Royal Holloway Students' Union

A significant proportion of the Students’ Union’s block grant is spent on supporting Student Groups. A proportion of this cost is attributed to staff salaries which support and enable circa 150 Student Groups to function (for example by organising Freshers’ Fair, arranging training sessions and fixtures, supporting events and awards, training committees, processing finances and other admin requests). The remaining budget is allocated to Student Groups through grant funding and insurance costs.

This article is going to breakdown the funding opportunities available to groups throughout the year, but if you want to know more in depth you can read the Student Group Funding Policy Framework document. 

Funding Stages

New Student Group Funding - Year Round

When a new group has been ratified, it will automatically receive a set amount of funding (currently £150) to help start up the group.

New groups are eligible to apply for other funding opportunities. 

This money will go into the group's restricted account. 

New Academic Year Funding (Summer Funding) - June/July

The purpose of this funding is to help newly elected committee members to ensure an effective start to their group's year. 

This funding is not with the purpose to fund the group's core activity, as this should be covered by the group's membership income, fundraising and sponsorship. 

However, this funding is to help the group with some kickstart items they may need to help with membership recruitment and advertisement.

The amount received is based on the groups' risk status. The risk status is assessed by the Student Opportunities Team and the VP Societies & Sport. You can read about what factors determine the risk status in section 4.B of the Student Group Funding Policy Framework.

The risk status are:

You will find out what funding you have been awarded for the year when filling out the budget forms for the upcoming year in the summer. This money will be added to your group's restricted account.

Support Funding - November/December

Having been functioning as a student group with new memberships for approximately 8 weeks, the purpose of this funding opportunity is to enable student groups to take stock of their membership numbers and more accurately project their income and expenditure for the remainder of the year. 

This funding application process takes place during October/November. Support funding is awarded based on the funding principles and criteria outlined in Appendix 1 of the Student Group Funding Policy Framework.

You can find out more about this here, including when applications open, close, etc.

This funding is awarded at the start of December, so it should not be relied upon for the running of the group in Term 1. Any money not spent by the end of the academic year will be reclaimed by the Students' Union. This money will go into your group's grant account.

Development Funding - Term Two

This funding is aimed at groups who wish to get funding for the group's development. This could be one-off costs for equipment, events or activities that hadn't been considered previously but that would greatly benefit the group and its members.

Development funding is open for application all throughout term two, allowing for continuous funding opportunities for student groups. This will allow the development of plans and ideas after term one.

The maximum a group can apply for per application will be £500, and where possible a match funding approach is preferred. The application must be based on the criteria outlined in Appendix 2 of the Student Group Funding Policy Framework.

You can read more about the process here.

Any money not spent by the end of the academic year will be reclaimed by the Students' Union. This money will go into your groups' grant account.

Competitions Funding - Year Round

This funding is aimed at student groups taking part in competitions relating to their core activity. 

Your student group can apply for competition funding throughout the year.

The maximum a group can apply for in an academic year is £400 (reviewed annually to ensure it is reflective of current fees). To apply, the group must submit the Student Group Admin Form with the event proposal type Competition/Fixture/Friendly and reach out to the Student Opportunities team to apply for funding.

The funding only covers competition entry fees. Any extra costs, such as transport, accommodation, officials, etc. are not covered by this and should be funded by the group or members. If additional support is required, the group can apply for Support Funding (above).

This funding can cover team entries, individual entries and one-off competitions. You can read more about what this means in section 4.E of the Student Group Funding Policy Framework. The amount of funding granted is based on a tiered membership model system outlined below:

While funding is available, it is a limited pot which sees on average a ratio of funding requests to available funds of 2:1. This means that for every £1 requested, there is only £0.50 available to be allocated. As a result, we need to be stringent in how we allocate funds and we should ensure that principles and criteria are robustly applied. In cases of funding that occurs throughout the year, it is also based on a first come, first served basis. This is why it is important you read the criteria and principles as they are robustly applied to any applications we receive. You can read the full details on the Student Group Funding Policy Framework document.