Funding: Annual Grants

Updated February 1, 2024

Annual Grants are the ASSU’s yearly allocation process to raise and allocate funds to VSOs with significant budgets that are predictable a full year in advance. They help fund student-led activities that contribute significantly to the Stanford community.

NOTE: ASSU should be the last funding source after VSOs have exhausted all other on-campus funding sources. Please see this page for alternative sources of on-campus funding.

All Annual Grants must contain only predictable expenses. This ensures that the costs that the student body will shoulder are tangible and clearly defined. As you draft your budget, please include any necessary documentation to help contextualize your line items (e.g. vendor invoices for services expected). You may also use ASSU-set per-person allocations to help estimate the cost of your event (e.g. if the ASSU covers dinner at $8 per person and you are expecting 50 people for a dinner event, your food cost estimate would be $400 without need for documentation).  

Please note that other factors may lead to recommended or required budget adjustments. In order to maintain the stability of the Student Activities Fee, we ask that VSO budgets do not increase by more than 5% over a given year unless there is an exhibited change in operations that warrants the increase, other factors may lead to recommended or required budget adjustments, even with reasoning for a budget increase in excess of % increase cap.

All expenses in your request must be predictable. This requirement can be fulfilled by providing either:

• A quote or an invoice for an expense
• Proof of historical expenditure related to your estimated expense.

Your VSO must be recognized prior to Winter 2023, have no outstanding debts, and not on a OSE-mandated probation.

Your probation end date should be listed in the contract letter that VSO founders receive after completing the new student organization application process with the Office of Student Engagement.

If a significant number of members or beneficiaries of your VSO’s activities are both graduate and undergraduate students, the ASSU may split funding between the Undergrad and Graduate student bodies. If you are unsure if your VSO is classified as a joint-group, please reach out.

If a significant number of members or beneficiaries of your VSO’s activities are both graduate and undergraduate students, the ASSU may split funding between the Undergrad and Graduate student bodies. If you are unsure if your VSO is classified as a joint-group, please reach out.

Annual Grants should not be expected to cover your VSO’s entire budget. FO’s should make efforts to obtain funding from alternative sources such as TSF, academic departments, Stanford Arts, etc. Please note that groups that receive Annual Grants are not eligible to receive additional ASSU funding within that same academic year.

1. Start by creating your group’s Annual Grant application on GrantEd, found under the ‘Funding’ tab. Review current ASSU Funding Policies while completing the application.
2. Upload required documentation and fill in the details for each line on your GrantEd application. Only documentation on GrantEd will be considered (i.e. no email submissions).
3. We recommend you attend relevant office hours during the application period (Week 1 – 4), Undergrad Senate and Grad Council appropriations committees office hours below (if you are a joint group, consider attending both sets of office hours). If you can’t attend office hours, send an email to the appropriate committee so it can be considered.
4. The Committee will conduct a review to issue preliminary recommendations. Once those recommendations are published, VSOs will have until February 23rd to submit a revised budget.
5. Once the Legislative Bodies take their final vote on the Annual Grants package, if your VSO wishes to ask for more than the funding recommended, you must begin the petition process. Note that VSOs who are unsuccessful in their petition will NOT have ANY Annual Grant on the ballot.

Path 1: Typical Process

1. Submit an Annual Grants application to the appropriate legislative body (the Undergraduate Senate or the Graduate Student Council).
2. Have the appropriate legislative body approve their VSO budget for placement on the General Elections & Annual Grant Approval ballot.

Path 2: Petitioning
If a VSO goes through the Usual Process and is not content with their recommended allocation, they may still obtain ballot access. These are the steps:

1. Submit a petitioning declaration through the Elections Commission filing form, which will be open from March 2-8.
2. Obtain signatures on an Annual Grant Petition from 15% of the relevant student body population (graduate or undergraduate, or a combination of both for joint groups). For exact numeric thresholds, consult the Elections Commissioner.
3. Obtain confirmation from the Elections Commission that the signatures the VSO submitted are valid.

***NOTE: All Annual Grants are subject to the predictability requirements laid out by the ASSU Constitution. As such, no VSO may petition for an expense not documented as outlined in the Usual Process. If a group successfully petitions, their annual grant request will be placed on the ASSU General Election Ballot – alongside a statement from the relevant legislative body on why that body did not recommend your group’s original budget request. If your group unsuccessfully petitions, you will no longer be eligible for an annual grant this year. However, you will still have access to ASSU quick grants, and other University funding sources, such as The Stanford Fund Partnership Program (TSF).