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Start here for everything related to financial support. From the types of support offered to learning how to apply for funding.

Financial Support

Grants, Project Funding, Financial Assistance, and Seed Money

The Life Members Committee, through the generosity of donors, actively supports programs and initiatives that engage Life members and the community we serve. Donors have provided support to various Affinity Group Chapters for chapter and local events, speakers, Section, Student Branches, and HKN programs.

Donor supported activities include a variety of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM/STEAM) and Career and Technology Education (CTE) programs, emerging technology, career development, technology policy issues, professional education, government activities, guest speakers, section-wide outreach initiatives and conferences. Historically, projects have engaged local IEEE and non-IEEE leaders and other civic or corporate volunteers.

Donations

Donations to the IEEE Life Member fund also support regional and global initiatives including:

The Life Members Committee (LMC) encourages Life member activities globally, regionally, and locally. Life members can request financial sponsorship or co-sponsorship to support various projects and activities.

Funding Requests

The Life Members Committee has created two committees with the responsibility of accepting funding requests and applications. The committees are:

  • Large Funding Requests – applications US$2,000 or greater
  • Small Funding Requests – applications smaller than US$2,000

Small funding requests undergo review at the Region level with a recommendation to the Life Members Committee Finance Subcommittee level. Large funding requests undergo review by the Life Members Committee Finance Subcommittee.

The IEEE Life Members Committee (LMC) may support requests for financial support from IEEE Life Members (LMs), Life Members Affinity Groups (LMAGs), or IEEE organizations endorsed by either an LMAG or LM Region Coordinator. This program is known as the LMC Local Activity Funding – Opportunity Request (LAFOR) program. Requests must be modest in size. Recipients of approved requests should consider the funding as a gift.

Submit any LMC Project Funding Requests to your Region Coordinator.

Download the LMC Project Funding Request Application (.XLXS)→

Life Members (LMs) can request financial backing to support various projects and activities. LM and Life Member Affinity Group (LMAG) projects must focus on at least one of the following four areas:

  1. Supporting LMAG outreach, engagement, and community involvement, especially in areas of student leadership development
  2. Promoting LM engagement
  3. Advancing the image of IEEE and its members by communicating LM ideals, programs, and IEEE initiatives through various channels
  4. Providing broad support for IEEE initiatives

Sponsored activities may include science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM); emerging technology, career development, technology policy issues, professional education, government activities, and guest education speakers; and section-wide outreach initiatives. In addition, many projects will engage the local IEEE and non-IEEE leaders and other volunteers.

Some activities may already include Section or Region strategic initiatives. That means the proposal would only require expertise with a minimum financial investment. In addition, an LMAG, Section, Region, or external organization may co-sponsor activities.

The Life Members Committee (LMC) will automatically decline any proposal that does not meet all the Evaluation Criteria, including all required endorsements. In addition, the LMC will automatically decline any proposal that includes the following disqualifying criteria:

  1. Overhead (general and administrative/indirect costs), not including program management costs
  2. Projects or programs funded by standard IEEE organizational units operating expenses included in an annual budget
  3. Projects or programs included in other areas of the LMC annual budget
  4. For-profit activities such as conferences, development of prototypes and intellectual property, or other activities that would return a surplus to an organization other than the requesting organization (surplus returned to the requesting IEEE organization or the LMC is permitted)
  5. Commercial promotion activities
  6. Personal or commercial loans
  7. Grants with an individual as the sole beneficiary
  8. Participation of specific/individual teams in competitions
  9. Research projects
  10. Immediate humanitarian disaster relief efforts

The Life Members Committee (LMC) will receive all funding requests through the LMC website. Proposals must include a completed online form and budget worksheet.

All grant proposal requests must include all required information and all required approvals. The LMC will automatically reject any proposal lacking the required information and approvals.

The LMC chair shall establish a Funding Request Subcommittee (FRS) to review all funding requests and submit its recommendation to the LMC for its consideration following LMC practice. The FRS expects to review all proposals within two months of submission.

To increase awareness of and synergy with local IEEE organizations, the local Life Member Affinity Group (LMAG) Chair, the Section Chair, and the Region LM Coordinator must approve all requests from IEEE student branches or IEEE-HKN student chapters. If the Section does not have an LMAG, approvals must include the Section Chair and Region LM Coordinator, and the Section is encouraged to explore the creation of an LMAG before submitting future funding requests.

All Life Members Committee (LMC) Local Activity Funding-Opportunity Request (LAFOR) proposals must address all sections in the form and include elements that benefit IEEE members or future IEEE members. Review criteria will emphasize the proposed project or activity’s impact, sustainability, and scalability.

The LMC will give funding priorities to projects or activities that support Life Member or LMAG outreach, engagement, and community involvement over projects or activities that provide broad support for IEEE initiatives.