Staff Council Financial Assistance (SEFA)
IU Southeast Staff Council Emergency Financial Assistance provides limited financial assistance to staff members of IU Southeast who are experiencing a temporary hardship due to a significant life event. Parameters regarding amounts available are based on a budget determined by the Staff Council Budget Committee. The Budget Committee will meet in May of each year to construct the budget for SEFA for the following fiscal year. Approval of the SEFA budget for the following year will be approved by the Staff Council at the June meeting for the following fiscal year beginning July 1.
The Staff Emergency Fund is made possible thanks to the generous support of Staff Council fundraising events by the campus community.
Since the Staff Emergency Fund is dependent upon donations to provide assistance, any contributions whether gained through fundraisers or by donations directly to the Staff Council are critical.
Donations
When a sudden or unexpected expense creates emotional and financial obstacles, the SEFA fund can assist staff members who are unable to make ends meet during a difficult time. For further information about how to donate, please contact sestaff@iu.edu.
Eligibility Criteria
To apply for Staff Emergency Funds for yourself or on behalf of another staff member, the following requirements must be met:
- Applicants must be an appointed, benefit-eligible, non-faculty staff member of IU Southeast
- Applicants must have not received a SEFA grant within the past 2 years (unless an exception is granted by the Staff Council Budget Committee).
- Applicants must have experienced a temporary financial hardship to be awarded funds.
- Applicants must not be an active member of the IU Southeast Staff Council (unless an exception is granted by the full Staff Council).
A temporary financial hardship is one caused by a defined, time-limited, specific event including, but not limited to:
- Death of an immediate family member
- Natural disaster (e.g., fire, flood, tornado, etc.)
- Serious illness or critical injury to the staff member or their immediate family member
Emergency funding is not guaranteed and is based on demonstrated need, short-term nature of the financial hardship, committee approval, and availability of funds.
Given the limited amount of funds, not all requests can be approved even though a clear need for financial assistance is evident. This fund may be insufficient in the case of widespread disaster, community crisis, or other mass disaster/disease events.Application Procedures
To apply for funds from the SEFA fund, applicants must:
- Complete and submit the SEFA application.
- Information provided by applicants will be held in strict confidence and only shared with individuals directly involved in award administration.
- Applicants should not disclose any personal health information (PHI) when applying for financial assistance.
- Applicants may disclose that they or the person they are applying for has an illness or injury but must not disclose the nature of the injury or illness.
- Applications that disclose any personal health information will be returned to applicant to remove such information from the application, which may delay approval of funding.
- Applicants may be contacted by Staff Council for additional information and/or missing documentation, which may delay approval of funding.
- Applications for financial assistance will be collected, and distributed to the Council, only by the president, vice president, or secretary of Staff Council, and the name of the applicant shall not be disclosed during the distribution of the application and the voting process.
- Applicants will be notified in writing within two (2) business weeks of receipt of the application of the Staff Council’s decision.
- Depending on the nature of the emergency, approval for financial assistance may be voted upon either via email or in person at a regularly-scheduled Staff Council meeting. When approval is sought, a minimum of 50% approval is required.
- If the application is approved and funded, the employee will be contacted when a check is available for pick up.
