CUSU Presents its 2018-19 Budget

From Daisy Eyre, CUSU President 2017-18:

“Funding the good stuff”

On Monday, CUSU Council will be discussing the proposed budget for CUSU for 2018-19.

We are really excited to be presenting a budget in which, looking ahead, CUSU has enough funds to maintain our core work and we will be able to concentrate on the important work of representing you.

When our team came into office, working with staff to stabilise our funding was one of our main priorities, and for me, this is one of the most important contributions we can make to the future of this university increasing the security of our students union for future generations of students and sabbatical officers.

CUSU has, for a long time, received much less funding from our university than most other students’ unions, meaning that we have had to rely on business and services to continue our work in representing and supporting students, and as you might have seen, this led us into financial deficit last year.

This is why I am so excited that all our hard work has paid off and we are able to present a budget which is close to breaking even.

So, this year, we will have a deficit of only £2,000, and are projected to spend 6% of our income on Union activities, 90% of our income on the staff who keep the whole thing going, and the final 4% on those necessary organisational costs.

How have we achieved this? We have worked to concentrate our fundraising efforts in areas where a surplus is either growing or stable, meaning that we now have a very efficient fundraising team.

Secondly, we have found efficiencies in the way we work, and made sure we work in a streamlined way while still providing the same high-quality Union for students!

Finally, having stabilised our organisation, we were able to make the argument to the University that funding our Union properly would be a positive investment for  the future of the University. Having a healthy, vibrant and stable Students’ Union is crucial to any University, and our increased funding should now be sufficient to not only avoid financial problems but help us to improve as a union. This will bring us into line with other students’ unions across the country*.

We hope to see you at Council on Monday, where you can ask questions and drill down into the specifics of the budget. Please email president@cusu.cam.ac.uk with any questions!

*For example, Oxford University Students’ Union receives a “block grant” of £696,000, while we will receive roughly £511,000 from the University and Colleges.