The Hardship Fund
for Vanderbilt Faculty and Staff
The Need: From time to time, emergency events (the death of a loved one, a fire, an acute illness keeping us from work, etc) happen that can cause us unexpected financial hardship. We know that it is hard to ask for help.
The Fund:; In late 1994, the Faculty/Staff Hardship Fund was established. The Vanderbilt Hardship Fund is funded by faculty and staff donations and matched by the Fringe Benefit Fund. A Committee of Vanderbilt employees volunteer their time to review the applications weekly and match them with the established criteria so that the approval or denial of requests is consistent.
Criteria: The Hardship must be resulting from a temporary situation* occurring while a permanent, regular full time, staff /faculty member at Vanderbilt. (VTS and part time employees are not eligible). (For more details see below)
Process: The Work/Life Connections-EAP counselors serve as a liaison between the applicant and the Committee. The Committee must ask for a quite a bit of personal financial information in order to insure that the situation matches the criteria of the Fund. Unfortunately given the limited amount of funds, all requests cannot be approved, even though there is a clear need for assistance. Awards are subject to payroll tax.
To Apply: The first step is to schedule an appointment with a Work/Life Connections-EAP counselor who can advise the faculty/staff member as to eligibility for the Fund and/or potential community resources. Call the Work/Life Connections-EAP at (615) 936-1327 and schedule an appointment to discuss your situation further.

Criteria: Awards will be based on the defined criteria and funds available. The Hardship Fund Committee is charged with managing the funds and budgeting them to last throughout the year.

Some of the major guidelines include but are not limited to:

1. The applicant must be a full time, regular employee. The Hardship must be resulting from a temporary situation* occurring while a permanent, regular full time, staff /faculty member at Vanderbilt. (VTS and part time employees are not eligible).
   *Temporary Hardship – Acute financial setback as the result of a specific, definable event (e.g. death of immediate family member, fire, acute illness etc) that has caused the applicant temporary financial hardship.  By temporary, it means that an applicant, who previously was able to manage his/her finances, now is approximately a few hundred dollars in debt and with the committee’s possible approval could get back on track within 1-2 months.  Because the needs for assistance exceed the available funds, this criterion was established to be fair and consistent in the administration of the limited funds.   An applicant with longer-standing financial problems though clearly in need of financial assistance, would not be considered a temporary hardship and therefore would not be approved for the Fund.
2. An employee can receive assistance only once during a 12 month period and there is a lifetime maximum.
3. Applicants must be employed at Vanderbilt for one year and cannot be on the performance improvement counseling process.
4. In accordance with federal tax laws, awards are reported to the payroll office and subject to payroll tax withholding which could be up to 25-33% of the gift.

To Donate
To donate to the Staff/Faculty Hardship Fund, you can do so in one of three ways:

• Payroll deduction
• Direct contribution with cash, check, or money order
• Mastercard or Visa credit card

For faculty and staff, you can designate the Hardship Fund on your Faculty-Staff Campaign gift card.

For payroll deduction contributions, you can get a pledge card or bill on-line (for credit cards) www.vanderbilt.edu/facultystaffgiving

• Name
• Social security number;
• Address;
• Whether you are a Medical Center or University staff or faculty member;
• Whether you are exempt (monthly paycheck) or non-exempt (every two weeks paycheck);
• Total amount of your gift;
• How much you want deducted per pay period;

Or call Sandra Robinson in Development & Alumni Relations at 343-8759.

Donations to the Hardship Fund are not considered to be tax deductible charitable contributions according to IRS guidelines. Consult with your tax advisor.
We appreciate your generosity and support of the Vanderbilt Staff and Faculty!