Open Forum

We have a Simple IRA program that is easy to sign up and only a 3% match on the employer end. We use the same investment firm which handles our Endowment. As for the Health Insurance, luckily our Board has been a strong proponent of offering this benefit for our staff since the beginning. But since we are in Minnesota, we do have another resource through the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits that started a program able to help small museums get health insurance for their institutions. I would check to see if an organization in your state offers anything like this.

Here is a link for what Minnesota is able to offer.

www.minnesotanonprofits.org/membership/association-health-plan

Cynthia,

You might want to look to your state association for nonprofit organization to see if they have any applicable programs. Here in SC, TogetherSC (our state nonprofit association) has done an excellent job of creating programs for both health care and retirement programs for member organizations. In a former job, I worked with TIAA (formerly TIAA-CREF) to offer retirement plans to employees. 

Association Health Plan - Together SC

Group Retirement Plan Options from Mutual of America - Together SC

I'll second the poster who recommended a PEO for healthcare. With a staff of 4, I couldn't find anyone who would consider us for insurance, but once I shifted to a PEO (we use Justworks) we were able to get decent (not great but not awful) insurance. I need 3 full-time employees (all 4 of us are full-time so no issues there) and I select 4 plans from their range every year to offer, which is a day or two of work selecting a range of plans. 

On retirement, I looked at Simple IRAs but was concerned that a) my younger employees might not recognize the value of retirement planning and not make contributions to match, and b) we're small and thus have a small budget which means low-ish salaries and I was concerned staff couldn't afford to make contributions. So I set up a SEP-IRA, which allows me to select a percentage of salary to contribute every year (typically I do 3% but technically could go up to 21%!) and contribute that much without any employee contribution. The IRA is their own account so they can roll it over to their own account or even withdraw it if they don't mind the huge penalties, but at least I'm giving them the option and they don't have to worry about reducing their check. And each January when I make their contribution, I have an excuse to do some retirement planning education so hopefully they learn the value of looking ahead financially.