Finance

Accessing Funds

You can access your funds in two ways:

1. Fill out a Purchase Order form and we will buy what you need using your society’s funds. Please use this form for any expensive purchases, and please give us at least two weeks notice.
2. Purchase what you need yourself and submit your receipts on our Student Groups Finance system. To do so, head to your society page and go down to 'Finance Requests'. You can then submit your documents by clicking on 'new money request. (see Student Groups Finances section below for instructions)

Purchase Order Form

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Expenses

How does the Student Groups Finances (SGF) system work?

To get your reimbursement this way, you will need to follow the steps above and create a new money request. Once completed, it will go to your Finance Officer or President for approval.

Next, it will come to the SU, where we will check your receipts and approve the claim for payment. You will then receive the money within a week or so!

For your receipts to be accepted, they must:

1. Be itemised
2. Have the date visible
3. Have the total money spent visible 

We cannot accept credit card receipts, or receipts without a date. 

For purchases through platforms like Dominos and Amazon, we can accept a virtual receipt, or a confirmation email, as long as it contains the items, date, total funds spent and your name.

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Useful resources

• Submitting an expense claim request instructions
• Approving expense claims for your committee 
• Supporting documents - examples and criteria 

NB: Purchasing promotional materials; The Union will not reimburse or purchase any publicity materials where the designs do not adhere to requirements. Please submit your publicity designs when submitting claims forms and/or purchase order forms for any promotional material.

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Student Groups Development Fund

The Development Fund, as mentioned above, provides an opportunity for Student Groups to apply for funding directly from us. This is free money for your group, so please have a think about what you could use it for and get some applications in! 

 

Each Student Group can apply for up to £1000 per year and you can submit bids in collaboration with other societies if you wish to run larger events. The application must be for something specific that can be costed and the grant may only be spent on this specific item/activity agreed. The development fund should be used to the benefit of a majority/all of your members. There are some things that the fund cannot cover. These include: 

1. Funding for something that has already taken place 

2. Donations or affiliations to other charities or political organisations 

3. Ultra Vires spending (e.g. not something that goes against our objectives as a Charity) 

4. Alcohol 

5. Food and drink (normally) 

 

Applications will be reviewed by a member of the Communities Team and a Students’ Union Officer. 

Should we receive more applications than we can fund, funding decisions will be made by a member of the Communities Team and one of the Students’ Union Deputy Presidents. Funding will be prioritised for student groups who: 

1. Have received no funding (or limited) so far in the academic year. 

2. Demonstrate the benefit of the funding, including how many students it will impact. 

3. Higher numbers of paid student members. 

 

The outcomes of Students’ Union Development Fund applications will be published on the students’ union website. 

Funding not spent by an agreed date will be returned to the central grant pot so that it can be allocated to other student groups. 

Development Fund Application Form

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Charity and Fundraising

If you want to raise money for a charitable cause, you’re welcome to do so! 

Here you can find the Students’ Union Charity Fundraising Form. You need to fill this out and send it to us when planning any fundraising activities.

You must complete this form to begin fundraising, and you must get permission from the chosen charity to raise money for them. To get this permission, you should contact the charity and ask for:

• Charity name
• Charity number
• Charity address (if possible)
• An email stating that they give your Student Group permission to raise funds for their charity 

Only UK-based charities are allowed due to charity law. 

Charity Fundraising Form

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Sponsorship

Sponsorships are a great way to earn some extra income for your group, while building valuable connections with external organisations. They can come in many forms but are worth exploring. 

 

Step 1: Proposal: What can you offer? 

The first step when looking to secure sponsorship is to create a sponsorship proposal. These need to tell external organisations why they should sponsor you, what you can offer them in return, and how your values and aims align with those of the organisation. This may be industry-based, for example, a sponsorship proposal to send to law firms, or more generic, to go to any company that shares the aims and values of your society.  

Some examples of what you can offer organisations in exchange for their funding may include: 

• Social media (sharing their organisation on your channels, etc) 

• Event promotion (promoting their organisation at your events, logos on event banners, etc) 

• Promotion of their events and activities to your membership 

 

Of course, you are not limited to these options only. Be creative! Please ensure you are not committing the Union to doing something that it might not be able to provide. 

 

Step 2: Contracts 

Once an organisation has decided to sponsor your society, you will need to fill out a Sponsorship Contract Form, found here under ‘Sponsorships’. You must not sign any contracts yourself, they should all come to us. Any losses made by a society or an individual by entering a contract without SU approval will not be reimbursed by the society or the SU. You must not sign any contracts yourself, they should all come to the Students’ Union. 

Once we have examined the contract and approved the sponsorship, you can fill out the form, where you will need to tell us what the organisation is giving you, and what you are doing in return. We will also need a signature from the organisation. Once we have this, we will sign it ourselves, and that’s where your work ends. 

 

Step 3: Getting the money 

Once you have completed the above steps, the Finance Team will raise an invoice and send it over to the organisation requesting that the money be sent to us. Once it arrives, it will go straight to your society account, where you can start to spend it. 

 

You must not sign any contracts under any circumstances. Please send any sponsorship contracts to SUCommunities@city.ac.uk and we will ensure it gets sorted for you and the money enters your Student Group budget line. Sponsorships are subject to 20% VAT.

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Donations

Your society may be successful in receiving sponsorship or donations from departments at City. All donations from City will need a Purchase Order (PO) from the member of staff who agree the donation. When the PO has been raised this should be submitted through SGF. 

You are required to provide a letter from the donor stating clearly that the money is a donation. If no such letter is provided, the income cannot be treated as a donation and will be liable for VAT (standard rated @ 20%).

The letter should include:

• Donor's name
• Donor's address
• The following text: "We are pleased to donate the sum of £X to X Society, City, University of London Students' Union, this is purely a donation and we do not expect anything in return."

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Budgeting

As a student group you are responsible for keeping track of your student group funds and budgeting your events well so you do not become overdrawn. Any debt occured must be paid by the end of the academic year. We advise you leave some money in your budget line for the next incoming committee. 

It may be helpful for the Finance Officer to use a budgeting template to keep track of all income and expenses throughout the year. It is also helpful when planning an event to use a simple budget plan to ensure you stay on track in terms of spending.

Both can be found below.

Budget Line Finances Template

Simple Budget Plan

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Understanding VAT

Get to know what income you pay VAT on and what you don't in the table below:

Income	How Does it Enter Your Budget Line?	VAT?
Memberships	Paid directly into budget line from purchase	Yes 20%
Ticket Sales	Paid directly into budget line from purchase	Yes 20%
Sponsorship	Submitted through a request on SGF	Yes 20%
Donations	Submitted through a request on SGF	No