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DOL Offers $100,000 Grant to Spur Retirement Plan Ideas

The Department of Labor (DOL) has announced a grant program intended to increase retirement security for low-wage workers — many of whom have never had access to retirement benefits through an employer.

The program, which is being administered by the DOL’s Women’s Bureau, will help nonprofit organizations “undertake certain types of program-planning activities needed to develop a portable retirement benefits program for their stakeholders or target populations.”

Those activities must fall into one or more of the following three categories:

  • assessment of the challenges and barriers unique to low-wage workers or target populations with little or no retirement savings;

  • research and analysis of available opportunities and tools to expand existing or build new portable retirement savings vehicles, especially for low-wage workers or target populations; and

  • research and analysis of scalable models for portable retirement benefits programs, as well as identification of legal constraints and changes to state and/or federal law that would be required in order for these models to be viable for low-wage workers or target populations.

Two to four grants of between $25,000 and $75,000 each will be awarded. Selection of grantees will be based on the strength of the proposal, including the design, cost, innovative ideas and solutions, and ability to access relevant data to support the program.

Applications for the grant must be received no later than 4:00 p.m. ET on Aug. 26, 2016.

Additional information is available here.