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Students' Association

New Venture Fund

These guidelines explain the purpose of the New Venture Fund and the New Venture allocation process. They also serve as a guide for completing a New Venture Fund request application. Each step of the application paperwork is clearly outlined below.

To obtain a New Venture Fund request application, please contact the Students' Association Finance Chair.

Email THE SA FINANCE CHAIR

Purpose

The purpose of the Students’ Association New Venture Fund is to support new and existing ³ÉÈËÊÓƵ student organizations that are not currently receiving General Activity Fees to request funds outside of the normal budget cycle. A New Venture Fund request may only be submitted by a student organization that does not already receive GAF funds through the Students’ Association General Budgeting process each spring. If a New Venture Fund allocation is granted, the student organization will be included in the SA General Budgeting process during the spring semester and subsequent fiscal years.

Submitting a New Venture Fund request does not guarantee funding. A funding request may be funded fully, partially or not at all. For further information about guidelines for Students’ Association funding, please see the General Activity Fee Budgeting Guidelines.

Process

  1. The student organization contacts the Students’ Association Finance Chair.
  2. The Finance Chair verifies that the request is valid according to the General Activity Fee Budgeting Guidelines and provides a Special Allocation Fund request form to the student organization.
  3. The student organization completes the New Venture Fund request form, including the cover sheet and budget breakdown.
  4. The student organization submits the completed New Venture Fund request form to the Finance Chair via email.
  5. The Finance Chair reviews the completed request form and coordinates with the student organization about any errors, missing parts or questions.
  6. The Finance Chair schedules a hearing with the Students’ Association Finance Committee. A representative(s) from the student organization will present the budget request to the Finance Committee. These presentations are short and informal (typically 30 minutes or less). The student organization representative(s) should be prepared to answer questions from the Finance Committee about the organization’s budget and funding request.
  7. The Finance Committee will vote on a recommended allocation. This recommendation could be the full requested amount, part of the requested amount or none of the requested amount.
  8. This recommendation will then be heard by the Students’ Association Senate. A representative(s) from the student organization should attend to answer questions from the Senate and to provide background information about the request.
  9. After discussion by the Senate, the Senate will vote on the recommended allocation. During discussion, the Senate may amend the amount recommended by the Finance Committee.
  10. If the allocation is approved by the Senate, the Finance Chair will begin the process of transferring the funds to the student organization’s student fee index (account). The allocation requires verification by the Students’ Association President, the Vice President for Student Affairs and the University President. This process can take some time. After receiving all proper approvals, accounting staff will transfer the funds into the student organization’s student fee index. Any questions about student fee indexes or the allocation approval process should be directed to the Finance Chair.

Completing the Form

Page 1: Cover Sheet

Section 1. Contact Information

In this section, provide the name of your student organization, the number of active members in your organization and your organization’s student fee index number. (This index number begins with 3374--. If your organization does not have a student fee index, we will create one for you after approval of your allocation request.) Also provide the contact information for your organization’s president, treasurer and adviser.

Section 2. Request

This section provides the Finance Committee with a short summary of your request, including the amount you are requesting and a comparison to your organization’s total yearly budget.

  • Line 1: Total Amount Requested – List the total amount you are requesting from the New Venture Fund for this event or expenditure. 
  • Line 2: Total Budget – List your organization’s total yearly budget for the current fiscal year. (The fiscal year runs concurrently with the academic year, from July 1 to June 30.) This is the total sum of all the expenses your organization has budgeted for the year.
  • Line 3: Request as Percent (%) of Budget – This is the percentage of the total budget that the requested amount makes up. To determine this number, take the Total Amount Requested divided by the Total Budget.

Section 3. Other Sources of Income

This section defines the other funding sources (incomes) your organization has for the current fiscal year. The sum of the items in this section should equal the total income your organization has for the current fiscal year.

  • Line 1: Fundraising – List the total amount your organization has fundraised (or has projected to fundraise) for this fiscal year. Examples include ticket sales, tip nights at local restaurants, concessions or cleanup after athletic events, t-shirt sales, etc.
  • Line 2: Department Support – List the amount of funding your organization has received from your academic department or college. Some organizations may not be affiliated with an academic department, in which case this line will remain blank.
    • If the organization is affiliated with an academic department or college (e.g. Psychology Club, Human Powered Vehicle Club, Pre-Professional Club), the New Venture request must include a letter from the department head or dean. (See Letter(s) from Department Head/College below for more information.)
  • Line 3: Dues (if applicable) – List the amount of funding your organization received from membership dues to this event or expenditure. If your organization does not collect membership dues, this line will remain blank.
  • Line 4: Donations – List the total amount of donations from corporate sponsors or alumni, the value of in-kind donations of materials or services or other philanthropy your organization has received as income for the current fiscal year.
  • Line 5: Previous Fiscal Year Carry-over – List the total amount of funding left over from the previous fiscal year. For example, you may have generated revenue accounts that hold funds from year to year.
  • Line 6: Other (Specify) – List any other funding sources (incomes) that your organization has for the current fiscal year. Specify what these funding sources are, since they do not fall into one of the previous categories.

Section 4. About the Request

Use this section to explain why your organization is seeking funding, as well as the efforts and contributions your organization is currently making.

  • Line 1: Purpose for the request – Describe why your organization is seeking funding in detail. Provide background information about what events your club hosts, what expenditures you have and why these are important to your organization, etc. Please limit your response to 250 words.
  • Line 3: Previous fundraising efforts – Describe in detail your organization’s fundraising efforts. List the specific methods your organization has employed to raise funds and the outcomes of these efforts. If your organization has not made efforts to fundraise or if your efforts to fundraise have been unsuccessful, please explain. Please limit your response to 250 words.

Section 5. Checklist

Please check off each of these items to indicate its completion as part of the New Venture funding request. The funding request will not be valid until all required items are complete.

  • Item 1: New Venture Fund Request Cover Sheet – Check off this item after completing the first page of the form, including all the items described so far on Page 1. Your responses may have carried over onto a second page, which is completely fine.
  • Item 2: Explanation of Budget Items or Breakdown – Check off this item after completing Page 2 of the Special Allocation request form (described in more detail below).
  • Item 3: Letter(s) from Department Head/College (if applicable) – Check off this item when you include a letter of support from an academic department or college with your New Venture request. A letter of support from a department head or dean is required for all requests from student organizations that are directly affiliated with an academic department or college or organizations that receive any funding from an academic department or college. The letter of support should address the amount of departmental funding contributed to the organization (or else explain the department’s or college’s inability to contribute funding to support the organization) and speak to the merits of the event or expenditure.

Section 6. Signature

The Special Allocation request must be signed by the student organization representative requesting funding. With your signature, you verify that the information contained in this Special Allocation request is complete and accurate to the best of your ability. An electronic signature is acceptable.

Page 2: Budget Breakdown

Section 1. Expenditures

In this section, list all the expenses your organization has for the remainder of the current fiscal year. Each expense category should be listed separately (e.g. travel, lodging, supplies, printing, advertising, facility rentals, etc.). Please include only the expenses for the remainder of the fiscal year (rather than all of the organization’s expenses for the entire fiscal year). 

Section 2. Current Funding

In this section, list all of the current sources of funding (incomes). Each funding category should be listed separately. Funding sources/incomes (such as fundraising, donations, dues or other contributions) may have been included in the total funding sources amounts on Page 1, Section 3; please include them again here.

If you have any questions or need any help completing the Special Allocation request application, please contact the Students’ Association Finance Chair.