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AARP, Inc., formerly the American Association of Retired Persons, is a United States-based membership and interest group, founded in 1958 by Ethel Percy Andrus, Ph.D., a retired educator from California, and Leonard Davis, founder of Colonial Penn Group of insurance companies.〔http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jan/23/local/me-15772〕〔https://news.usc.edu/6078/Obituary-AARP-founder-philanthropist-Leonard-Davis-76/〕 AARP is a membership organization for people age 50 and over and operates as a non-profit advocate for its members and is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the United States. AARP has seven affiliated organizations: AARP Foundation, a non-profit charity that helps people over age 50 at social and economic risk; AARP Institute, a non-profit charity that holds some of AARP's charitable gift annuity funds; Legal Counsel for the Elderly, a non-profit charity that provides low- or no-cost legal assistance to seniors in Washington, D.C.; AARP Experience Corps, a non-profit charity that encourages people over age 50 to mentor and tutor school children; AARP Insurance Plan, a non-profit social welfare organization that holds some of AARP's group health insurance policies; AARP Financial Services Corporation, a for-profit corporation that holds AARP's real estate; and AARP Services Inc, a for-profit corporation that provides quality control and research. According to AARP's 2008 Consolidated financial statements, AARP Services Inc. was paid $652,000,000 in royalties from insurance companies that sold products referred by AARP. AARP also received an additional $120,000,000 for the advertisements placed in its publications.〔(AARP.org ) 〕 The AARP Foundation's website says the nonprofit "wants to win back opportunity for those now in crisis, so thousands of vulnerable low-income Americans 50+ can regain their foothold, continue to serve as anchors for their families and communities and ensure that their best life is still within reach." Key areas of focus are hunger, income, housing and isolation. The Foundation's vision is "a country that is free of poverty where no older person feels vulnerable". , AARP says it has more than 37 million members,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=AARP's Mission, Vision, Advocacy, Community Service & Products )〕 making it one of the largest membership organizations in the United States. ==History== According to the group's official history, Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus founded AARP in 1958. AARP evolved from the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA), which Andrus had established in 1947 to promote her philosophy of productive aging, and in response to the need of health insurance for retired teachers. After ten years, Andrus opened the organization to all Americans over 50, creating AARP. Today, the NRTA is a division within AARP. Dr. Andrus founded AARP while living in Ojai, California, where she had established an innovative new retirement home named Grey Gables. Ojai served as national headquarters for AARP from 1958 until the mid-1960s. Honors to Dr. Andrus include National Teacher of the Year in 1954, induction into the Women's Hall of Fame and, more recently, a medallion placed on the Points of Light Institute's "Extra Mile Pathway" in downtown Washington, D.C. Some critics of AARP offer an alternative version of the group's origins. ''60 Minutes'' reported in a 1978 exposé that AARP had been established as a marketing device by Leonard Davis, founder of the Colonial Penn Group insurance companies, after he met Ethel Percy Andrus. According to critics, until the 1980s AARP was controlled by Mr. Davis, who promoted its image as a non-profit advocate of retirees in order to sell insurance to members. Possibly as a result of the ''60 Minutes'' report, AARP conducted a lengthy competitive bidding process, and, in 1980, shifted the insurance contracts made available to members to Prudential Financial. In the 1990s, the United States Senate investigated AARP's non-profit status, with Republican Senator Alan Simpson, then chairman of the United States Senate Finance Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy, questioning the organization's tax-exempt status in congressional hearings. According to Charles Blahous, the investigations did not reveal sufficient evidence to change the organization's status,〔Charles P. Blahaus ''Reforming Social Security for Ourselves and Our Posterity'', pp. 84–5, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000 ISBN 978-0-275-97044-4〕 though in an interview years later by the ''Des Moines Register'', Senator Simpson remained "troubled by AARP's practices", calling AARP "the biggest marketing operation in America and money-maker" and an organization whose practices are "the greatest abuse of American generosity I witnessed in my time in the U.S. Senate". The organization was originally named the ''American Association of Retired Persons'', but in 1999 it officially changed its name to "AARP" (pronounced one letter at a time, "ay ay ar pee") to reflect that its focus was no longer American retirees.〔(AARP History ) 〕 AARP no longer requires that members be retired, but be at least age 50; it does not extend full membership privileges to applicants who are retired but not yet 50. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「AARP」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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