Funding Boards
Last updated
Last updated
First week of october- theme decided, interpretation figured out+# of speakers
I enjoyed working with IUFB this year!
They gave us $20,000 in total this year! Woohoo!!
Everyone kept telling me how easy IUFB related things were but no one actually told me what to do, so here’s my guide for you
1. Application
2. They review application
3. They arrange funding pitch time
4. You do the funding pitch
5. They adjust ALL your funding numbers (can take up to 4 weeks)
6. They approve/reject you
7. You submit all your receipts when you’re done
IUFB holds these little “Get to know us” events throughout the year. Somehow, I ended up attending 3 of these
They were EXTREMELY helpful
They literally walked you through how to fill out an application, answered my 948,593 questions, and taught me little tips/tricks to get more money out of them (10/10 recommend by the way)
They have specific rules about how much can be requested for what types of items, so it’s good to go to the events just to learn this information
IUFB also have bylaws that are also helpful
They outline everything that can/cannot be requested o I don’t suggest reading through the whole thing or anything, but if you ever have a question, check the bylaws before emailing them
IUFB is student run
All your funding pitches will be to students
It really takes the pressure off
They’re usually very casual and chill which is nice
They take forever to respond to emails though (because they’re student run, obviously)
Funding Pitches
They schedule you a 10 minute slot
In my experience it usually only takes 7 minutes
They are always behind schedule though, so block off 30 minutes for sure
No slide deck or anything
They literally just pull up your application on the screen behind them
You stand in front of the screen
There can be anywhere from 7 to 15 of them in the room
They’re not intimidating, but the number is just so you know how many handouts to bring
Bring handouts!!
The first thing you’ll do when you go in is just hand them a nice stack
Because you don’t know how many will be there, I suggest printing 15
Keep one for yourself though, because no doubt you’ll be pointing to sections to explain things to them
They like to hold and read things (it’s probably a preparedness bias thing)
Examples of the handouts I’ve taken are in → Ending in “Funding Handout”
I just made them in Canva, nothing too crazy
As this is done through BeInvolved, the Director of Finance is the only person who is able to see and submit an application
Historically (my understanding is at least 3-5 years), they gave us $10,000 in exchange for using a speaker of their choosing
Normally how that happened was that you emailed Jane and Bethan (they works under the OVPR department), she would set up a Zoom call, you would make a pitch (take the President and Director of Curation to this meeting), and then she would email you with approval/rejection
Any (and all) emails relating to finance this year will be in the TED email in a folder on the left bar under “2023-2024” → “Finance Stuff”
At some point I’ll make a document outlining the email chain between me and OVPR this year vs what it looked like in the past – it just won’t be ready when I hand this doc to you[VM1]
In case it’s relevant to you next year, here are more details about how this partnership ran (I consulted Saniya before writing this, so hopefully I remember what she said correctly and it’s accurate!)
If OVPR says yes, usually they’re invested in the theme
You generally email or meet with them once more with the Director of Curation
Curation explains the theme and the type of speaker they’re looking for
OVPR comes back with 3-4 IU professors that Curation will pick 1 from (unless they hate all the choices and tell OVPR to try again)
Either someone on curation volunteers to work with this professor, or the director will sort of just assign someone to this person
In case anyone chooses to read this in the future, we didn’t get funding from OVPR during the 2023-2024, but hopefully they’ll partner again with us in the future
They gave us $5,000 in the 2023-2024 year!
Their application is crazy long and asks for very specific information
They care about what we will do for Hutton Honors College kids
This is how someone at IUFB explained how to get money from them
ISA (Indian Student Association) has events like Diwali and Holi. At these events they have food. They give Hutton Honors students (who get their tickets from the HHC building) different colored wristbands. The people with these special wristbands get their food before anyone else. Because this prioritises honors students, HHC is more likely to fund it
The email chain between the TEDx email and HHCFB can be found in the same folder but is labeled “HHC Funding Email Chain”
Normally you have to pitch to them at one of their meetings, I somehow escaped this because I submitted it the week they have their Thanksgiving break
Saniya is allegedly super close with the Dean of HHC so maybe you can lean into this if you ever do have to pitch to them!
HHC is extremely stringent about the budget you submit to them
They will verify all of your numbers
If you’re every debating between a range of numbers, submit the lower end of the range to them
Make sure you list every line item as broken down as possible
Instead of saying “marketing expenses” break it down into “flyer expense, social media expense, etc.”
As part of this application, I had to submit confirmation by “IU Events Management”
IU Events Management basically ensures that events for IU students off-campus (held by on-campus organizations) are safe and have proper evacuation plans
Filling out this form will require a safety plan from BCT (or the theater you’re using)
I’ll leave the document the BCT gave us this year in Teams o Once you’ve been approved, copy-paste the confirmation email you get from IU Events Management into the appropriate field in the HHC application
We received $2,000 from them during the 2023-2024 year (this is the max they give out!)
There is no funding pitch/presentation for them, just an application
They have a schedule that they put on their website, try to submit the application 1.5-2 weeks before the meeting date you want them to look at your application
Interestingly, of all the funding boards, RHA was the fastest to look at what I sent and get back to me with a response
They must have done it all within 2 weeks which is astounding for an IU organization
See the “Work Distribution” section in the “Team Considerations” page for further information
Jane Drake’s Email:
Bethan Roberts’ Email:
The email I sent them this year is in
The application I submitted this year can be found in → Starting with “TEDxIndianaUniversity”
To find where to submit this form go to (it should say “Fire Form” underneath)