August 2, 2013; Boston Business Journal

 

The nonprofit sector loves to talk about executive transitions. A few years back, they got wildly excited about what some projected would be a major mass transition of baby boomers out of leadership positions. (This exodus has not yet come to fruition.) But many nonprofits pay little to no attention to helping employees with their retirement schemes, so when we saw this headline, we were encouraged for a hot second.

In the first half of this year, Fidelity Investments saw a 250 percent increase in sales to nonprofit organizations. This increased the assets they manage by nearly 60 percent in the first half, from $25.5 billion a year ago.

The company said that more than 650 employers representing about 600,000 employees started retirement plans with Fidelity during the first six months of the year. But before we start to celebrate about the sector’s new-found commitment to its work force, the increase in sales was evidently the result of nonprofits consolidating their retirement plans.—Ruth McCambridge