Year in Review - 2021-2022

Highlights of 2021-22

  • Welcoming Mahdiyyah and Rachele as new staff

  • Starting the Brantford campus Free Weekly Distro at the Wellness Hub

  • Being able to fund so many amazing campus and community initiatives

  • A successful growing season

  • Achieving phase 1 of Menstrual Dispensers across campus

  • Meeting new volunteers and members of our community

Programming

  • Free Weekly Distro - We supported 195 students each week across campuses with basic essentials

  • Hot Meal Campaign in partnership with Golden Helping Hands to provide meals to community members downtown Brantford

  • Several workshops and panels on campus and in the community centred around food justice

  • Collaborated on events to end gendered violence such as the Walkout for Survivors and “Our Voice is Our Power” on International Women’s Day

  • Hosted events to learn from diverse voices such as Teddy Syrette, Shannon Lee and Denise Miller

  • Ran campaigns such as #HomeButNotAlone, #IAmNotACostume and #MenstrualEquity

  • Collaborated on the inaugural Social Justice and Solidarity Week focused on treaty recognition and reconciliation.

Alt Text FINANCES

May 2021 - April 2022 Budget Actuals

Income

  • WLU Funding (from Undergrad and Grad students on the Waterloo and Brantford campuses and Kitchener Location): $254,082.55

  • Community Memberships: $116.00

  • Miscellaneous Funds (interest revenue, donations, expense refunds): $938.18

Total Income $254,082.55

Administrative expenses

  • General Administrative Total: $23,656.64

    • Liability insurance and contents coverage for the Board of Directors - ($3,165.48)

    • Bookkeeping and accounting. Part-time bookkeeper and fees for necessary year-end financials ($9,065.59)

    • Ontario PIRG and provincial network fees ($7,709)

    • Other expenses including website fees, computer software (Zoom, GSuite and Adobe Creative Cloud), office supplies, printing, bank charges, staff/Board travel, and postage. ($1399.24 )

  • Advertising and Promotion: $46.76

  • Payroll Expenses Total: $120,262.384: Staff health and LTD plans ($12,080.14), Taxes, ($6,498.20), Wages - One full-time and two part-time staff ($101,246.28), WSIB ($438.22)

Programming + Co-Sponsorship Expenses

Programming and Co-Sponsorship Total: $15,890.99.

  • Semesterly funding requests for campus and community initiatives ($3,900)

  • Research and Action Groups semesterly funding - 8 groups ($10,456.72)

  • Other Events and Programming ($1,534.27)

We rearranged the layout of our budget for the 2022 - 2023 fiscal year so members can expect even clearer details of expenses for the next AGM.

Funding we provided to campus and community initiatives

We provide one-time funding requests for up to $750. The following projects are the ones we supported over the course of the last year.

  • Eclipse Zine - Brantford

  • United Against Hate video - Brantford

  • Accessibility Workshop Series for Students - Brantford

  • Brantford Food Forest - Brantford

  • Divestment Campaign - Brantford

  • Revitalizing Our Sustenance Project - Brantford/Six Nations of the Grand River

  • My Girls Night In - Virtual

  • Food Fight app - Waterloo

  • Rainbow Reels Queer and Trans Film Festival 2021 - Waterloo

Notable Budget Changes for 2021-2022

  • We hired a new Brantford staff at 20hrs a week to replace our past staff at 25/hours

  • We hired a new Finance and Admin Coordinator at 10hrs a week

  • We instituted several new budget lines including;

    • Clearer layout for Programming and Action Groups

    • Increased Programs budget rather than Student Support Grants we did during COVID

Increase in expenditures since last AGM: $19,746.17

New expenses and Budget Changes breakdown

  • We are in the process of updating our insurance policy.

  • There are several important programming initiatives that we have secured external funding for and as such do not appear or appear much smaller than they actually are on our current budget. Highlights include;

    • Our weekly Distro program run in partnership with Martin Luther University College. LSPIRG Staffer Karly helped to secure over $120,000 worth of in-kind donations over the last year in addition to tens of thousands of dollars in grant funding to provide fresh food to students

    • We secured over $50,000 of funding from Laurier to begin providing free period products in dispensers across Waterloo and Brantford campuses, led by LSPIRG Board of Directors, Hayley

    • We secured funding from the Dean of Students and in-kind donations from Lonnie’s to provide the Brantford community with thousands of dollars worth of food through our Hot Meal Food Campaign led by LSPIRG Staff Mahdiyyah, in partnership with Golden Helping Hands

  • We have now revised several budget lines including those of our action groups, partnership programming we fund through community partners and grants to give a clearer sense of how much we are spending annually on programming.

  • Lastly we've bolstered our current budget to plan for the new year and relaunch of our programming so we are on track to increase our annual programming spending by $11,609.01 for the 2022-2023 year to a grand total of $27,500. The expected increase in programming spending includes; $18,000 for action groups, $3,000 for our annual Radical Welcome Week programming and a new dedicated accessibility budget line of $4,000 to ensure all our programs are accessible

Goals for the coming year

  • Move into new office in Brantford

  • Prioritize mutual aid

  • Roll out Menstrual Equity program so dispensers are in every washroom

  • Expand Free Weekly Distro programs

  • Hybrid Return to campus in September and have in-person connections safely