Bieler's Day Off | From collaboration, celebration

So your student group is all out of funding and your treasurer just lost your Student Activities Council request. If you are all out of ideas and getting ready to inform your membership that events for the year are over, think again. The University, much like the federal stimulus bill, has money for all sorts of events; you just need to know where to look and whom to talk to. Groups should work together to make better use of Penn’s many lesser-known funding sources.

Most groups at the University get their baseline funding from the well-known sources: the Student Activities Council, the Wharton Council and the Engineering Student Activity Council. But these shouldn’t be the only places you look. Smart groups can find supplementary funding sources to put on some truly spectacular events.

If your event is all planned and ready to go, and you just need the funds to bring it all together, the Social Planning and Events Fully Planned Committee should be your first stop. Lest you think this is off limits to all but the best-connected group treasurers, College senior and SPEC President Dasha Barannik said, “We have been trying to get new groups to apply, but there hasn’t been a huge surge.” So if you have a unique event, SPEC Fully Planned — or other SPEC funds like Connaissance or SPEC-TRUM — may have the means to make it a reality.

Other funds exist to promote certain types of events. PRISM’s Faith Fund, the newest of these groups, is designed to provide funds for events dealing with issues of religion. But College junior and PRISM co-Chairwoman Roxana Moussavian said that this fund “is not only for religious organizations. Anyone who wants to have an event dealing with religion can apply.” Many of the intercultural resource centers like La Casa Latina also have funds connected to their mission, and groups interested in service projects can apply to the Civic House Associates Coalition for funding.

If you are still having no luck and literally have nowhere else to turn, there is a resource for that, too. The Undergraduate Assembly contingency fund, described by UA treasurer and College senior Sakina Zaidi as a fund “of last resort,” is a $19,633 fund that has been used for everything from publicity campaigns to pilot recycling programs.

In order to best make use of these resources, however, groups need to be willing to check their egos at the door. The key to successful fundraising, said Zaidi, lies in collaboration. Joint efforts between groups are vital because certain funds, like the Intercultural Fund, are only accessible if at least two groups associated with Penn’s Cultural houses are brought together to work on an event. Tangible Change is another fund that is accessible for events that bring together two student groups that would not normally associate. T-Change is also unique in that it is one of the few funds at Penn that will pay for food. So if you can bring together two warring houses, the pizza for it might be on Ben Franklin.

Collaboration also means finding many different sources. Many academic departments have small discretionary funds for student events and even the Graduate Students Association has helped fund events that bring together graduates and undergraduates. “The best way to find funding is to talk to people, ask around,” said Zaidi. Groups who try to monopolize or dominate their causes will find themselves unable to access many of the resources Penn has to offer.

Taken together, this means that resourceful group treasurers can pull together hundreds or even thousands of dollars and put on the big name events that add character and life to the Penn community and visibility to a host of valuable causes. So look around and reach out, because its time your group treated itself to something nice. Sam Bieler is a College sophomore from Ridgewood, N.J. He is a member of the NEC. His e-mail address is bieler@dailypennsylvanian.com. Bieler’s Day Off appears on alternate Tuesdays.

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