SPAR provides funding for mentees and mentors to self-organize meetups: dinners, afternoon co-working, casual hangouts, and more.
Meetups funded by community funds must have a minimum of 3 attendees, and should be requested in advance of the meetup taking place.
You can use your regional Slack group to find SPAR participants in your area, and see if they’re interested in getting together (online events are welcome too). Then fill out the form below. We’ll reach out to offer you a virtual credit card to fund your event expenses.
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By default, funding is allocated per-head: we offer USD $25 * number of participants * your local cost of living for that activity versus Chicago, USA, according to Expatistan’s cost of living calculator. We use the figure for the activity rather than the overall one, so a dinner uses Expatistan’s food figure. For example, if four people meet up for dinner in Chicago, we’d fund $100; if four people meet up for dinner in a city where food costs half what it does in Chicago, we’d fund $50.
Please keep an RSVP, or some receipt for how many people actually attended! You can let us know in the form if your budget needs are different.
Please also request funding in advance of the event taking place so that all expenditures can be made from the card we give you. In some cases, we can reimburse post-event, but this cannot be ensured.
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The SPAR Community Fund can cover travel where necessary for attendees to attend a meet-up at their nearest hub.
Our travel support only covers train, bus or coach tickets to nearby hub meet-ups, up to a maximum of $120 per return journey, and does not extend to flights, private cars, or ride-sharing services.
Please request this support in advance of purchasing tickets.
If you have particular extraordinary circumstances, please let us know in your request, and we can consider this case-by-case.
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Grant spending follows the Project Expense Policy: event costs only, with a receipt and a short memo for each purchase. Cards can't be issued to participants under 18, so an adult participant must hold the card for any meetup. SPAR Community Funds should not be used to cover the purchase of any alcoholic drinks.
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