Criteria for Society Funding

• All society expenditure must be relevant to the society’s aims.
• All expenditure must be the most cost-effective means reasonably available.
• Due to Charity Law, we are unable to fund any competitor. Basically, if we already provide a service (eg printing), we are unable to grant money to be spent on another company which provides the same service.
 

Funding Your Society

The Students’ Association is able to assist you with funding your society’s activities, events and assets.

This year the Societies Committee has received a generous budget increase from £30,000 up to £35,000. Hurray!

This year funding will be approached in a slightly different manner, which involves a Top Up Grant, a Basic Grant and an Advanced Grant instead of the previous Affiliation Grant and Discretionary Grant. We hope that this will make it easier for you to access funds throughout the year, while maintaining a high degree of accountability.

Further details about how to apply for funding can be found in the Treasurers Handbook, in the meantime, here is an outline of the ways in which you can go about funding your society. If you would like to find out more, contact the Director of Student Development and Activities, Meg Platt, on dosda@st-andrews.ac.uk

The Top-Up Grant

Every affiliated society who begins the year with less than £75 in their account at the beginning of the year will be given an automatic grant to top them up to £75. This will be automatically calculated by the Union, and your society will be contacted by email when the cheque is ready for collection from the Cash Office. In combination with required membership fees of £75 (25 members x £3 minimum membership fee) it is hoped that every society will begin the academic year with £150 regardless of their later grant requests.

The Basic Grant

Every society is invited to apply for a Basic Grant of up to £400 at any point throughout the year. This will hopefully remove the frustration of having to wait for the new semester before receiving funding. Moreover, you are welcome to apply for this grant as many times as you like in a semester. This can be applied for using the online Grant Application Form which you will find at your society portal (http://societies.yourunion.net/). In format, this remains much the same as the previous Affiliation Grant, and on the form you will be asked for similar information about how you intend to spend the money. However, you will also be asked to come in to a Societies Committee meeting before the Grant is approved (every week on Tuesday between 5.00 and 7.00 in the Music Room), before a decision is reached about the grant. We will email your society with the time we would like you to come to the meeting.

The Advanced Grant

The Advanced Grant works in much the same way as the Basic Grant, however you may apply for up to £800. To make an Advanced Grant application you simply fill out the online Grant Application Form with a figure greater than £400. However, there are certain pre-requisites to making an Advanced Grant application:

-Attendance at a minimum of 3 Professional Skills Curriculum sessions. This year we are running a series of training sessions many of which are targeted directly at societies. Please see here for details. A register of Society Committee member attendance will be taken at each session for those of you who would like to do this.

-You must have previously requested a Basic Grant (or an Affiliation Grant from last year), and met your stated budget to within 20%. As such, it is very important if you would like to apply for an Advanced Grant that you keep hold of all receipts and keep a thorough Cash Book. At the Tuesday meeting you will be asked to demonstrate that you did not go off budget by more than 20% in your last Grant Request. (Please note that if you make a surplus greater than 20% over that budgeted for you may still apply for the Advanced Grant).

Loans

In extreme circumstances, the societies committee is able to provide a loan if a society has debts that need to be paid immediately (e.g. a deposit for a trip). Any loan does have specific conditions attached to it, which can be discussed at the appropriate moment. To discuss taking out a loan, e-mail socgrant@st-andrews.ac.uk and you will need to come to the Societies Committee meeting.

External Funding

There are other avenues of funding that are potentially available to societies.

Membership Fees: the minimum cost to join a society is £3, but it is up to the society how much they wish to charge for membership.

Sponsorship: please note, some companies might be inappropriate for sponsorship, if you are unsure e-mail the Director of Student Development & Activities. You should declare all sponsors on your budget proposal form, if your situation changes through the year please e-mail socs@st-andrews.ac.uk

Extenuating Circumstances: In certain circumstances we will approve grants of more than £800, please contact the DoSDA, Meg Platt, for details.