Do you need money for your society activity? Maybe that trip you have been planning is costing more than you thought? Maybe you would like to buy items for an upcoming event or have a project or networking event that needs some additional funding? ... Well Spend It is your chance to get that funding!
Spend It is the Guild’s way of distributing its grant funding to its societies. Alongside principles and values of participatory budgeting, the Guild wants to ensure societies have access to funding to support them in their organisation of events/activities or to buy items for their society, decided by students, for students!
Big Spend It
All society committee members are invited to four meetings per year, where bids will be presented to them by other society committee members. Attendees can make amendments to the bids by consensus, and all attendees can then vote on the bids. The bids with the most votes, will be funded up to £4,000 in total.
We invite bids that are for:
- More than £350, up to £4,000
- Large items/events/activities
- Projects that include collaboration between societies
- Projects that are likely to have a longer lead-in time
- Projects that have a benefit to the wider society/student community
The Application Form for Big Spend It can be found here.
Mini Spend It
A panel of recruited and trained society members meet once per month, six times a year, to approve small bids from societies.
We invite bids that are:
- Up to £350
- For small items/events/activities
- Likely to only impact one society
- Likely to have a short lead-in times
The Application Form for Mini Spend It applications can be found here.
For both Spend Its
Societies registered with the Liverpool Guild of Students 2024/2025 are invited to apply and the money must be spent on Guild activity. Those Items bought with Spend It money belong to the Guild and must be stored in the Guild and must be shared, where requested, with other societies.
You can apply for anything that fits within your society’s aims but please ensure you speak to your Societies Coordinator first before applying. Although we want you to be as creative as possible with your ideas for funding, there are some restrictions.
Some key areas the Guild can’t fund include:
- Anything that the Guild can provide for free e.g. room hire, websites
- Anything retrospective e.g. for an event that has already happened, or an item already bought
- Recurrent items e.g. the same event every year or a teacher for a regular dance class
- Trophies, awards, gifts or giveaways
- Clothing for individuals e.g. t-shirts, hoodies, and personal costumes
- Food and drink (unless core to the society or event e.g. ingredients for BakeSoc, or in extraordinary circumstances. For example, food and drink for formal dinners and socials will not be funded. If societies think that they have an extraordinary circumstance that they would like to be considered, they can contact their Society Coordinator as soon as possible, and prior to submitting a bid)
- Purely social events
- Affiliations that do not directly benefit students as students
- Affiliation to a political or charitable body
- Party political affiliations
- Expenses for attendance to a political rally/demo for non-student related issues
- Donations to other charities or organisations
- Subsidising charity fundraising, such as paying for a venue/costs for a fundraising event
- Purchase of items considered to be environmentally harmful (such as single use plastics, or production of unnecessary printed materials), in line with the Guild’s Sustainability Policy
- Other projects that contravene the Guild’s mission or values, its legal obligations or any Guild guidance, policy or procedure
You can find the full procedure for allocating resources to societies here, in the Guild's Society Grant Distribution Guidance.
Societies cannot apply to both Big and Mini Spend It for different elements of one event, activity or item and cannot apply for different elements of one event, activity, or item.
If a society is successful in Big Spend It, they cannot normally submit another bid that semester. Consideration will be given to whether societies have already been awarded money in that academic year.
Another bid could be submitted to Mini Spend It, but would need to be for a different event, activity, or item.
If you are wanting to get involved to get FREE money for your society, use this link to apply and keep in mind our deadlines. Any questions please email saadmin@liverpool.ac.uk
Big
- Round 1 – Application Closes: 16th October & Meeting: Wednesday 6th November 2-5
- Round 2 – Application Closes: 20th November & Meeting: Wednesday 11th December 5-8
- Round 3 – Application Closes: 27th January & Meeting: Saturday 15th February 10-1
- Round 4 – Application Closes: 9th April & Meeting: Wednesday 30th April 2-5
Big
Mini
- Round 1 - Application closes: 16th October & Panel Meeting Wednesday 30th October
- Round 2 - Application closes: 6th November & Panel Meeting Wednesday 20th November
- Round 3 - Application closes: 27th November & Panel Meeting Wednesday 11th December
- Round 4 - Application closes: 15th January & Panel Meeting Wednesday 5th February
- Round 5 - Application closes: 12th February & Panel Meeting Wednesday 5th March
- Round 6 - Application closes: 16th April & Panel Meeting Wednesday 7th May