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Employee Assistance Fund

As part of our commitment to supporting the health, safety, and well-being of our community members, we are pleased to share that the College has established an Employee Assistance Fund to help faculty and staff members who may be faced with unexpected financial hardships. If you experience a personal hardship resulting from a national or local qualified disaster as defined by the program, or an unavoidable personal hardship such as the loss of a family member or an event which causes financial stress for you or your family, you may be eligible to receive a tax-free financial grant to assist you.

In order to keep grants tax-exempt, Swarthmore College’s Employee Assistance Fund is administered and managed by America’s Charities, a nonprofit 501c3 organization. America’s Charities is responsible for the management of the Fund, including reviewing and making all decisions relating to the approval of Fund grants, according to the guidelines established by the Fund policy. Swarthmore College is not involved in the review of any applications or related appeals of such grants.

Application

Apply for an Employee Assistance Fund grant

Eligibility and Grant Amounts

Please review the full Employee Assistance Fund policy for all eligibility requirements and details. The following is an overview of key eligibility requirements.

In order to be eligible for financial assistance through this program, you must have experienced a qualifying event no more than six months prior to the date of your application, and you must be:

  • Employed fulltime or parttime at Swarthmore College for at least 90 days as of the date of your application; 
  • Actively employed or on an approved leave and in good standing (meaning, not on a performance improvement plan or subject to disciplinary action); and
  • Employed at Swarthmore College on the date the qualifying event occurred.

The one-time maximum grant amount for a qualified disaster (natural or otherwise) is $2,500. The one-time maximum grant amount for a personal hardship, as defined in the policy, is $5,000. The annual maximum grant amount in total to an applicant, for both personal hardship and qualified disasters, is $7,500. The lifetime maximum per applicant is $15,000.

Learn More

You can learn more about the assistance fund as well as find a list of frequently asked questions on the Swarthmore College Employee Assistance Fund website; for other questions about the fund, please contact SwarthmoreEAF@charities.org.