Are Your Relief Fund Grants Open to Retirees?
Does Your Organization Match Team Member Contributions to the Relief Fund?
October 7, 2014
Creating an Emergency Financial Assistance Fund for Personal Hardship: What to Include
October 21, 2014October 14, 2014
While it makes sense to have disaster and hardship relief grants available to current team members, providing access to retired team members may also be a good idea. Retired team members are likely to continue living in the area where they worked, and are at risk for the same natural disasters as current team members, and hardships do not discriminate. By including retired workers as eligible recipients of grant funds, your organization is reinforcing the notion that it is an organization that truly cares for their own, even after retirement.
Let's talk about a few reasons a organization should include retired team members as an eligible class:
- Including retired individuals as an eligible class for a relief fund builds a stronger team member community. It encourages team members that they will always be a part of the team, even once they retire.
- From a financial standpoint, including retirees provides an incentive for older team members to contribute to the fund. These team members may have greater disposable income than other team members just starting their careers, and may be willing to offer larger contributions to grow the fund.
- It is also a great way to keep retired team members engaged with the organization.
Keeping team members engaged with the organization and contributing to the fund late into their careers and even after retirement is a win-win for both the organization and team members, both past and present.
