The Regina Public Interest Research Group (RPIRG) is a student centre at the University of Regina that works on social and environmental justice issues. RPIRG gives out up to $35,000 in funding each year to students for events, projects, or training opportunities.
Eligibility
You are eligible to apply, if you are:
RPIRG student members – University of Regina student(s) who has not opted-out of RPIRG membership including students at Campion College, Luther College, and First Nations University of Canada; or
RPIRG community/associate members – community member(s) or groups who have opted-in to RPIRG membership by paying a $20/year membership fee; or
BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or Person of Colour) – Regina residents who self-identify as being part of communities targeted by racial discrimination. The application must be related to Racial justice i.e organizing/advocacy/research/legal action being done individually or as part of groups, collectives, and organizations based in Regina (or led by UofR students in Saskatchewan more broadly)
Additionally, all projects, events, research, conferences or training opportunities:
must be aligned with RPIRG's values; and
must demonstrate a clear commitment to advancing social and/or environmental justice. Eligible initiatives should aim to create positive and lasting change by addressing one or more issues, such as equity, accessibility, sustainability, decolonization, anti-oppression, anti-racism, active citizenship or community engagement. Each application must describe how their initiative or participation contributes to systemic change, education, or community well-being, and how it builds knowledge, skills, or networks that strengthen their capacity to take meaningful action and become more active citizens on campus and beyond.
To learn more about all of our grant programs, who is eligible to apply, and compare them, please visit our funding page.
NOTE: RPIRG also has a separate Racial Justice large grant fund for self-identified BIPOC/racialized RPIRG student members and Regina residents, to specifically support racial justice and community safety/wellbeing initiatives. The latter has a separate budget. For more information about our BIPOC fund, visit www.rpirg.org/BIPOC-fund, and to fill out the application form for it, please go back to our main funding page.
Applications for large grants are due by midnight on each of our 5 annual funding deadlines:
July 1 - Oct 1 - Nov 1 - Feb 1 - March 1
Please note: Applications can take up to 4 weeks to process and approve, and this partly depends on when the next board meeting is after a deadline. If you would like to attend a board meeting to discuss or make a presentation about your funding proposal, we would love to hear from you! Please contact info@rpirg.org to arrange.
Eligible initiatives
Please remember to double check the eligibility criteria at: https://rpirg.org/large-grants/ to make sure your application is eligible for this grant, including the RPIRG values at: https://rpirg.org/who-we-are/.
1) Projects and events including advocacy and legal actions, campaigns, workshops, community surveys or similar feedback tools: maximum amount of $5,000.* Please highlighting priority area(s) in your budget as we sometimes are not able to fund the full amount depending on the amount of other applications in a funding round*
Event is defined as a one-time activity with a particular goal. For example, hosting a workshop, rally, or speaker.
Project is defined as a series of activities or events coordinated to reach a particular goal with specific start and end dates. For example, organizing a campaign with multiple aspects over a number of days or weeks, organizing a community survey, a workshop series or other community programming, starting a community garden, a campaign or advocacy work, etc.
2) Training and conferences including gatherings and other professional development: up to $600/person or $2000 for 4 or more people in a group. If you have a group attending a conference, you must apply for funding as a group. RPIRG will not accept multiple individual applications for the same conference.
Training and Research Funding provides one-time funding to help individuals and groups travel to attend a conference, training, or other professional development opportunity that is focused on social or environmental justice issues.
3) Grad research: up to $800 per research project
Grad research funding prioritizes research taking place in Regina and Saskatchewan, or benefitting groups or communities living there. Applicants can only receive funding once per project, and cannot pair it with conference/training funding.
*Typically, if an application is requesting more than $1500 there is a good chance we will not be able to fully fund it, due to the volume of applications we receive. Please keep this in mind when you are deciding on how much funding to request in your application. When submitting your budget, please indicate which parts are of a higher priority, so that if we are unable to fully fund your application, we can more easily assess which parts need it the most.
Please note: we are a non-partisan organization and as such do not provide funding to political parties or their candidates/electoral campaigns. However, non-partisan educational events such as election town halls which will include all political parties may be considered on a case-by-case basis. Please contact us to discuss.
Please also note: Fundraisers are generally not eligible for funding. If your fundraiser fits RPIRG’s funding requirements and you believe it should be eligible for funding, you can bring your rationale to the RPIRG Board of Directors and we will make a decision on a case-by-case basis.