UA Finance Board Funding Policies- A Brief Overview

1. UA Finance BoardFunding Policies- A Brief Overview Our policies can be viewed in full at: http://ua.mit.edu/funding/finboard/policies/

2. Funding Philosophy The following factors are particularly important in Finboard's funding decisions: • Campus involvement • Events and activities open to all of MIT or benefit the MIT community as a whole • Previous expenditure history: Finboard prefers to fund groups which consistently spend their allocations

3. Funding Categories • Operations • Capital • Events • Publicity and Printing

4. Operations • Food (when listed under operations), membership dues to external groups, intramural sports fees and retreats will not be funded. • Groups an UNSIGNED contract, when requesting funding for any hired personnel. • Transportation will be capped to $500 per semester • Public transportation will be given first priority • For travel by bus, van, rental car, train, or plane, groups should support their decision with reasoning and documentation in the budget defense. • Please refer to our Funding Policies page to get more information on travel

5. Capital • All groups must have group storage space, such as a locker or office, before applying for capital expenditures. Members' personal storage space is not sufficient. • Groups must submit two quotes for any capital expenditure greater than $200, attached to the budget defense. • Finboard has recommended a $250 per semester cap on costumes and similar performance supplies for all groups. • Purchase of expensive musical instruments is of low priority

6. Events • Finboard legally cannot fund cash honoraria for speakers, but will consider requests for funding for other speaker-related expenditures. • Prizes at competitions are low priority. Finboard is not legally allowed to fund cash prizes, but small gifts or gift certificates are possible. • Fundraisers will not be funded except in special circumstances. • Banquets are low priority. End-of-term banquets will not be funded.

7. Publicity and Printing • Newspaper ad space in MIT's newspaper The Tech will not be paid for unless proven essential, as all MIT-funded groups are granted one advertisement in The Tech free of charge. • Finboard has recommended a publicity cap of $100 per event per group. Generally, publicity for a medium-sized event should cost ~$25.

8. General Guidelines • Late applications will be given last priority • Applications are without a budget defense are not valid • Defenses can be submitted at finboard-apps@mit.eduin addition to submitting them on the application • Prioritize your expenditures. Explain what funds you need most, and Finboard will allocate accordingly • If anything out of the ordinary occurred in past funding cycles (for example, money was drawn from the wrong account, some sort of misunderstanding took place, or any sort of dramatic shift occurred in your group) please detail this in your budget defense at the top. FinBoard will take this into account when allocating.

9. General Guidelines (cont’d) • Be specific and detailed with line items; explain exactly what you are requesting funding for and why. • Detailed breakdowns of how you calculated the cost of each line item are strongly encouraged. • Report an accurate cost estimation for each line item. • Provide expected attendance for all events

10. General Guidelines (cont’d) • Groups must provide Finboard with their gross estimated income. • Finboard has the right to obtain any group's actual gross income and actual gross expenditures for the last two funding periods from the Student Activities Financial Office (SAFO). • SAFO will provide Finboard with each group's current main account balance and current reserve account balance. • Finboard will not provide funding to groups with a negative account balance without explicit approval from SAFO to do so.