with The Bridgespan Group. The Bridgespan team visited each of the Oasis cities to interview more than 200 key stakeholders and participate in local board meetings and planning sessions as a way of informing the needs, challenges, and opportunities by community.
Findings from the business plan are informing our future strategies, including:
- More focus on the core demographic of 65-80
- Increased focus on sustainability by offering high-quality classes and increasing fees, and expanding the fee-for service model of the tutoring program
- Increased focus on evidence-based health programs, especially fall prevention and chronic disease self-management
- Developing a national approach to the delivery of technology programs, to include shorter courses and more focus on fraud and scam prevention
- Increased support for the Oasis network, particularly with marketing and fundraising.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Founded in 1982, Oasis offers programs through partnerships in 9 full-service centers, 250 communities and 23 states across the country with more than 700 partners, including health providers, corporations, senior centers, community organizations, libraries, universities, senior living organizations and more. By scaling through partnerships Oasis is able to take its programs to any community and programs are selected and implemented based on each community's local needs.
The Oasis Institute is the national headquarters and is led by Dr. Paul Weiss. A strong leadership team and Board of Directors support Dr. Weiss in this work. Oasis is already making strides towards reaching our goals.
1. More focus on the core demographic of 65-80
- Oasis dropped the former tagline of “Discover Life after 50." Our new tagline “Lifelong Adventure" better represents the organization and its work.
2. Increased focus on sustainability by offering high-quality classes and increasing fees, and expanding the fee-for service model of the tutoring program
- The Oasis Institute is providing a business analysis of earned revenue looking at class enrollment, profit margin, class topics, and net revenue.
3. Increased focus on evidence-based health programs, especially fall prevention and chronic disease self-management
a.Through new funding partnerships, Oasis has increased its evidence-based health programs nationwide
4. Developing a national approach to the delivery of technology programs, to include shorter courses and more focus on fraud and scam prevention.
- Oasis now offers Cybercrime Fighters and continually updates our Oasis Connections Technology curriculum to stay current.
5. Increased support for the Oasis network, particularly with marketing and fundraising
- The Institute is implementing more focused, higher touch support to the centers in the form of fundraising and marketing support, board building, and strategic plan development.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Oasis programs were active in 250 communities and benefited 52,000 participants in 2018. More than 6,100 volunteers gave 332,000 hours of their time to support Oasis.
LIFELONG LEARNING
Oasis saw 140,000 class enrollments in 2018.
ACTIVE LIFESTYLES
Oasis expanded its health program offerings, specifically evidence-based health programs such as chronic disease self-management and fall prevention programs.
VOLUNTEER ENGAGEMENT
Intergenerational Tutoring: Since 1989, 100,000 trained volunteers have tutored more than 444,099 youth. In 2018, 5,000 tutors volunteered in 630 schools nationwide. Oasis also joined Generation to Generation, a national social action campaign powered by Encore.org that aims to mobilize older adults to help children thrive. The campaign plans to engage one million people age 50-plus over five years to stand up and show up for kids.
In addition to being a charter member of the Social Impact Exchange 100 Index of the top nonprofit organizations for delivering programs with measurable impact, Oasis is also a GuideStar Gold rated charity and rated a Better Business Bureau A+ Charity.
As the 60+ cohort will eventually represent more than 20% of the population, Oasis looks forward to expanding its work. Exciting plans for the future include:
- Developing and piloting online classes to reach a broader audience and to generate new revenue.
- Developing and implementing specific strategies that will demonstrate Oasis is a national thought leader in the field of healthy aging.
- Gaining accreditation from the American Association of Diabetes Educators for the Diabetes Self-management programs
- Implement evidence-based health programs in all 9 Oasis centers
- Increase the number of tutors across the Oasis network by 10% by the end of 2018
- Develop and test a pilot project for tutoring in early childhood centers
- Increasing individual donations by 5% over the next two years
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
The Oasis Institute
Board of directorsas of 08/22/2022
Mr. Dick Miles
Retired
Term: 2020 - 2023
Jeffrey L. Baliban
New York University
Cynthia J. Brinkley
Centene
Matthew Geekie
Graybar
Debra Hollingsworth
AT&T
Franklin Jacobs
Retired
Edward F. Lawlor
Washington University
Marylen Mann
Founder
Steven B. Miller
Express Scripts
David J. Newburger
Newburger & Vossmeyer
Maxine L. Rockoff
Columbia University Medical Center
Jacob Cedergreen
Express Scripts
John Danahy
May Department Stores International
David Kim
The IAMBIC Group, LLC
Leeann Markovitz
Wells Fargo Advisors
Richard Miles
Valitas Health Services
William Powderly
Washington University Institute of Public Health
Lorna Wiggins
Wiggins, Williams, and Wiggins, P.C.
Marvin Anderson
US Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management
Ira Kodner, M.D.
Washington University School of Medicine
Patrick White, M.D.
BJC Home Care Services
Dave Rengachary
Reinsurance Group of America
Roderick Burton
New Northside Missionary Baptist Church
Mahendra Gupta
Olin Business School, Washington University of St. Louis
Katherine Henderson
Barnes Jewish Hospital
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 08/22/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.