2023 Student Leadership Conference

Funding Support Resources for Chapters

• Fundraising for the SLC and other initiatives will take some careful planning and thought, but it does not have to be stressful.

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• In the grand scheme of things, the few hundreds of dollars that most Chapters need to be able to attend is a reasonable amount for your department, university, a corporate partner, or your IEEE section.

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• Your Chapter’s Alumni network is also a great source to mine.

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• You may find that asking more than one source for a percentage of your total costs may be the most successful way to reach your goal.

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• As long as you are polite, it can’t hurt to ask almost any potential source.

Fundraising for the SLC

Tips/Overall Advice

• The best piece of advice: Think about what your potential donor cares about, and emphasize the value of the trip to your Chapter in terms of what the donor is interested in supporting.
• For example, there is a direct correlation between a Chapter’s attendance at the Student Leadership Conference and Chapter success and an increase in service hours to the University and community.
• In-person conversations are generally more likely to be productive than email, especially with busy faculty/staff
• Have a trip budget drawn up before beginning to contact potential funding sources
• know what all the out-of-pocket costs associated with getting your group to and from the conference are (plane tickets/gas money, lodging for additional Chapter member attendees, etc.)
• see sample budget at the end of this slide deck
• Use HKN Branding Templates for your letterhead, powerpoint presentation, etc.
• Speak up in the 2023 Chapter Leaders Slack Channel:
• Talk to fellow officers from other Chapters about their experiences asking for funding/sponsorship for other events/activities they’ve needed/received funding for

Potential Funding Sources

• In the subsequent slides, you will find some potential sources of funding, with examples of emails that may start the conversation or help get you a meeting.
• Please update and personalize as appropriate (i.e. insert your Chapter and University name, etc, where applicable)

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• Potential sources include
• Your ECE/EECS/etc. Department
• Your college/university
• Dean
• Student Affairs/Student Life
• Corporate Relations
• Student Government
• Your IEEE Section
• Your Chapter’s Alumni members
• Corporations

Your ECE/EECS/etc. Department

• Many Chapters have been successful in receiving funding from their departments.
• Ideally, your Chapter is engaged with your department chair(s) enough that they know about HKN.
• Even more ideally, your chair is a member of HKN. (p.s. if they aren’t, you should fix that by inducting them as a Professional Member!)

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• An in-person meeting is likely to be most successful at securing funding:
• Contact the chair’s administrative assistant to set up a meeting
• If you don’t know who that is, stop in any department staff member’s office and ask them — they will want to help you!
• In-person will be the fastest, but email also works.

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Your ECE/EECS/etc. Department - Example Template

• This can be in-person or email

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Hello [INSERT NAME],

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I am the current president of [SCHOOL'S NAME]’s Chapter of IEEE-HKN, the [INSERT DEPARTMENT NAME] honor society. Could I get 15 minutes with [INSERT DEPARTMENT CHAIR’S NAME] to discuss what our Chapter is up to? [SHARE AVAILABILITY/PROPOSE MEETING TIMES].

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Thank you,

[YOUR NAME]

• If you don’t hear back within two business days, feel free to politely bump it to the top of their inbox.
• If you don’t hear back within another business day, figure out where their office is, and go stand in the doorway until they schedule you an appointment with the chair.

Your ECE/EECS/etc. Department - The Meeting

• Setting Up (10 minutes):
• Introduce HKN to the chair/update them on your Chapter’s activities
• This depends on how much the chair knows about HKN and what your Chapter does.
• Emphasize your service activities, especially services you might provide to students in ECE and the college community in general.
• The Ask (5 minutes):

(hit these points however seems natural)

• Introduce the conference and that your Chapter is working to send someone to represent your school.
• Attending the conference will strengthen your Chapter by being able to exchange ideas with other Chapters, and to receive outstanding leadership and professional development training.
• HKN HQ is providing:
• one hotel room for two nights for up to four students
• a hotel room for two nights for the faculty advisor
• A nominal registration fee of $40 per student/Faculty Advisor ($30 for early registrants) includes:
• all learning sessions, workshops, and labs
• all meals and snacks
• recruitment fair
• The outstanding costs are: travel to and from the conference and any incidental expenses and on-your-own activities planned by you (refer to the budget you have already drawn up)
• Tell them of any other fundraising events the Chapter is holding so they understand that the Chapter is working toward this goal
• “Would the ECE department be able to support our chapter and fund the remainder?”

Your ECE/EECS/etc. Department - Email to Chair

• If you can’t make an in-person meeting work, here is an example email to send to your department chair
• Update and personalize as appropriate (i.e. insert your Chapter and University name, etc, where applicable)

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Subject: Support for student travel to IEEE-HKN conference?

Dear [INSERT NAME],

I am the current president of [INSERT SCHOOL]’s CHAPTER of IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu. We have about [50] active members; we are the group that hosts the [INSERT ACTIVITY] every [semester/year].

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The annual HKN conference is in Houston, TX during November, and our Chapter is trying to send me (or however many members). Not only would I/we be representing [SCHOOL NAME] to many high-achieving students that are likely to go to graduate school, but our Chapter would be able to exchange ideas with dozens of other Chapters from around the world.

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We are excited about this opportunity, but financial considerations are currently preventing us from participating. HKN HQ is providing hotel accommodations for up to four students and a faculty advisor, but it will cost approximately [$ AMOUNT] to travel to and from the conference.

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Would the ECE department be able to support our Chapter by funding the remainder?

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Thank you, and have a great day,

[YOUR NAME]

• If you don’t hear back in two business days, feel free to politely bump it to the top of their inbox.
• If you don’t hear back after another business day, we recommend forwarding the message to the chair’s administrative assistant (see above for figuring out who that is), and ask them to check with the chair to make sure they saw the email.

Your College/University

• The Dean
• Getting money from your college is very similar to getting it from your department
• You need to figure out who your dean’s assistant is, and you will likely spend more time introducing the organization and what you do for the community.

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• Student Affairs/Student Life
• If you have an engineering student affairs office, it might have discretionary funds to support student organization activities.
• If there is a specific staff member who is the liaison with organizations, talk to them first.
• If they do not have funds, they should be able to help you try to find funding from the college or university as a whole.

Your College/University - Corporate Relations

It might be a long shot, but your engineering corporate relations office might either have money for student organizations, or know of a corporate partner that might be willing to sponsor your trip, either charitably or in exchange for some type of recruiting.

• Go to your college’s website, and if there is not an explicit corporate relations group, email someone that has “Development” or something similar in their title.
• Example:

Subject: Corporate Partner for Engineering Student Organization?

Hello [INSERT NAME],

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I am president of [INSERT SCHOOL] Chapter of Eta Kappa Nu, the electrical and computer engineering honor society. I am trying to find funding for the Chapter to send me/members to the annual conference. I was wondering if the College is able to connect me with a corporate partner to sponsor my travel in November. I am not sure if you are the right person to talk to, so, if not, I would really appreciate it if you could forward me to someone who would know the answer.

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Thank you and have a great day!

[YOUR NAME]

Your College/University - Student Government

• Look up the funding guidelines on your student government’s website.
• Some colleges have a single central student government while others have more of a federal system.
• Prepare the funding request
• Highlight the aspects of the conference that will enable you to enrich your campus community and the resources you will be able to share with your fellow students
• Further, the personal and professional benefits are immense
• attending this conference will help you network with the future leaders of our field as well as companies, academics, and other thought leaders
• Request a meeting with your student government’s funding committee leadership (i.e. the treasurer, vice president of finance, or equivalent) to discuss your request before you submit it.
• They will be able to help you fine-tune the request such that it has the best chance possible for funding.
• Extra note: Some student governments will not fund travel or will not fund off-campus events.
• If you find yourself in a situation where your student government will not fund a “standard” request to attend the conference; approach it from a different angle
• You are asking for funding to bring new skills to campus.
• You are going to be able to bring more community service opportunities by learning from other Chapters.
• You are going to get trained on conducting professional development sessions for your department/college.

Your IEEE Section

• IEEE provides funding back to IEEE student branches via the local section. Often, the section will also fund the HKN Chapter.
• Look up the section and section leadership at ieee.org/rosters (requires a login)
• see next slide for additional details
• Approach the section with a proposal:
• What you are looking to do, what costs are being provide by HKN/your Department/the Chapter, the out-of-pocket cost, estimated budget, what other funding sources you are exploring, how many will be impacted, etc.
• Sections sometimes invite student leaders to their meetings to present their case; others just consider email requests.
• This ask will be similar to the Department and Corporate ones
• What will the benefit of attending the conference be for your department/campus community/IEEE?
• enhancement to Student program
• develop new leaders for IEEE, for the section
• point out that you are IEEE student members, that engagement in IEEE and HKN is important to developing future leaders for IEEE

Your IEEE Section - Finding Section Leadership Information

• We *highly* encourage you to explore this avenue
• IEEE-HKN has contacted IEEE Region & Section leadership to let them know Chapters will be in touch to request support

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• We recommend reaching out to the Section Chair, Section Treasurer, and the Section Student Coordinator

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• How do I find out my IEEE Section and/or who the leaders are?
• Log into ieee.org/rosters using your IEEE membership credentials
• Under IEEE Rosters Search, click Organizational Unit
• Type in your Chapter or School name, click Search
• The Search Result for your Chapter will show you the Region and Section your Chapter falls under
• Click on the name of your Section to be brought to a list of Officers and Chairs of that Section

Your Chapter’s Alumni Members

• HKN Alumni are often eager to reconnect with and support the society, and especially with their Chapter of induction.
• Many Chapters already engage with their Alumni members, getting support in a mentoring capacity, or otherwise
• Promote the conference in any newsletters/correspondence you regularly send to Chapter Alumni
• Also note: HKN Alumni are invited to attend the conference Awards and Recognition Banquet on Saturday 4 November (tickets are US$100 per person, slc.hkn.events for details)
• This is an opportunity for them to come and meet you and other HKN members in-person and would maybe lead to collaboration or continued support for the Chapter in the future
• Not only are you asking them to help you get there, but this invites them to participate as well
• Put the ask out to your Chapter’s Alumni members to see if they would provide financial support so that the Chapter can send a delegation (know how many people you will be reaching out to and have an idea of a reasonable amount of money to ask for, expecting multiple contributors)
• Keep this similar to the Department Ask with a bit more of a personal touch
• If your Alumni were officers when they were students, maybe they, themselves, attended an SLC
• Either way, relay to them how worthwhile it will be to attend (using some of the main points noted in above template letters)
• What is something you are hoping to learn/gain/accomplish by attending?
• Focus on how this experience will improve the Chapter experience and how attending will create lifelong HKN memories
• Of all the entities you will be reaching out to, Alumni members are likely the only ones who can relate to your experience with HKN as a student member

Your Chapter’s Alumni Members - Sample Letter

Subject: Help [CHAPTER NAME] Attend the Eta Kappa Nu Student Leadership Conference

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Dear [INSERT NAME],

I am the current president of [CHAPTER NAME], [SCHOOL NAMES]’s Chapter of IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu.

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The annual HKN conference is in Houston, TX in November, and our Chapter is trying to send me (or however many members). Did you attend a Student Leadership Conference (SLC) while you were a student member?

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By attending, our Chapter would be able to meet and exchange ideas with dozens of other Chapters from around the world. Attending this conference would help us provide an even better experience for our current members, assist us in enhancing our programming for our Alumni, and create lifelong friendships and lasting HKN memories. [USE THESE OR REPLACE WITH ANY SPECIFIC GOALS YOU HOPE TO ADDRESS BY ATTENDING.]

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We are excited about this opportunity, but financial considerations are currently preventing us from participating. HKN HQ is providing hotel accommodations for up to four students and an advisor, but it will cost approximately [$ AMOUNT ESTIMATE] to travel to and from the conference.

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Would you be able to help our Chapter get to the SLC this year by contributing [SUGGEST DOLLAR AMOUNT]?

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Yours in HKN,

[YOUR NAME]

Contacting Your Chapter’s Alumni Members

Don’t have a current list of Chapter Alumni or unsure of how to access that information?

• Reported officers & Advisors have access to OU Analytics (login required)
• Visit the HKN Learns training video on how to use this tool

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• Utilize this How-To Guide which will walk you through the steps of pulling a list of Chapter alumni

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IMPORTANT NOTE: Be sure that it is okay to contact people on your list of Alumni

• Once you have generated your list, take note of the ‘OK to Contact’ column and remove names of anyone who answered ‘No’ to ensure that you honor their wish to not be contacted
• If you are unsure if they have expressly given permission to be contacted, do not reach out to them

The Follow-Up (Say Thank You!)

• Be sure to follow up with any entity that has contributed funding toward your trip to the conference
• the “Thank You” is just as important as the “Ask”
• Handwritten notes go a long way but email is always an option
• Included in your Thank-You Note:
• A Recap of your experience at the conference - be specific
• what did you learn?
• favorite part of the conference?
• what goals has your Chapter set / what is one event you are planning for the Chapter as a result of your attendance?
• refer back to what you said in “The Ask”
• “During the [Name of Conference Session] Session, I learned how to implement a tutoring program within our Department.”
• “I met officers from 2 HKN Chapters nearby and we are planning a joint event for the Spring semester.”
• “I heard about what other HKN Chapters do in collaboration with their schools’ IEEE Student Branches and we will be reaching out to ours so we can co-sponsor a service activity.”
• Share picture(s) of you/Chapter members at the conference
• Sending a personal Thank You from the Chapter increases the likelihood that the donor/sponsor/supporter may provide support in the future
• Foster the relationship by keeping in touch, as appropriate

Sample Budget