What did you do when you took over?

When I came, we were doing too many nice things for very little impact. So we did away with almost 80 programs that were all very nice and helpful, and started to focus on serving the low-income, vulnerable people in this country. We set the vision of solely focusing on hunger, housing, income and isolation, and how all four of those things fit together. If one of those had a weak link, then somebody might fall off what we called the disparity cliff in terms of being able to live their best life.

We changed our messaging and our fund-raising, and we went from 800,000 donors to two million donors in less than 18 months, simply by refocusing on the low-income and vulnerable and saying to donors, “This is how we’re going to spend your money.”

Was that a big change for the organization?

Our founder, Ethel Percy Andrus, was the first female principal in the state of California. She went to visit a teacher in Los Angeles who she heard was ill, and she knocked on the door and asked for this teacher, and they said, “Oh, she lives in the chicken coop in the backyard.” Dr. Andrus found this retired schoolteacher living in a chicken coop structure with no insurance.

Dr. Andrus founded the National Retired Teachers Association in 1947 and was turned down 40 times by insurance companies until she found one that would offer insurance to teachers. In 1958, she expanded the group and it became the AARP. So from our beginning, we’ve been involved in providing access to safe and affordable health care.

What are your priorities when it comes to policy?

Making sure that Social Security is there not just today but in the future, and that it’s adequate. So many people are working in jobs that don’t pay them a livable wage, or they’re working two or three jobs to be able to do it. How do we make sure that Social Security is there and adequate in the future, but that people don’t think that Social Security is going to be enough for them to live off?

And then in that personal fulfillment area, it’s really about how do we help people live their best lives. How do we make sure they’re not isolated, that they’re not hungry? People used to be worried about making sure that they had the right to retire. Now people want to continue working, not just because they want to, but because they have to, because they can’t afford to retire.

How is the aging population in this country changing and adapting to these new realities?

People who have meaning and purpose in their life live seven to eight years longer than people who don’t. Part of my time as the C.E.O. at AARP has really been focused on changing the whole perception of aging. People are wanting to live and work longer. In fact, AARP dropped the name American Association of Retired Persons 20 years ago.