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Benefits March 25, 2019
Fidelity Workplace Giving Pairs Charity and Retirement
The new program allows employers to integrate charitable giving into their current benefits program.
Reported by PLANSPONSOR Staff
Fidelity Investments announced the introduction of the Fidelity Workplace Giving program, created to allow employers to integrate charitable giving into their current benefits program while offering employees a way to manage philanthropic activities.
Explaining the firm’s thinking in launching this new solution, Kevin Barry, president of workplace investing at Fidelity Investments, points to data showing employees are increasingly interested in working for organizations that are socially responsible and offer benefits such as volunteer opportunities or charitable giving programs.
“Employers increasingly recognize the importance of offering benefits that contribute to the total well-being of their workforce, especially charitable giving programs,” Barry says. “However, it’s often difficult for employers to easily integrate these programs into their benefits platform.”
According to Barry, Fidelity Workplace Giving enables companies to provide access to a charitable giving option alongside other company benefits, increasing employee engagement and helping employees better understand how charitable giving fits into their overall financial picture. He adds that Fidelity Workplace Giving streamlines charitable giving activities for employees by allowing them to give directly through their workplace.
Employers offering the program gain a centralized administrative process and a clearer way to measure employee engagement and impact, Fidelity says. The Workplace Giving platform gives employees access to hundreds of thousands of charities aggregated into a single view that can be sorted by name, industry or cause, and workers can pre-set or select the amount they want to donate. Employee donations can be one-time or recurring, and delivered by the employee’s preferred method (e.g., credit card, bank transfer).
And since Workplace Giving is part of an employee’s benefits platform, they can weave charitable giving into their overall financial wellness strategy, alongside other financial vehicles such as their 401(k), health savings account or 529 plan, Barry says.
“When charitable giving is made easier and more transparent, employees are more likely to engage, which will ultimately contribute to greater corporate responsibility and a more positive impact on the community,” Barry adds.