SSMU Funds

The SSMU has a variety of funds available to student groups. Each fund has a different set of criteria, and it is highly recommended that you check them out, because many of them actually have excess funds at the end of the year, meaning that they would have been able to provide funding to more applicants. Applications are considered on a rolling basis, so apply as early as you can! You can submit one application per event/initiative, and select one Fund to apply to. All funding decisions are made by a central Funding Committee, and they may decide to allocate funds to you from a different Fund, or from more than one Fund - basically whatever they can do to help fund you!

The following guide was written by Vivian Campbell, SSMU Rep of 2017-2018, who sat on the SSMU Funding Committee. Check out SSMU's Funding page for a far more aesthetically pleasing guide. Then come back here for tips & tricks.

Available Funds

Fund	Apply For...	Do...	Don't...
Ambassador	academic conferences and competitions, including design team competitions	include any costs paid by participants in your budget, even if they're not paid through you ask participants to contribute a reasonable amount to the cost	ask for funding for food/alcohol remove food/alcohol form your budget just because it can't be funded apply for funding if the costs can be covered by other revenues in your annual budget
Campus Life	pretty much anything that happens on campus - social events, networking events, cool initiatives, workshops, guest speakers, etc.	include projected attendance/involvement make your budget very clear, so that it is easy to tell the difference between food & alcohol expenses and everything else	(same as above)
First Year	anything targeted at first year students	(same as above)	(same as above)
Equity	equity initiatives	(same as above)	(same as above)
Mental Health	mental health initiatives	(same as above)	(same as above)
Environment	sustainability initiatives - my example is using it to cover the difference in cost required to make your activity more environmentally friendly	include the costs of both the original and more sustainable options	(same as above)
Space	improvements to student spaces, similar to the EUS Student Space Fund
Community Engagement	charitable events / fundraising events for a charity
Club	ONLY AVAILABLE TO FULL STATUS SSMU CLUBS	-	apply for this fund if you're not a SSMU Club

General Rules for all Funds

1. Funding can only cover a deficit, and only if it carries over to a deficit in your annual/operating budget.
2. Funding cannot cover the cost of food or alcohol, but can be selectively applied to cover all other costs.
3. Funding is allocated only for events/initiatives in the current semester. Exceptions include:
   - Anything you have to pay for in the current semester (ex. booking fee/deposit, plane tickets bought early, etc.)
   - Funding for the Summer - apply in the Winter if possible, or retroactively in the Fall
   - Some retroactive funding, but generally only for Summer expenses
4. There is no official limit on the amount you can apply for. Apply for as much as you might reasonably need.
5. You can reapply for more funding if something goes wrong. Although not ideal, the Funding Committee has granted funding increases to groups where their budget has changed significantly since the original application (ex. failure to secure expected sponsorship).

The Application Process: Step-by-step

1. Register your student group - Do this NOW, even if you won’t be applying till later! It will take time to process your registration. Registration is done once per group, ideally by the person who will be applying for Funds. You would likely be a “Departmental Association” or “On Campus Student Group” or perhaps “Special Event”.
2. You’ll get login instruction for the online Application Portal. All Funding applications are submitted here. The link to access the Portal is not posted anywhere, so here it is for convenience.
3. Prepare an event/initiative budget and an annual/operating budget such that the amount of funding you are requesting and which expenses it will cover are clear. Your EUS budget(s) are great for this, if you've filled them in correctly. Key points are:
   - Making sure each expense has a clear title/description. Since SSMU can't fund food or alcohol, any vague expense that might contain either will not be funded.
   - Having a deficit in your annual budget. If you are an EUS Committee, consider splitting your deficit between EUS and SSMU Funding requests.
   - Including all the details! Don't remove food/alcohol expenses from your budget because they can't get funding. If participants are paying their own conference fees, even if it's not through your Group, add lines in revenue and expense for this. The Funding Committee needs to have a full overview of the cashflow to make a decision.
4. Gather any receipts, invoices, quotes, etc. that you have for your expenses into a single pdf. The more information you can provide, the better, especially for large expenses.
5. FILL IN THE APPLICATION WOOOOOO. Here's the info they ask for:
   1. Name & student number of your Financial Officer (or whoever is submitting the application)
   2. Description of your club / group
   3. Name, date, and description of your event/initiative/project
   4. How much $$$ you want, from which Fund, and why that Fund
   5. Budgets & other relevant documentation (if applicable)
6. Wait. Hopefully only around a week. For 2017/18, the Funding Committee meets every Tuesday to review all applications submitted by the previous Thursday. You may be asked to provide more information or some clarification to the Funding Commissioner/Committee
7. You will receive your funding decision through email. If you feel the decision is not fair, or if you don't understand why you have(n't) been given a certain amount, you can respond to the Funding Commissioner's email.