Any organizations which have been accepted as a member of the TechShift Alliance.

The application requires that you describe the intended use of the funds, and explain how this use furthers your organization’s mission and TechShift’s overall mission to:

“empower students to shift technology’s role towards bettering society and equitably serving all people in it by organizing initiatives in their communities; and building a powerful alliance that shares our vision for a fairer, more just technological future”.

Additionally, you will share a budget detailing individual costs (sample budget here), your registered student organization bank details, and an agreement to submit necessary materials, or “oversight materials,” within 2 weeks of using the funds to ensure your student organization is using microgrant funds for their intended purpose.

There are no costs to using a microgrant. The only thing we ask is for your organization to submit oversight materials that demonstrate the impact of the microgrant(s) on your organization’s mission, as well as to TechShift’s stated mission. Some examples of oversight materials include receipts, pictures from events, reports, and giving back to the TechShift community. We spell out these requirements in more detail in our microgrants menu at the bottom of this page.

In the past, microgrants have been used for a range of things including food for meetings, member travel and fees for events, prize sponsorship at hackathons, speaker fees, software licenses and more. We have put together a microgrants menu with pre-approved expense categories your member organization can apply for at the bottom of this page. However, you are not limited to these examples! We simply ask that you make a good case for the use of the requested funds and their impact on the overall mission.

Microgrant applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. To be considered, microgrant applications need to be submitted at least 14 days before the date you need to use your requested funds. For expenses requiring more advanced planning such as speaker events and new initiatives, we ask that you submit your application at least 6 weeks in advance of the date.

Because microgrant funds need to be reviewed prior to their use, we do not accept retroactive applications or reimburse expenses unless first approved through the microgrant application process.

See our microgrants menu below to get a baseline for how much microgrants can cover towards specific expenses. Typically, microgrants are requested and awarded for $500 or less, but we will make accomodations for deserving cases.

There is no formal limit. The decision takes into account a variety of factors, including centrality to the mission, commitment to reporting use of funds, history of microgrant use, history of reporting fund usage, initiative for finding other funding sources, and availability of funds for other Techshift Alliance organizations.

Depending on the number of pending microgrant applications, approved microgrants are usually processed to your school student organization account within 2-4 weeks from the date we receive your application.

Once your event is completed, please use this form to request reimbursement: https://airtable.com/shrXkhIUpPYE0hBWz