Employee Benevolence Fund

“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” – Galatians 6:10

Mission

On behalf of the generous giving of Liberty University employees, the Employee Benevolence Fund Council is committed to an effort to provide emergency relief to eligible faculty and staff members of the University who are facing an unforeseen, emergency, financial hardship.  This fund is known as the LU Employee Benevolence Fund.

Application Process

All requests for assistance from the LU Employee Benevolence Fund shall be made by submitting a “LU Employee Emergency Assistance Application” (“Application”) to the Chairman of the Committee. The Application should contain all information which will aid the Committee in evaluating the request. This could include medical bills, physician reports, fire or flood reports, documented loss of income due to death, illness, or accident. The completed form should be delivered to the Office of Development to the attention of Benevolence Fund Department.

• All members of the Committee will keep requests to and disbursements from the Fund confidential to individuals outside of the Committee, except as required by other University policies and procedures or by law.
• The Committee shall approve or deny requests based upon the eligibility criteria below, and provided that funds are available for distribution.
• Decisions of the Committee are final. There is no appeal process.
• The person requesting assistance will be notified of the decision by the Chairman or their delegate.
• Upon approval of assistance, funds shall be requested from Accounting and in most cases, available within 10 working days, if not sooner.

Eligibility Criteria

The Committee will evaluate employee requests and render decisions regarding the disbursement of funds in accordance with the following criteria:

• Requestor must be an employee of Liberty University in a full or part-time position. Temporary employees and student workers are not eligible.
• Requestor must have been employed at Liberty University for at least one year immediately prior to the financial hardship identified in the Application. The one-year eligibility period will be waived if the financial hardship is caused by the death of requestor’s immediate family member, provided requestor satisfies all other eligibility criteria. For purposes of determining eligibility, “immediate family” means the requestor’s spouse, parents, and children (including adopted or stepchildren).
• Requestor’s need for financial assistance must come from emergency, unforeseen circumstances beyond the employee’s control. This would not include living beyond one’s means. This undue, financial hardship may be the result of fire, theft, natural disasters such as flood, hurricane, or loss of essential property or primary residence due to circumstances beyond
  requestor’s (or requestor’s family’s) control. Also included would be death, disability, accidents, or illnesses within the requestor’s immediate family.
• Expenses that would not be included for consideration would be: poor financial planning, divorce, non-essential items such as cell phone, cable, credit card payments, expenses related to car repairs, general dentistry, bail, garnishments, judgments, child care, debt repayment or consolidation, litigation, medical needs for which insurance or a charity hospital is available.
• Employees may submit only one Application within an 18-month period. No more than 3 Applications may be submitted within the employee’s total term of employment.
• A Committee member may not participate in consideration of an Application for an award to the Committee member’s family.

Award Limits

All decisions of the Committee are final. The Committee will review requests within 3 working days of receipt of Application. Due to fund availability, it may not always be possible to approve all qualifying requests. The amount awarded to all applicants cannot exceed the available balance of the Benevolence Fund. Should the funds available not be sufficient to meet the current needs, the Fund Office will Communicate the need via email to departments within the University. Please note, these funds may be considered taxable income and reportable on a Form W-2.

Contributions To The Fund

Employees and non-employees may make designated contributions to Liberty University for the Employee Benevolence Fund online or by check, cash or payroll deductions (for employees).  Contributions made to this fund will be tax-deductible as a charitable donation.  A year-end tax-deductible receipt will be sent to the donor in the first quarter of the following year.  Tracking fund availability and awards will be the responsibility of the committee.