Table 1: How do you intend to continue your project activities beyond the pilot funding?
Four main topics emerged from the discussion:
1) Finding new funding
Projects are looking at a variety of sources to fund existing and expanded versions of their Green Fund projects:
-Universities: bidding for continued project funding, often to cover staff costs or other overheads.
-Alumni: working with alumni departments to identify large donors interested in sustainability.
-Corporate funding: seeking sponsorship from local businesses or larger organisations (eg. banks) to fund specific elements of the projects.
-External grants: a range of grant pots are being investigated, including Big Lottery, Esmee Fairburn and local council grants. Some unions are tapping into funding for specific agendas such as employability and enterprise.
-Crowdfunding: this was discussed as an option for some aspects of the projects, although unions investigating it are still working out the best approach to take.
-Reallocating existing resources: some unions have been told they won’t receive any institutional support for continued projects, so are looking at how they can embed sustainability in their current structures. For example, putting sustainability criteria on some parts of society grants.
2) Sharing resources
Some projects will share resources with their university in order to continue Green Fund activities. For some projects this involves sharing staff teams and working towards joint objectives, for others the university is committing resource for specific roles and projects to continue.
There was also discussion about sharing resources with local community groups, potentially providing in-kind contributions (eg. workspace, resources and services during the final part of the Green Fund projects) in exchange for resource and activity during the first semester of the next academic year.
3) Maintaining expertise
Continuity and sharing knowledge were key themes of the discussion. As mentioned above, some projects have been creating partnerships with local organisations to provide training or project support once Green Fund funding has ended. A lot of focus was put on maintaining cultural changes in Unions started by Student Fund project and making sure that staff continued to be interested in the sustainability agenda – training and partnerships were the main way that projects are continuing with this.
4) Student-led work
Several projects have been looking at how work can continue in a more decentralized way, through working with student societies or committees. Collaboration was the key focus – rather than presenting a group with a finished project and getting them to take it on, it’s important to identify what areas interest societies or committees and work together on how that could form a new legacy project.
Social enterprise models are also another form that activity could take – some projects have already been supporting student-led enterprise, and there are possibilities for work previously led by the SU to become a stand-alone student enterprise.
What can you do personally to support these efforts?
The members of staff from Universities who took part in discussion pledged their support in a number of ways. All of them highlighted the importance of maintaining university connections and the role they could play in opening doors to new contacts and support. Several universities are also pledging support in the form of funding and joint working, championing the creation of collaborative projects and shared departments.