Survey Reveals Many Nonprofit Retirement Benefits Under Stress

The Center for Civil Society Studies at John Hopkins University released the results of surveyof nonprofit human service, community development, and cultural organizations designed to provide a snapshot of retirement plan conditions for these entities.  The survey confirmed both the importance of retirement plan benefits for staff compensation and the stress a sizable majority of such plans are under both with respect to maintaining funding levels for defined benefit plans and with respect to providing employer matching contributions for defined contribution plans.  While the economic downturn was a major contributing factor to this financial stress, respondents also pointed to new requirements contained in the federal Pension Protection Act of 2006 as also contributing to their current problems.  Most nonprofit retirement plans are not at such risk that the government will have to step in, as happened with the Jane Addams Hull House’s pension fund earlier this year according to the report, but both the freezing of many defined benefit plans and the reduction of employer matching contributions for many defined contribution plans are likely.

LHM