The IAI Emergency Fund serves to help locations who have encountered significant hardship. This hardship may include things like a venue sponsor dropping out at the last minute, or the location receiving last-minute notice that a hearing-impaired participant will need a translator for the event. Requests for help should be limited to financial burdens that are:
- Unexpected
- Not planned for
- Unable to be resolved by other means
We want every location to be successful and believe strongly that you will be! We also know from experience that sometimes unexpected and expensive issues arise. This fund is meant as a way to make sure that no location has to cancel or face individual financial burden because of unexpected issues.
First, please tell us in advance if you are struggling! The global team is here to help you problem-solve, troubleshoot, and find the best path forward. The earlier you can raise issues with us, the more successful we can be in helping you find the right solution.
If you encounter an issue that creates significant hardship, please submit a request using our form. We will reach out to you to understand the issue and how best we can help. Our timeline for reviewing and allocating funds is as follows:
- Open to requests: December
- Request reviews: December - January 31st
- Final determination: First week in February
We will allocate funds on a case-by-case basis and our decisions will be based on priority of need. While we can’t guarantee funds, we will work with you closely to find the right solution for your location.
The goal for World IA Day is to connect communities - this means that local sponsorship is your very best bet to both having a financially successful celebration and gaining community involvement. If you need help with who to reach out to or how to talk to them, please let us know.
We also urge you to be strategic in how you think about your celebration - although some locations have large celebrations with large budgets, we’ve had successful celebrations with as few as 30 people and budgets under $500 USD. If local sponsorship dollars are hard to come by in your location, consider scaling back your celebration or even creating an informal gathering. World IA Day is not a typical celebration and we believe any celebration of any size is a successful one.
As always, please reach out to anyone on the global team ([email protected]) if you need help.
To request funds for your location, please fill out the form here: https://goo.gl/forms/QZqgF8be5IuztFnE2
- Transportation costs
- Food costs
- Beverage costs
- Gifts for speakers
- Gifts for volunteers
- Swag or gifts for attendees
- Insurance costs
- Real-time captioning or CART services
- Sign language interpretation