Authority: Membership
Approved: April 24th, 2014
Policy Statement:
Academic unions are well positioned to support intellectual and cultural activities, progressive causes, and the development of the local and university community in a variety of ways. In addition to lending expertise, material contributions from academic staff associations can be invaluable both in their own right and as examples to other individuals and groups. This policy is intended to provide guidance to the Executive Committee in allocating funds budgeted by the Association for community and social justice contributions (formerly the “Gift/Donations” line of the TUFA budget) that fall outside the parameters of solidarity contributions made to other labour organizations, or support payments to other organizations funded elsewhere in the TUFA budget.
Procedures:
Each year the Association’s budget shall include a line item appropriation for “Community and Social Justice Contributions.” The amount of this line item shall be determined by action of the membership and shall be disbursed by the Executive Committee according to the protocols described below.
1) It is understood that contributions to support other unions or faculty associations, Labour-sponsored events, campaigns, or other such initiatives, should be drawn from the Association’s budget line for Solidarity Contributions.
2) The limits described below pertain to the Association’s fiscal year (July 1st through June 30th) and are not intended to be cumulative, or to represent a lifetime cap on assistance except as specified below.
3) A subcommittee of the Executive Committee comprising the Treasurer, two members elected at the Spring General Membership meeting, and the Executive Director shall assess all external requests for assistance and internal proposals for allocating funds from the Community and Social Justice Contributions line.1
4) The subcommittee shall submit its recommendations to the Executive Committee. Only the Executive Committee may approve funding requests and authorize disbursements under this Policy.
5) The recommendations made by the subcommittee and any disbursements approved by the Executive Committee will conform to the following conditions.
a) Gifts in recognition of a particular individual shall generally be limited to $250.
b) Donations to charitable organizations or disaster relief initiatives shall generally be limited to $250/charity.
c) Contributions to support social, cultural, or political events or activities in the communities served by Trent shall generally be limited to $1,000/instance.
e) Contributions to support activities or programs sponsored by Trent University, including student bursaries or scholarships, shall generally be limited to $5,000.
f) The Association’s Community and Social Justice funds shall not be used to make contributions to political parties or religious organizations.
6) The subcommittee and Executive are encouraged to employ matching contributions and other such strategies to encourage further giving by individual members of the Association and the Trent Community.
7) The Treasurer shall report to the Fall General Membership Meeting on all expenditures made under this policy during the previous fiscal year.
8) The Treasurer shall report to the Spring General Membership Meeting on all expenditures made under this policy through the second quarter of the current fiscal year.
8) No disbursement made under this policy shall carry any presumption of future funding, except as specifically described and authorized by the Executive Committee.
1 At its meeting on 20 April 2017, the Executive Committee clarified that the term in office for elected members of the Community and Social Justice Contributions Committee should correspond with the term in office for elected officers of the Association: May 1st through April 30th.