In addition to your membership income, ticket income and any grant you are awarded, there are a number of potential extra sources of funding available from UCL and Students' Union UCL for your club or society. 

Please expand and read all the sections below carefully before applying for funding. 

Grant Fund

Following the impact of the pandemic, we have adapted our grant funding process for 2023/24 to help ensure we can support as many clubs and societies as possible to run activities!

While we’re not back to our pre-pandemic levels of funding, we’re really pleased to confirm we have more funding available for clubs and societies than last year. When considering applications, we’ll make sure money is allocated to those groups with the clearest need.

  • Applications for grant funding are open! If your application is submitted by 10am Wednesday 27th September, we will aim to transfer the funds into your club/society account by the following week, ready for term 1.
  • Don't worry if you miss this deadline, you'll also be able to apply for grant funding on a ‘rolling’ basis. This means you can apply for grant funding at any point in the year, through our online webform.
  • We encourage you to apply if your activities can’t take place without this grant funding, or if you don’t have sufficient financial reserves.
  • Funding will be awarded on a case-by-case basis, and we will consider any non-grant funds available to you when reviewing each application.
  • If you are a newly affiliated society or club, in order to apply for grant funding, you need to have 30 paid members and have demonstrated an attempt to get funding from another source (for example, ticket sales for an event) before requesting grant funding. 
  • Requests will be reviewed at the Finance Panel, where a decision on your application will be made by the Activities and Engagement Officer.
  • If your club or society is in deficit, you will not be eligible to apply for grant funding. In this instance please contact us and we will support you in bringing your club or society account back into surplus.
  • Grant funding can only be used for what it was awarded for. The expenditure code can be seen on your financial statement under the description.
  • Any grant funding not used within the financial year it has been awarded will be reclaimed. Grant funding cannot be rolled over to next year.
  • Grant funding requests can only be submitted for the current academic year.
  • If your request is rejected as we don’t have enough information to consider your application, you’re always welcome to re-apply. Please email [email protected] for further support in completing your application.

What can you apply for?

You can request funding for:

  • Costs relating to core activity
  • Maintenance costs
  • Sports club playing kit (kit grants can only be used with our official kit partner, currently Akuma)
  • Equipment
  • Coaching/instructor fees
  • Facility hire
  • A specific event, activity or project

You cannot request funding for:

  • Food or drinks
  • Non-specific general costs
  • Past expenditure
  • Stash/non-playing kit
  • Costs relating to BUCS or LUSL competitions (costs relating to these competitions are funded centrally)
  • Grant funding cannot be used to cover any non-grant debt

Annual Budget Template

You can download and complete our Annual Budget Template to help you plan your finances for the year. You can use this template to help you work out if you need to apply for grant funding, and how you can best use any funding you’re awarded.

You should submit an Annual Budget if you are requesting over £1000, or if it can help you demonstrate why you need grant funding from the Union. Your plan will be used to provide the Finance Panel with further information on whether your group needs grant funding, or if there are other actions which could be carried out to help you achieve a better financial position.

How to complete the form

Apply through our Grant Application Form online: https://studentsunionucl.org/forms/grant-application-form.

  • Submissions can only be made by club/society presidents or treasurers.
  • Please make sure to submit your request at least 10 working days before you need the funds during term time. Outside of term time, please submit your request 3 weeks before you need the funds.
  • If your request is approved, our Finance team will make the funds available in your club/society grant account. This can take up to 2 weeks.
  • The Finance Panel may award you part of the amount you have requested, or the full amount.
  • You can apply as many times as you need, as long as your request meets our criteria.
  • You can make a purchase using a combination of grant and non-grant funding. When making your request, please specify exactly how much of the cost you would like covered from your grant funds.
  • You must demonstrate you have taken value for money into consideration by providing alternative quotes where possible.
  • You must provide a full breakdown of what the funding will be used for, and where possible quotes for purchases.
  • If you have non-grant funds available, please clearly explain why you are not able to use these for the requested purpose. You should demonstrate that you have attempted to use any reserves your club/society has to subsidise purchases.
  • You cannot apply for grant funding if you do not charge a membership fee.
Departmental Societies

Affiliated departmental societies can apply for funding to support projects designed to fulfil their core objectives and foster a sense of belonging in their department. 

How it works

Your project or event must fall into at least one of the following categories:

1. Building a sense of community

  • Your activity should bring together students from a range of backgrounds. It should be accessible to students in your department, faculty and the wider UCL community.
  • Examples might include social events like quizzes, film nights or book clubs, group activities such as personalising hoodies, or tickets for group trips or visits. 

2. Making an educational impact 

  • Your project should have an academic or educational objective. It might also be a project that introduces students to a new area of learning, or develops their knowledge and awareness of a certain issue.
  • Examples might include panel or Q&A events with external speakers (eg. UCL alumni or professionals in the field), language classes, skills workshops, or a celebratory event such as a dissertation showcase. 

3. Providing career prospects

  • Your project should seek to facilitate the career aspirations and goals of a wide range of students. Throughout your activities, you should aim to introduce students to lots of potential career paths related to the field. 
  • Examples might include a department careers fair, or an alumni networking event. You can also seek help from the UCL Careers team in planning and delivering your project (if you'd like to be connected to the relevant careers representative in your department, get in touch with us. 

4. Positively impacting wellbeing

  • Your activity should focus on improving the wellbeing and mental health of students in your society, and promote a diverse and inclusive environment.
  • Examples might include fitness classes or physical activity initiatives, mindfulness exercises, or themed awareness campaigns. 

How to apply

You can submit an application through our Grant Application Form 

  • Only presidents and treasurers can submit an application.
  • Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis by our Finance team. 
  • If your request is approved, the funds will be reflected in your society account within two weeks. You can view your financial statement on your society webpage through our website. 
  • You can apply as many times as you need, as long as your request meets our criteria.
  • You can make a purchase using a combination of grant and non-grant funding. When making your request, please specify exactly how much of the cost you would like covered from your grant funds.
  • You must demonstrate you have taken value for money into consideration by providing alternative quotes where possible.
  • You must provide a full breakdown of what the funding will be used for, and where possible quotes for purchases.
  • If you have non-grant funds available, please clearly explain why you are not able to use these for the requested purpose. You should demonstrate that you have attempted to use any reserves your society has to subsidise purchases.
  • You cannot apply for grant funding if you do not charge a membership fee.
  • If you are a newly affiliated society or club, in order to apply for grant funding, you need to have 30 paid members and have demonstrated an attempt to get funding from another source.

If you have an idea but are unsure whether it meets the above criteria (or would like some advice in general), you can reach out to us. 

Welfare Fund

You can apply for the Welfare Fund by using the Grant Form and indicating that it is a ‘Welfare Fund’ application. 

  • Applications can be submitted by your president, treasurer or welfare officer. 
    • You can apply for funding to run activities which focus on the welfare of your members. This includes activities which: 
      • Raise awareness of and support positive mental health
      • Improve student wellbeing
      • Support societies to deliver new physical activity initiatives
      • Promote an inclusive environment
      • Help include underrepresented student groups
    • You cannot apply for funding for:
      • Food and drinks
      • Non-specific general costs
  • You must demonstrate you have taken value for money into consideration by providing alternative quotes where possible.
  • If your club/society has non-grant funds available, you will need to explain why these funds are not being used for the activity or project you are requesting funds for.
  • If your request is approved, our Finance team will make the funds available in your club/society grant account. This can take up to 2 weeks.
  • The Finance Panel may award you part of the amount you have requested, or the full amount.
  • The Club & Society Finance Panel meet every Tuesday during term time, and is led by the Activities Officer. We endeavour to consider all applications received in the previous week but this is not always possible due to the volume of requests received.
  • If you have an idea and are not sure if it hits the criteria or would like some advice, just get in contact with us at [email protected] – we are happy to help. 

Example of an approved Welfare Fund submission

To ensure they were reaching as many individuals as possible, and to promote the sense of community one society held a ‘Clay Pin Workshop’, which was funded by the welfare grant. This was their submission:

We plan to have a Clay Pin making workshop which is to be exclusively for our female members, to promote a sense of community amongst our current and new female society members. This event will be hosted online by a workshop instructor and members will be at home following along and using materials provided by us, namely paint brushes, resin containers, pin backings etc.

This event is aimed to improve student wellbeing and to make our female society members feel welcome at UCL as this workshop is intended to promote unity and allow our members to open up and be vulnerable in this intimate setting, discussing their time at UCL and any worries and concerns they have. Our community is mainly (90%+) made up of BAME students and so it is important to address feelings of marginalization and isolation that they may currently be feeling at UCL and this event will help to alleviate and address these problems through the activity.

Funding by the SU will be needed for those materials as we do not have sufficient financial reserves to self-fund this event and so this activity cannot take place. Our total costs would be £135.40, and we request as much support as possible in the covering of our costs. A full breakdown of the costs has been given below:

ItemDetailsCost
6 Paint £4.00
150 empty Paint containers £11.40
6 Paint brushes £12.00
UV resin 100g £14.00
50 Resin containers £10.00
24 Superglue £4.00
100 Pin backings £5.00
25 Envelopes £15.00
Shipping costs of materials £60
Friends' Trust
  • Funded by UCL alumni, the UCL Friends’ Trust awards funding to student groups at UCL for specific initiatives or equipment, in order to help enhance and encourage extra-curricular activity.
  • Clubs and societies can apply to the Friends’ Trust on the Students’ Union website. If you are in your first year of affiliation, you can apply for Friends' Trust.
  • Funding is awarded twice a year, in November and February.
  • Details of when applications open can be found on our Friends’ Trust page:
  • https://studentsunionucl.org/president-and-treasurer-hub/friends-trust-applications.  
  • We’ll also let presidents and treasurers know when applications are open.
  • Friends’ Trust funding can be used for a range of things, including: 
    • Equipment
    • New initiatives
    • One-off activities
  • Your application will be reviewed by members of staff from the Friends’ Trust and the Union, including the Activities Officer. If your application is approved, the funds will be transferred into your non-grant account.
  • If you’re making a purchase using your Friends’ Trust funds, you should use finance code 99336.
UCL East Fund

The UCL East campus is home to a thriving population of over 2300 students who live and study there. The UCL East team are always looking to support and collaborate with societies on events of all scales!

If your club or society would like to set up a new initiative, or expand existing activities, to engage students at UCL East, we have a funding pot just for this purpose.

Previously we have supported RUMS with their Sports Ball, Lamorna Society with a candle-making social and are working with the Bubble Tea Society on a welcome event!

Your activities and events help build a sense of community, have an educational impact, and have a hugely positive impact on the wellbeing of students here.

The spaces available at UCL East are large, modern,  accessible, and fully bookable by clubs and societies. For more information (or to arrange a dedicated tour!) you can check out their webpage or contact the UCL East team directly - [email protected]

Cultural Fund

The cultural fund has been designed to enable club and societies to bid for small pots of money to showcase the very best aspects of their cultures and/or to deliver cross-cultural activities for the benefit of the wider student community. In doing so, our aim is to highlight and celebrate the diversity of the student community at UCL and to increase our members’ intercultural exposure, awareness and understanding. 

Fund criteria

  • Your application must specify:
    • What you intend to deliver e.g. performance, workshop or other activity
    • How many people you intend to reach with your activity 
    • Whether your activity is a joint initiative or collaboration with another society, and if so with which society
    • What space you require for your activity, and whether you intend to deliver it at Bloomsbury or East campus.
  • Submissions can only be made by club/society presidents or treasurers.
  • Applications are limited to up to £150 per request, or £350 for a joint initiative with another society.
  • The Finance Panel may award you part of the amount you have requested, or the full amount.
  • You must provide a full breakdown of what the funding will be used for, and where possible quotes for purchases. 
    • If you’ll be covering part of the cost from your non-grant funds, please explain this in your application.
    • If you have non-grant funds available, please clearly explain why you can’t use these for the requested purpose.
  • You must demonstrate you have taken value for money into consideration by providing alternative quotes where possible.
  • You cannot apply for funding for food and drinks unless integral to your activity e.g. a food tasting session.
  • You can’t apply for funding if you don’t charge a membership fee.
  • If you are a newly affiliated club or society, in order to apply for funding, you need to have 30 paid members and have demonstrated an attempt to get funding from another source.
  • You can apply as many times as you need, as long as your request meets our criteria.
  • If you have an idea and you’re not sure if it meets the above criteria or would like some advice, just get in touch with us via [email protected] – we’re more than happy to help. 

How to apply

You can submit an application through our Grant Application Form. 

Only presidents and treasurers can submit an application. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis

If you have an idea but you’re unsure whether it meets our criteria (or would like some advice in general), get in touch with us at [email protected].

Sponsorship
  • Clubs and societies can also apply for sponsorship from external organisations.
  • External organisations may choose to provide your group with funding which you can spend on your activities. Some sponsors may alternatively provide goods or services, such as equipment.
  • If a company chooses to provide your group with sponsorship, they will usually ask for some form of acknowledgement such as their logo on your merchandise.
  • Sponsorship agreements should be outlined in a contract, signed by the external organisation and the Union.
  • Your contract may not be approved by the Union if it has terms we can’t fulfil. For example, your sponsor may ask for a regular room booking on campus – but we can’t offer this in exchange for sponsorship.
  • Some companies are not eligible to provide sponsorship to clubs and societies. You can find out more about which companies are excluded on our website.
  • You can find out more information about sponsorship on our website: https://studentsunionucl.org/sponsorship-agreements.
UCL Funding

Throughout the year we will let presidents and treasurers know of opportunities or applications for other college funds that may become available. Traditionally, these types of funding may be suitable for equipment purchases or occasionally for ambitious or unique one-off events.

External Funding

Think outside of the Students' Union! There are often community grants (particularly for sports clubs) available to apply for from local authority funds or national governing bodies. If you require help in applying to an external funding source you can contact a member of the team by reaching out to [email protected]. Our team can pass your email on to the relevant member of staff.

To get you started, here are a few useful links when looking for external funding for your club:

  • Crowdfunding - raise money for your own personal cause, a person in need, clubs, schools, and communities.
  • Awards for All - National Lottery Awards for All offers funding from £300 to £10,000 to support what matters to people and communities.
Sports Clubs

 

Knowledge base

Category

  • Raising, Spending & Managing Money
Did you find this article useful?
18
-9
Last updated 2 months ago