The Aspen Institute, in partnership with Commonwealth, recently conducted research on Employee Hardship Funds and found that: “…workers felt valued by their employers because of their funds’ existence. As a result, 72% stated that they were more likely to stay with their current employer than leave for a company without hardship funds. In addition, the contributions of their coworkers generated a strong sense of community. One participant stated, “It made me feel like my coworkers had my back.”

"Many employers present information about their funds during employee orientation, to encourage newcomers to contribute. The appeal seems to work: At JetBlue nearly 100 percent of new employees who have heard the message contribute to the fund. Company wide, 65 percent of employees contribute."

"Help is at hand: some employers have set up tax-advantaged crisis funds to help employees cope with financial problems," HR Magazine, Nov. 2005.

If disaster struck your community, leaving employees in need of assistance, how would you respond?

Emergency Assistance Foundation, Inc. can build and implement your disaster-response fund within 48 hours. Your program, based on our Employee Disaster Fund industry best-practices, will be customized to fit the unique needs and culture of your company and employees.

Private Labeled Fund
In just one day, we can help you create a Field-of-Interest fund within our existing 501(c)(3) foundation. We make sure you meet the IRS' requirements (explained in IRS publication 3833) that "the benefit to the employer is incidental and tenuous." As part of EAF, your Private Labeled Fund will benefit from our foundation's legal/tax compliance, annual tax filings, state regulatory compliance and annual regulatory filing.
Outsource Grant Processing
An existing emergency-assistance fund can outsource the entire application: design, receipt and vetting process, while using our on-line processing system. Our staff then can deliver grant reports to your internal Advisory/Oversight Committee for its review.
Existing Program Audits
Our senior team has reviewed more than 75 emergency-assistance programs. We assess program design, communication, processing and legal and tax compliance. In particular, our reports provide industry-specific best practices and target benchmarks for "best-in-class" program performance.
Program Design
What criteria will you use? Who will be eligible? We help organizations, like yours, design a program using industry best practices in a short time frame and at an abbreviated cost. We help determine what criteria will work best, and then customize a Hardship & Disaster Relief program to your organization's unique structure and culture.
Fund & Program Education
We understand what legal compliance issues, federal hardship regulations and general fund management mean. EAF will help you understand what it takes to run a successful fund. We'll show you what works for other organizations and more importantly, what doesn't. We will provide your team with the insights and recommendations so you get it right the first time.