November 21, 2012, by Malvika Johal

Buying for a Good Cause

I’m sure many of you will at some point have bought some University of Nottingham merchandise, and in any case if you haven’t there are subliminal messages implanted within this blog to hypnotise you into doing so immediately after reading. The reason is not because we just love to see stock fly out the door; it’s because the proceeds from merchandise sales directly support the Nottingham Enrichment Fund. For those of you not familiar with it, the Nottingham Enrichment Fund is a program whereby students who want to undertake an extracurricular project of some sort can get up to 75% of it funded by the University. ‘Project’ seems a fairly vague description, and indeed it is purposefully so. The Enrichment Fund is designed to be as unrestrictive as possible in order to help students towards funding a wide range of projects from, voluntary work; solo projects and community initiatives.
Last year, the funded projects included a team of medics who wanted to rebuild a dilapidated clinic in Honduras; Amy Wright who led a team to actually design and install a hydro-electric generator for a community in Malawi (http://nustreamonline.com) and the filming of a conservation video for the local Attenborough Nature Reserve.

The Nottingham Enrichment Fund provides invaluable funding to those students who are trying to get inspiring projects off the ground, but they have to work for it. Applicants must demonstrate their passion, organisation, feasibility and activities to achieve any funding gaps in the proposal. The fact that we only offer part-funding for projects means that this is by no means a free lunch either; applicants will have already devoted considerable time, effort and resources to their project in order to be considered.

The University of Nottingham prides itself on the selection criteria for the fund, only giving financial aid to those who convey their passion for projects deemed to be feasible, well-organised and worthwhile. It part-sponsors projects that have a lasting impact in their field or on the community where they are based, or represent a student investing well in their own future (for instance, last year it helped out a veterinary student who wanted to experience New Zealand’s unique calving season, lending him valuable and otherwise unattainable experience).

So a big thank-you from Alumni Relations and on behalf of all those who have received help from the Nottingham Enrichment Fund; thank you for continuing to support our students through purchasing merchandise from the University of Nottingham.

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