The YWCA Retirement Fund (formerly “The Young Women’s Christian Association Retirement Fund”) began operations in New York City in September of 1925, just five years after the ratification of the 19th Amendment established voting rights for women and a decade before the creation of Social Security in the midst of the Great Depression. At the time, women faced additional barriers to economic participation that left them typically underprepared for retirement. It would be another thirteen years before the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 outlawed job classification on the basis of sex and a generation before the Equal Pay Act of 1963.
The Fund’s sole founding purpose remains unchanged 100 years later: to provide employees of YWCAs (of which 90% are women) with access to secure, comfortable retirement for careers of service to the network’s mission. Initial funding was established with a $1.8 million donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, whose wife, Laura Spelman, was active within the YWCA movement and other nonprofits dedicated to furthering social causes, particularly those that educated and elevated women.
The Fund was incorporated in New York State in 1924 and began operations at 600 Lexington Avenue one year later. While plan features have changed slightly over the previous century, its current structure as a “cash balance defined benefit plan” upholds the YWCA organization’s continued dedication to its workforce. Each association contributes an equivalent percentage of their participants’ monthly gross pay, then the Fund matches those contributions with an additional 40%. Interest on account balances is earned monthly based on annual treasury rates. Participants are not required to contribute their own money, though they can if they choose. And unlike a pension savings plan, such as a 401(k) or 403(b), accounts are not subject to market fluctuation, meaning that balances can never go down.
Upon retirement or leaving YWCA employment, participants can choose between withdrawing their accounts as a lump sum or as a lifetime pension (aka an annuity for life). The fact that the Fund offers lifetime pensions with no fees or surcharges, and with no penalty to women for their actuarially longer lifespans, sets it apart from the for-profit annuity sector. This is and always has been the primary reason the Fund exists.
Though the Fund began as an opt-in benefit for associations, YWCA leadership voted at its National Conference in 1976 to make participation mandatory for all YWCAs. Today, it serves more than 11,000 past and present employees from approximately 200 YWCAs nationwide. It has weathered both historical and modern challenges, including the stock market crash of 1929, the Dot-Com bubble of 2000, and the more recent COVID-19 crisis, continually partnering with the YWCAs to accommodate budget strains and ensure uninterrupted participation.
Its current New York City offices at 55 Broadway proudly display the handwritten ledgers of early years, but today’s YWCA Retirement Fund is thoroughly of this paperless, online era with an increasing emphasis on self-service and a virtual approach to educating YWCAs from coast to coast on the value of the benefit. Here’s to the next century of supporting the mission of the YWCA.