Society Funding in Review

The Union has, according to the 2014 Impact Report, a turnover of just over £4.4 million. When you take out the bar and retail outlets, as well as staffing, overheads etc, that leaves approximately £1.4 million running through the clubs’ coffers on a yearly basis – as reported last year at budgeting. With all of that cashflow, spread over 350 societies, you might reasonably ask where all of the money comes from.

"The Union has, according to the 2014 Impact Report, a turnover of just over £4.4 million."

Imperial’s Grant

Each year, we are given around £330,000 by the Union to give out to clubs. The majority of this gets allocated during the Spring Term, once everyone’s had a chance to settle into their roles. Each club Chair is expected to write a budget for the coming year, factoring in cost and any other income sources (including members’ own contributions).

These budgets get looked over by Management Group Chairs and Treasurers and the DPCS/DPFS, before coming to a meeting of the Clubs, Societies and Projects Board (CSPB). After three meetings, one to discuss any appeals or issues with budgets, budgeting is complete – at least, that’s the aim. Some money is always kept aside, for…

Top-ups

It’s hard to plan your expenditure for the next academic year when you’re halfway through it. There are unexpected breakages of equipment, necessary purchases and other times when money has to be spent to keep a society running.

Money for contingency comes from the Activities Development Board, a subcommittee of CSPB. As of this year, there is also money set aside for the Activities Development Fund, which is intended to support new clubs that get created, and existing clubs looking to run new activities.

Harlington

The Harlington Fund was created in 1989, to manage the funds from a gravel extraction at the Harlington playing fields. Typically, there is around £50,000 a year to be allocated for clubs’ big purchases – things that are expensive enough that there’s no way the Union could subsidise. Harlington is based around improving student activity in the long term, and its guidelines ensure that the money goes to good use. “As a general principle, funds will only be used to finance new or improved facilities, namely capital assets or equipment, and not to meet running costs.” The principles also rule out, in general, funding for students’ personal equipment and for expeditions, so that funding has a long term impact.

The board on the committee consists of the Vice Provost (Education) (Debra Humphris), a past President of ICU (Ashley Brown) and the current Union President (Tom Wheeler). £60,000 funding was awarded last year out of £100,000 worth of applications. After the first term, there is £40,000 left in the pot for this year, although the applications already received would, if all were approved, take the fund into negative. Projects funded by Harlington have included the purchase of microphones, new equipment for clubs in their early stages, and replacement of sports kit. In January 2014 a one-off spike in funding was also awarded for the redevelopment of the Union Concert Hall, to the tune of £215,000.

IC Trust

Imperial College Trust (formerly Queen’s Gate Trust) is an independent charity. A bit like the ADB (see Top-ups), it provides funding at various points over the year to promote charitable work and fund research connected to the subjects taught at College. It’s split into three main categories: Tours, Conferences and the Exploration Board. The main way that societies see IC Trust money is through the tours funding that gets handed out once a term by CSPB. This is used to fund the travel to and from club tours, usually with around 20 tours in a period (Autumn, Spring and Summer).

There are some fairly specific rules on the allocation for tours; for instance, if your club runs the same trip to the same place every year, you are expected to budget for it in the annual Grant. In previous years, there has also been a rule that a society can only submit one tour application in a period. The policy is under review by CSPB, though, and this clause is up for discussion.

Funding is also given out by ICTrust to assist students in attending conferences to present their research. This is more useful to the Graduate Students’ Union, and to individual students, but Departmental Societies get a look in too.

Perhaps more tantalising is the Exploration Board, which takes as its mission statement “to support projects that reach a balance between straightforward scientific research and an adventurous holiday.” More specifically, it funds expeditions with scientific merit, with recent destinations including Mongolia, Peru and Svalbard. The board has recognised 98 expeditions since its creation in 1955. Over a third of these took place in 2001-2010, after a quiet few decades starting in the 1970s.

"a balance between straightforward scientific research and an adventurous holiday."

Sport/Arts Imperial

Many clubs, particularly those in the ACC, compete in BUCS tournaments, for which extensive funding is awarded by Sport Imperial. Funding is also allocated in a second round to non-BUCS sports with benefit to the College.

A similar scheme, Arts Imperial, runs to assist the various performing arts societies on campus, as well as to administrate the Blyth centre, which provides practice facilities for instrumentalists at the College. The funding available from Arts Imperial is significantly less, owing to the increased difficulty in obtaining sponsorship for clubs not competing on a weekly basis.

Departments

As well as money from the College, a number of societies (particularly Departmental societies) get funding directly from their departments. This usually takes the form of subsidy for a specific event, like an alumni dinner. Departments can also help out clubs by offering room space for meetings.

Self Generated Income

Perhaps the principle method of obtaining cash to run activities comes under the admittedly broad title of ‘Self Generated Income’ (SGI). This can take the form of ticket sales, membership fees, sponsorship arrangements, or simple donations from alumni or generous members of the public.

If your club has found a clever way of raising money for activity, get in touch at felix.clubsandsocieties@ic.ac.uk