Year in Review - 2023-2024

Highlights of 2023-2024

  • Funded so many amazing campus and community initiatives

  • Doubled the size of the Food Justice Garden, in partnership with Martin Luther University College and the Centre for Earth Consciousness and Gender Justice

  • Created & launched the Gender Euphoria Zine

  • Met countless new volunteers and members of our communities

  • Brantford LSPIRG Lounge now a cozy, welcoming space for activities

  • LSPIRG Board & Staff received intensive training this year, alongside PIRGs across Ontario. Topics covered include conflict transformation, internal decolonization, anti-oppression, consensus-based decision making, and direct action, among others

Programming

  • Continued operating the Free Weekly Distro program in partnership with Martin Luther University College

    • Up to 200 students attended our program each week for their supplies

    • 1 out of 4 students say they get ALL of their food from the program

    • Collaborating with The Mini Market at a new location, with the goal of serving students better

  • Ran the Hot Meal Campaign in partnership with Lonnie’s to provide meals to community members weekly in Brantford at the Grand River Community Health Centre

  • Ran in-person and virtual workshops on wide array of social and environmental justice issues, including menstrual equity, sustainable periods, learning to sew, collage-making, climate justice, food sovereignty, botany, growing micro-greens and saving seeds.

  • Collaborated on large community events such as the Belonging Brant ABCD Symposium

  • Responded to hate and fascism on and off campus

  • In an unprecedented circumstance where a core student volunteer faced deportation, we raised $11,000 in a mutual aid campaign to support them

Our Research and Action Groups

  • Revitalizing Our Sustenance Project

  • Shamrose for Syrian Culture

  • Food Not Bombs

  • KW Urban Harvester

  • Excavators Arts Collective

Research

  • Collaborated on second survey asking for students’ feedback on accessing menstrual products on campus

  • Supported research and knowledge mobilization for increasing LGBTQ+ resilience on and off-campus. An undergraduate thesis mapping project by: Emily Rank, Christopher Hewitt, and Ketan Shankardass

  • Hosted a workshop by Jennifer Dobai, mobilizing her PhD research on Eco-Feelings

  • Started collecting (anonymous) data on LSPIRG Distro to improve program

Alt Text FINANCES

Sept 2023 - Aug 2024 Budget Actuals

Income

  • WLU Funding (from Undergrad and Grad students on the Waterloo and Brantford campuses and Kitchener Location): $296,992.98

  • Community Memberships: $229

Total Income $297,221.98

Administrative expenses (Sep 23 - Aug 24)

  • General Administrative Total: $37,366.77

    • Liability insurance and contents coverage for the Board of Directors - ($4,330.68)

    • Bookkeeping and accounting. Part-time bookkeeper and fees for necessary year-end financials ($10,848.00)

    • Ontario PIRG and provincial network fees ($10,203.67)

    • Other expenses including website fees, computer software (Zoom, GSuite and Adobe Creative Cloud), office supplies, printing, bank charges, staff/Board travel, and postage. ($11,984.42)

  • Advertising and Promotion: $3,281.72

  • Payroll Expenses Total: $:143,809.40 Staff health and LTD plans ($5775.00), Taxes ($10,216.08), Wages - Two full-time and one part-time staff ($126,270.25), WSIB ($1,548.07)

Programming + Co-Sponsorship Expenses

  • Semesterly funding requests for campus and community initiatives ($4,922.79)

  • Research and Action Groups semesterly funding - 6 groups ($8,533.20)

  • Distro ($9,087.63)

  • Irregular Programming Brantford/Waterloo ($6,621.99)

  • Other events and programming (Food Justice Garden, Resource Library etc): $3,644.65

  • Total spent on programming ($32,810.26)

    Donations and External Funding

  • Distro estimated value of food collected and distributed ($92,190.00)

  • Distro program Expenses (paid through grants and donations via Luther) ($62,713.70)

  • Events and Programming Total: $187,713.96

Increase in programming expenditures since last AGM: $12,955.68

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.

  • Friendsgiving potluck & Fundraiser 

  • Queer bucket drumming 

  • WildFlower Finds

  • Shaping justice: the philosophical roots of Black social justice movements workshop 

  • Mask 4 Mask Speed Friending

  • Tour Around Asia Night Market

  • MaskBlocWR zine 

  • Sexworker Mutual Aid Fund 

  • IJV-WR Community Engagement Support 

  • Fight Back KW - Shelter Building Project / Sandbag House Proto-Type at 100Vic encampment

  • Queer community quilt project 

  • Neurodivergent Artists Collective

  • Willow river centre’s 4th annual winter solstice feast

  • “We Are All Connected” Project Re-Print

Goals for the coming year

  • Provide more project-based employment opportunities for students

  • Prioritize local Indigenous solidarity work

  • Foster artistic expression as resistance

  • Tangibly support international students and newcomers with advocacy and programming

  • Get greenhouse for Food Justice Garden

  • Expand and relaunch our Resource and Rad Libraries

  • Suggestions from LSPIRG members: begin greenhouse growing throughout the winter with KW Urban Harvester, and support more consciousness-raising activities and groups, host teach-ins, book clubs around social justice, organize around mutual aid, how to survive without the system, and overall improve knowledge mobilization

If you are an LSPIRG member and you would like more information on our finances, please email info@lspirg.org