Contingency Fund Guidelines

PREAMBLE

The Organization and Finance Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Committee) shall serve as the primary examiner of all student organization funding requests through the Northern Iowa Student Government (hereinafter referred to as NISG), with NISG Senate having the final approval. The Committee and NISG shall abide by the guidelines set forth in this document when funding student organizations.

Receiving NISG funds is a privilege; therefore, these guidelines have been adopted to establish a procedure to fairly and justly facilitate the distribution of these funds.

In no case should allocation of funding constitute support of the ideas or opinions shared by student organizations or events. NISG supports the sharing of all ideas and opinions to broaden perspectives.

Section I: General Funding Guidelines

Article 1: Policy

Only currently registered student organizations may submit a request for funding.
All funding requests must first be heard by the Committee before becoming legislation.
All Contingency funding requests must be submitted two weeks prior to proposed use of the funds for the request to be considered.
Budgets for funding requests must be submitted on the forms provided by the Committee. Funding may be jeopardized if budgets are not submitted on the proper form.
Any funding requests forwarded to the Senate shall be placed on the Controversial Docket for one reading.
1. The Committee must provide rational for denial at the regular Senate meeting upon request.
2. Two standing Senators may sponsor the legislation only if funding requests are denied by the Committee.
3. In the event that a student organization wants to appeal the decision of the Organization and Finance Committee, the organization must submit a written/emailed argument to the NISG Senate indicating why the Committee’s decision should be reversed.
  1. Two standing Senators must then sponsor the legislation.
All funds must be spent according to these guidelines, the specific allocations approved by the committee and University policy.
Allocations may only be spent on items budgeted and/or approved by NISG.
1. All organizations shall keep precise financial records.
If two or more organizations have been allocated matching funding for the same specific purpose/program through the budgetary process, the organization must submit a copy of each receipt showing an itemized list of all expenses incurred to the Director of Administration and Finance.
The NISG Senate is charged with approving or denying funding of student organizations by majority vote.

Section II: The Contingency Fund

Entertainment

Funded: per organization per year (i.e. speakers, honorariums, DJs, photo booths, visiting artists, etc.)
Maximum Allocated:
- 1 organization: $1,000
- 2 organizations: $2,000
- 3 organizations: $3,000

Equipment

Funded: per organization per year (items with long-term usage requiring a storage location) Includes props, costumes/jerseys, banners
Maximum Allocated:
- $500

Venue Rental

Funded: per organization per year (i.e. room reservation, set-up costs, equipment needed, etc.)
Maximum Allocated:
- $750

Royalties

Funded: per organization per year (copyright/licensing for movies, scripts, scores, music, etc.) Includes web domain
Maximum Allocated:
- $500

Advertising

Funded: per organization per year (rates still applied per program)
- Table tents/posters/fliers
Maximum Allocated:
- $75

Travel

Funded: a max allocation of $500/organization per year
Maximum Allocated:
- $500

Supplies

Funded: per organization per year (Items purchased for events that will not remain with the student organization that are exhausted at the time of use)
Maximum Allocated:
- $100

Items Not Funded

Departmental/Non-Student Organization Event
Events or items not open and/or beneficial to all UNI students
Events or items used for monetary gain of the student organization
Events or items used directly for fundraising or donation
Food, giveaways
Invitations
Items provided at no cost through NISG (I.e., tablecloths, PA system, A-frames, storage,etc.)
Off-Campus Events, unless Section II Article 3, 1E
Support for the candidacy of any person for an elected office
Recruitment events or any items for solely internal use
National dues, internal organizational fees
UNI Faculty/Staff Speakers

Article I: Criteria

Funding requests will be evaluated on, but not limited to, the following parameters:
1. The number of students directly involved.
2. The extent to which the organization and its activities are free and open to all students.
3. The extent to which line items to be funded are beneficial in creating an effective program/event.
  1. Line item shall hereinafter be defined as a specific tangible object or person.
4. Efforts on part of the organization to participate in collaborations for sponsorship of events.
5. The extent to which the organization has engaged in fundraising, is seeking funds from other sources, or is contributing funds of their own.
  1. To assure each student organization has adequate funding available, this will be considered most heavily for programs/events costing more than the amount requested/allotted from NISG.
6. The need for monetary assistance in new and worthwhile activities, such as onetime expenses that serve a long-term benefit.
The committee will under no circumstances fund:
1. Requests for programs/events/items that would violate University policy and/or be deemed inappropriate by said policy.
2. Requests for programs/events/items that might entail or include violations of local, state, or federal laws.
For programs funded through the Annual Budgetary Process, additional funding for new and/or existing items may be requested.
1. Justification must be provided for additional funding, such as inflation, increased expected attendance or similar circumstances.
If the committee denies a request, the Director of Administration and Finance must notify the organization of denial and rationale.
Any organization approved funding through the Contingency Fund must submit a Post Event Report provided by the Director of Administration and Finance.
1. Failure to submit this form within one week after the funded event risks future funding of that organization.
2. The Post Event Report will function as a decision-making tool for the Committee.
3. Random attendance by NISG officials to funded events will verify the authenticity of reported data by organizations.
4. The Director of Administration and Finance has the power to waive this requirement.

Article II: Purposes Funded

The Committee may recommend funding to registered student organizations for:
1. Educational opportunities
2. Organizational programming that provides a service to the Student Body
3. Publicity for campus-wide programs open and of interest to the entire Student Body.
4. Printing directly related to campus-wide programs and activities
5. Events at which admission is charged so long as the admission is not charged to UNI students for the purpose of monetary gain of the student organization
6. Equipment, including costumes and jerseys, purchased for use of the student organization if:
  1. The equipment remains property of the student organization.
  2. The student organization has secured an on-campus storage facility, preferably Maucker Union.
  3. The equipment is inventoried and reported to NISG annually.

Article III: Purposes Not Funded

The Committee will never recommend funding for:
1. Internal Affairs:
  1. Recruitment of new or transfer students to the University
  2. Events or activities intended primarily for recruitment of members to an organization
  3. Equipment needs unrelated to campus-wide programs and activities
  4. Organizational newsletters
  5. Organizational awards, banquets, and/or in-house dining
  6. Including but not limited to: prizes, trophies, award plaques, financial awards, or scholarships
  7. Publication subscriptions unless the material will be made available to the entire Student Body
  8. National and organizational dues
  9. Payments of debts
2. External Affairs:
  1. Organizations that receive allocations from the Student Fee for the program in question
  2. Fundraising or charitable activities in which allocated monies would go directly to the third-party for which the fundraiser or charity is being conducted
  3. Items sold for fundraising
  4. Student and non-student employee salaries or stipends
  5. Activities that are directly related to job seeking and not applicable to all students
3. Organizations demonstrating poor financial management:
  1. Poor financial management includes violating policies and/or violating the funding guidelines as approved by NISG during the current fiscal year.
  2. An organization must demonstrate they have initiated policies to correct poor financial management to be reconsidered for funding.
4. Food, beverages, or food related items, such as plates, cups, napkins, and/or eating utensils
5. Events/activities that take place away from campus unless the atmosphere intended for the event or the purpose of the event cannot be achieved on campus
  1. In cases of off-campus events, the number of students involved/event magnitude will be considered in determining funding.
6. Activities that support the candidacy of any person for an elected office, including NISG Elections.
  1. Groups that support such candidates, however, may receive funding for events that do not support a candidacy.

Article 4: Parameters for Funding Entertainment

The Committee may approve funding for entertainment.
1. Entertainment will include but is not limited to speakers/honorariums including travel costs, DJs, visiting artists, short-term entertainment equipment (i.e. photo booths), etc.
The entertainment should be on campus unless otherwise deemed appropriate for the entertainment to be off-campus.
The Committee may allocate funds as follows for entertainment once a semester per student organization:
1. Up to $1000 for one student organization sponsoring entertainment
2. Up to $2000 for two student organizations sponsoring entertainment
3. Up to $3000 for three or more student organizations sponsoring entertainment
4. Allotments may not exceed $3000.

Article 5: Parameters for Funding Conferences or Competitions

The Committee may fund conferences/competitions under the circumstances outlined in this article.
The Committee may allocate funds as follows for conferences/competitions once each semester per student organization:
1. Allotment may not exceed $500 per year.
Funding may be used for conference/competition fees and travel/lodging costs associated with the event.
To receive conference/competition funding, the student organization must show evidence that attendance at the conference/competition will hold benefit to the University as a whole.
A post-conference/competition report, provided by the Committee, must be submitted to NISG.

Article 6: Weekend Event Incentive Compensation

The Weekend Event Incentive Compensation exists to encourage registered student organizations to plan events on weekends.
The Committee may recommend an additional compensation amount of up to $1000 for student organizations hosting events that meet the following criteria:
1. The event in question must be scheduled to start between 6:00 PM Friday and 6:00 PM Sunday.
2. The event must be open to all students and help on the UNI campus.
This compensation is intended for and may be used for the purchase of food, beverages, food related items, decorations, extra advertising, and small gifts/prizes given free of charge to all event attendees.
Each student organization may only receive weekend event compensation for a maximum of two events per semester. After two events have been funded, a request for compensation of subsequent weekend events will be denied.
The Committee will take into account the number of events occurring on a given weekend.
If Contingency funding is limited, funding requests for weekend event compensation of any sort may be denied or reduced at the discretion of the Committee.
1. This may include, but is not limited to, requests for food, beverages, food related items, decorations, extra advertising, and small gifts/prizes given free of charge to all event attendees.

Article 7: Parameters for Funding Events During the Summer or Welcome Week

Any events that take place before or during the first week of classes in the Fall semester fall under the jurisdiction of this guideline.
When events are held before the first Organization and Finance meeting, they are eligible for retroactive reimbursement of their event.
In this instance, Organizations must submit extra documentation of all expenditures no later than the third week of the academic term.
1. If all expenditures can be documented, and they meet all other funding guidelines, they are eligible for reimbursement.

Section IV: Special Parameters

Parameters

The NISG Contingency Fund should be maintained at a level of at least 5% of total budget allocations by the Student Fees Committee.
1. The minimum contingency amount of 5% can be allocated in emergency situations.
  1. The requester must present to the Committee, and the Committee will vote if it can be deemed as an emergency.
  2. It must pass the Committee with a majority vote.
  3. In the event that the requester wants to appeal the decision of the Organization and Finance Committee, the requester must submit a written/emailed argument to the NISG Senate indicating why the Committee’s decision should be reversed.
  4. If the Committee deems it an emergency, the request will be brought to NISG Senate and put on the controversial docket.
  5. The request must pass NISG Senate with a 2/3 majority.
  6. In the event that the requester wants to appeal the decision of NISG Senate, a case must be filed to the NISG Supreme Court.
In its effort to benefit the Student Body as a whole, the Funding and Registration Guidelines shall not be applied in a strict manner to NISG.

Section V: Amendments

Amendments

Amendments to these guidelines must be presented in bill form to the Senate, placed on the Controversial Docket and obtain a 2/3 vote of the Senate in order to be ratified. Ratified amendments should be listed below this section.

10/84
1/87
1/89
5/89
11/89 Name Change
12/89
1/94
3/98 To agree with Federal Supreme Court Ruling
2/2000 To allow for Student Government Expenditures
1/2002 Changes to agree with Federal Supreme Court Ruling
4/2002 Removal of Funding Guidelines
1/2007 Overhauled all guidelines and added the Panther Fund
11/2007 Revision of Funding and Recognition Bylaws
1/2009 Revision of Funding and Recognition Bylaws
4/2010 Overhauled all guidelines and created a separate document of Bylaws
2/2011 Allowing for open and closed student organizations
4/2011 Addition of Section V: Weekend Event Compensation
3/2012 Overhaul of Funding and Recognition Guidelines 2012
9/2014 Overhaul of Funding and Registration Guidelines established in 2013
4/2015 Addition of Section III, Article 6: Parameters for Funding Travel
4/2016 Addition of Section III, Article 7: Parameters for Funding Events During Summer or Welcome Week, clarification of role of advisors
9/2016 Split Funding and Recognition Guidelines into two separate documents. Overhaul of Funding Guidelines. Addition of chart in Section II. Clarification of funds for conferences/travel. Addition of Post Event Report.
10/2018 Updated Contingency Guidelines Costs
8/2021 Split Annual Budgetary and Contingency Fund Guidelines into two separate documents. Removed outdated and abandoned practices (i.e. deferred funding)

Contingency Fund Guidelines Document