A practical guide for HR and Total Rewards leaders who want to support employees through life's toughest moments — without taking on unnecessary tax, compliance, or administrative burden.
With the right charitable structure, employee relief programs can be tax-efficient, compliant, fair, and genuinely meaningful. A fiscal sponsor helps you focus on helping employees while the program framework, review discipline, and reporting are handled the right way.
Relief support can be structured so employees receive help without creating avoidable tax issues.
Clear charitable guardrails, documentation, and objective criteria matter from day one.
Support a broad employee population through consistent rules and independent review.
The right fiscal sponsor helps manage application, review workflow, and reporting requirements.
Employers often want to help employees in crisis, but they do not want to improvise a program that creates tax exposure, inconsistent decisions, or operational burden. A fiscal sponsor provides the charitable structure and administrative support to make the program practical.
Employee relief funds are generally intended to support employees experiencing sudden and unexpected hardship. These are the foundational categories most leaders want to confirm first.
The questions finance, legal, HR, and leadership teams usually ask first.
When structured properly through a charitable program, grants may be tax-free under hardship and disaster relief rules. That means employees get help when they need it most without creating unnecessary tax burden.
Company foundations face strict self-dealing and private benefit limits when giving to employees. A fiscal sponsor applies an independent, objective review so grants stay charitable and defensible.
Written eligibility criteria, a broad employee class, and an independent review process ensure every request is evaluated using the same standards.
Documentation requirements, defined qualifying events, and confidential third-party review keep grants tied to genuine, unexpected hardship.
No. The fiscal sponsor handles applications, review, disbursement, and reporting, so HR stays focused on supporting employees.
A strong policy should feel clear for employees and defensible for leadership.
Provide financial assistance to employees facing sudden and unexpected hardship.
Employees or immediate family members experiencing a genuine financial hardship.
May be administered through a charitable partner to support compliance, transparency, and reporting.
A simple, respectful process designed for clarity, fairness, and documentation readiness.
These examples show how requests can be evaluated in practice using clear categories and consistent reasoning.
Facing eviction after a medical crisis. Eligible because it is a sudden hardship tied to housing.
Home damaged in wildfire. Eligible due to disaster-related displacement and urgent need.
Loss of spouse or immediate family member. Eligible when related to sudden funeral costs.
Extended medical care required for a child. Eligible due to medical hardship.
Immediate need for safe housing and relocation expenses. Eligible as an emergency situation.
Request to pay off general debt not tied to a sudden qualifying hardship. Not eligible under relief program guidelines.
GoodFunds is Charity On Top's corporate foundation program. You establish a branded, compliant giving fund without building your own foundation; Charity On Top acts as the fiscal sponsor and handles the legal, administrative, and compliance work behind the scenes.
Formalize your employee relief, volunteerism program, corporate matching, and more
Customized scholarship programs and support
COT acts as the fiscal sponsor
Back-end 24/7 portal to administer and oversee your fund
Make tax-deductible contributions with campaigns, direct donations, or employee paycheck contributions
Use fund to pay out charitable projects, volunteer expenses and IRS deemed tax-free employee relief
No minimum balance and no percentage of funds taken
COT handles ALL tax reporting, back-end admin, compliance, and approvals
COT provides ongoing employee relief eligibility to ensure full IRS compliance
Turnkey open-loop digital or physical cards for employees needing relief. Single cards or bulk orders, load value starts at $100, tax-deductible for the purchasing company and tax-free to the employee under relief.