Oct 9, 2020, 3:33 PM
(from Reuters) According to a recent survey from consultants Willis Towers Watson, 47% of employers report enhancing healthcare benefits, 45% are boosting well-being programs, and 33% are tweaking paid time off and vacation days. These revised benefits menus, revised in record time in many cases, are an acknowledgement that employees are feeling stretched right now – mentally, emotionally and financially. The effort is to retain staff and boost cohesion and productivity. At the same time, some companies are suspending or scrapping 401(k) matches to hold on to enough cash to survive this period. And there is a question of how long these new benefits will last due to their extra cost. Instead of all rewards being extended to all employees, companies could see cost savings with a more targeted approach – letting staffers select the ones that are the most meaningful for them.
(from the Chronicle of Philanthropy) Some financial and philanthropic experts are calling on organizations with endowments to draw more deeply on them at this time to meet the needs of the present moment. In a recent survey of more than 200 large foundations, more than 70% of those indicate they have or will increase 2020 grant making beyond what was previously budgeted. To those that argue preserving the endowment is important to support future generations, these experts say the amount of money sitting in endowed foundations has increased dramatically in recent decades, and present day problems are likely to be larger than those beyond the near future. "We believe the spend-now versus spend-in-the-future calculus is fundamentally altered by today’s events," they write.
More from the Chronicle of Philanthropy
(from LA Magazine) In the wake of the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal, another risk management concern is cropping up: grade inflation. Private and public high schools throughout Los Angeles and the rest of the country are rife with grade inflation, according to school data and interviews with teachers, students and admissions officers. “[At] some independent schools, I think it’s become almost policy to have grade inflation, because they want their kids to be able to get into ‘good colleges,’” said a former admissions officer in the Los Angeles area. Teachers at some schools say enrollment is transactional, in that parents invest money in tuition and expect good outcomes for their investment. The issue may be exacerbated with the explosion in online learning during the pandemic. And there are legal ramifications to the trend. At least one L.A. school is facing a legal investigation into accusations of grade inflation there.
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