2025 NAGDCA Leadership Award
The MO Deferred Comp Plan was recently awarded two National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators, Inc. (NAGDCA) Leadership Recognition Awards. These awards honor the most innovative ideas and impactful solutions from across the public sector defined contribution community.
The first award was given for our Scary-Smart Retirement Savings campaign for the National Retirement Security Month category. This campaign ran throughout October of 2024 and highlighted different savings tools and features each week, encouraging employees to take control of their financial situation—no matter how “scary” it might feel. Weekly topics included compounding interest, automatic increase, percent-based contributions, setting retirement “ghouls” (goals), and plan resources. One of the most memorable elements was a Monster Mash parody featuring state employees singing about the state match. The campaign used multiple marketing channels, with a strong emphasis on video and email outreach.
The second award recognized our redesign of the plan’s three websites:
- the main MO Deferred Comp website,
- the Pocket Change workshop site, and
- the MO457 site for colleges and universities.
All three sites were previously built in raw HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and hosted on the organization’s servers. While functional, they had a dated look and feel, and keeping up with evolving internet standards had become increasingly challenging. Limited server capacity and the organization’s move toward cloud-based hosting also contributed to the need for change. As a result, the MO Deferred Comp Plan was tasked with selecting a CMS vendor and rebuilding all three websites. Although the process was extensive, the outcome has significantly improved the experience for both staff and participants.
For a complete list of NAGDCA Leadership Award winners, visit https://www.nagdca.org/about/nagdca-awards/2025-award-winners/.
