Graduate students may request GSO Partition funds from the GSC for their student group event. If you are interested in requesting funding, please read all of the material below carefully. 

Funding Information

• The Goals of the GSO Partition Fund
• Eligibility for Funding
• Types of Funding
• How to Apply for Funding
• Line Items for Group Budgets
• Funding Policy
• Things the Funding Committee Will Likely Not Recommend Funding
• The Rights of Groups Applying for Funding
• Funding Follow-up
  
  

The Goals of the GSO Partition Fund

As per the GSC By-Laws (Article III, Section 2, Subsection C.2), activities funded through the GSGF shall pursue at least one (and hopefully more) of the following goals:

• Provide a broader educational and cultural experience for graduate students.
• Enhance interdepartmental social interaction among graduate students.
• Strengthen the campus-wide sense of community among graduate students.
• Make the graduate school experience more valuable and enjoyable for all graduate students.

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Eligibility for Funding

In order to apply for GSO Partition funds, groups must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• The group must be a Voluntary Student Organization (VSO) registered with the Office of Student Activities (OSA).
• The group must fit the definition of a Graduate Student Organization (GSO), where at least 35% of members are graduate students.
• The group must NOT receive any funds from a special fee that is levied, in whole or in part, on the graduate population.
• Any event with multiple GSO's organizing/running the event must apply together during a single Funding Committee meeting.
• Any series of events must be proposed for during a single Funding Committee meeting.
• Event and group must be open to entire graduate community and held in English.
  
• All advertising should feature the GSC logo and "Funded by GSC."
• Events must comply with University Policies, such as the Party Guidelines and Critical Policies listed on the OSA website and in Student Organization Handbook .
• Must submit a budget on myGroups before midnight on Thursday in order to come to the Funding Committee meeting the following Monday.
• Must attend Funding Committee meeting held on Mondays.
• Must attend GSC meeting after coming to a Funding Committee meeting in order to get final budget approval.
• Must post event information to the grad-events mailing list by 6PM the Sunday one week before the event. (E-mail goes out on Mondays).

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Types of Funding

Applications can be made for either annual funding or funding for a single event. With either type of funding, the maximum cumulative annual funding possible (not guaranteed) for a group is $8000 per year. Due to extremely limited resources, most groups request and receive substantially less.

Co-sponsorship by the GSC is another possibility for an event. Questions about this can be directed to the funding committee

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How to Apply for Funding

The Financial Officer from the applying group must fill out the appropriate funding request at https://mygroups2.stanford.edu/ and should refer to the Funding Policy for assistance. Please contact  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with any technical questions. 

The GSC Funding Committee Chair will then call a meeting of the Funding Committee to review the application and make a recommendation to the full GSC. At the next GSC meeting, the members of the graduate population present will come to a consensus on the funding request.

The Funding Committee meets at 11:30 am nearly every Monday during the year, and every 2 weeks in the summer. All are welcome to attend. Groups must send a representative of your organization to go over your application/budget with the committee.

Please note that, once the funding decision has been made by consensus, there is a one week period during which, by a majority vote, the GSC can override a funding decision. Because of this requirement, however, groups receiving GSO funds may not draw on those funds until one week (2 weeks in the summer) after the decision to allocate the funds has been made.

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Line Items for Group Budgets

Below is the list of GL Codes groups are eligible to use when requesting GSC funding.

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Funding Policy

The responsibility of the GSC Fundig Committee is to distribute funds to student groups (VSOs) which organize events to benefit the entire graduate community.

• No funding for religious or political events, with the strict exception of events that are educational and that all grad students would be allowed to and feel welcome attending.

• Absolutely no proselytizing or political campaigning allowed.
  

• To be fair and equitable to all those who put money into the fund,

• The maximum funding per fiscal year is soft capped per student at $30/student/year.
• Groups with highly overlapping population or purpose will be treated as a single group to avoid double-funding.
• Maximum funding per fiscal year is $8000 per VSO.

• To encourage VSOs to organize joint events in collaboration, the annual cap for jointly organized events may be relaxed on a case-by-case basis.

• No retroactive funding.
• No funds for purchasing capital equipment.
• No funds for off-campus recreational activities (rare exceptions may be made).
• No funds for regular, consistent meetings including space rental, food, and other meeting costs.
• VSOs like Comedy Club and GradQ who do regular, well-publicized and well-attended events with broad appeal are not restricted by this rule.

• Limited seed funding for new groups.
• Advertising:

• Limited targeted advertising or marketing, no newspaper ads.
• Groups who do not advertise on Grad Events have their funding revoked.
• All advertising materials must feature the GSC logo and/or state either "Sponsored by the GSC" or "Co-sponsored by the GSC" as appropriate.

• Honorarium

• Maximum $1000, includes fees, transportation and accommodations
• Anything over $100 must have matching funds from other sources

• Copies

• Limited to $10 for copies per VSO per year

• Room Rental

• Groups allowed funding for one event per quarter in large venue. Groups will try to book free rooms (old union, Tressider, Oak room, alumni centre, Annenberg) first, unless all free rooms are booked. (rare exceptions may be made)
  

• Janitorial Fees

• Highly restricted; unless building administrators insist, VSOs should do setup and cleanup. 
  

• Community Service Groups

• Fundraisers will be treated as normal events.
• No soft caps will be applied.
  

• Equipment

• Groups can check out a sound system and a projector from the GSC.

• Reasonable food caps (max one per event, including catering):

• Snacks:                        $4/person
• Lunch/BBQ:                $8/person
• Dinner:                         $10/person

• Ticketed events (or those with limited spots),

• At least 20% of the tickets/spots must still be open the first day the event is advertised in the Grad Events email.
  

All residual decisions regarding recommendations are subject to the discretion of the Funding Committee.All soft-caps are applied on a case-by-case basis.

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Things the Funding Committee Will Likely Not Recommend Funding

• Events held off campus (very rare exceptions are made).
• Events that are by nature limited in appeal and scope and which do not appear to be intented for the greater campus community
• Gifts for volunteers (e.g. T-shirts)
• Capital expenditures
  If the GSC funds the purchase of capital equipment, it will usually be for something which other groups would also have an interest in, and must be essential for the event. The GSC will take possession of the equipment after the event so that other groups, including the applying group, are able to use the equipment in the future.
• Date-specific banners
• Newspaper Ads
  
• Groups are also required to advertise their GSC-funded event on the weekly GSC Grad Events E-mail Bulletin. Events must be posted on this form by 6 pm the Sunday one week before the event.No funds for regular, consistent meetings including space rental, food, and other meeting costs.
• Funding is available to registered VSOs for conferences that allow them to bring back knowledge they can't gain by being at Stanford. Funding sought by individuals for conferences will be denied.

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The Rights of Groups Applying for Funding

Any group applying for funding from the GSO Partition may attend any meeting where their application will be discussed. This includes Funding Committee meetings as well as full GSC meetings (all such meetings are always open to the public). Groups applying for GSO Partition funds will be notified of the time and location of all relevant meetings at least 48 hours in advance. If either the Funding Committee or the GSC fails to meet the requirement and the group is not able to send a representative to the meeting as a result, the group may, within one week, request that their application be re-evaluated at a time when a member of their organization is able to attend.

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Funding Follow-up

If an event is funded, at least one GSC representative will be in attendance at the event. The Graduate Student Council requests that all advertisements acknowledge the GSC's support of the event. We would also appreciate receiving a copy of any advertising produced for the event, and also require that a follow-up form be submitted before the GSC Funding Committee will recommend funding for the group's next event.

•  (to be completed after the event)
  

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Events we have sponsored in the past

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