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Students' Association

Special Allocation Fund

 

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

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

 Email the SA Finance Chair

Purpose

The purpose of the Students’ Association Special Allocation Fund is to support an SDSU student organization that encounters a substantial budget shortfall and is in need of funds to support a specific one-time event or expenditure. The Special Allocation Fund is not used to support ongoing operational costs of an organization.

Submitting a Special Allocation 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 Special Allocation Fund request form, including the cover sheet and budget breakdown.
  4. The student organization submits the completed Special Allocation 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 Special Allocation 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 Special Allocation 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 the event or expenditure your organization is seeking funding for, as well as the efforts and contributions your organization is making toward the event or expenditure.

  • Line 1: Purpose for the request – Describe your event or expenditure in detail. Provide background information about what the event or expenditure is, what the event or expenditure entails, why it is important to your organization, etc. Please limit your response to 250 words.
  • Line 2: Have you received SA funds before? If yes, how much? – Indicate whether your organization has received any Students’ Association funding in the past, including Special Allocations, annual General Budgeting allocations, New Venture Fund allocations, Speaker Fund allocations or UAFBC Reserve Fund allocations. Also indicate the amount(s) of any previous allocation(s). If your organization has never received Students’ Association funding in the past, this line will remain blank.
  • 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.
  • Line 4: Organizational contribution toward the budget – List the amount of funding your student organization is contributing to the event or expenditure out of its own budget. For example, perhaps your organization is paying the cost of catering food for the event or the cost of registration for members of your group attending a regional or national conference.
  • Line 5: Individual contribution toward the budget – List the amount of funding individuals from your organization are contributing out of pocket for the event or expenditure. For example, perhaps members attending a national conference are paying their own airfare at $350 each.
  • Line 6: If this is an event – If this Special Allocation request is for an event, list the name of event, date of event, anticipated attendance, location and a brief description of the event. Please limit your description of the event to 250 words.
  • Line 7: How will this money be used to benefit the SDSU community? – Special Allocation funding comes from the General Activity Fee, which all SDSU students pay. Here, describe how the funding put toward this event or expenditure will have a positive impact on SDSU and the larger campus community. Why is this event or expenditure important to SDSU students? For example, perhaps your organization’s event is open to all SDSU students and will enhance students’ understanding of another culture or perhaps your organization will give a public presentation to share what you learned while attending a regional or national conference. 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 Special Allocation funding request. The funding request will not be valid until all required items are complete.

  • Item 1: Special Allocation 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 Special Allocation 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 of the expenses relevant to this event or expenditure. Each expense category should be listed separately. Please include only the expenses for this event or expenditure (not all of the expenses for your organization for the entire fiscal year). 

Section 2. Current Funding

In this section, list all of the current sources of funding (incomes) relevant to this event or expenditure. How will the event be funded? Each funding category should be listed separately. Please include only the funding sources/incomes for this event or expenditure (not all of the funding sources for your organization for the entire fiscal year). Funding sources/incomes for this event or expenditure (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.