Request for Funds
Organising an annual international conference is a significant financial undertaking. The task is compounded by our dependence on the need to fundraise ever year. In order to secure the long term future of these conferences, and to make long term planning easier we are seeking the financial support of donors who would be prepared to contribute financially for these conferences. We are looking for both short term and long term donors. Short term donors are those who make a one time only contribution. Long term donors are those who pledge to provide an annual contribution for the conferences. To facilitate long term planning we do encourage donors to consider being an annual contributor.
There are three primary funding needs for the conference both of which are to help make the conference more accessible to a diversity of scholars and community members.
- The first is to enable scholars and Ph.D. students from South Asia to participate in these conferences. Our goal is to be able to bring 4-6 scholars and students a year from Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka to participate in these conferences. The current cost per scholar is $2,500 to meet their airfare and 3-4 days of hotel expenses. We welcome contributions from individuals, organizations and businesses that cover the full costs of bringing one scholar or smaller contributions that can be put towards meeting these costs.
- The second is to subsidize the registration fees for attendees. We are determined to keep the registration fees for attendees as low as possible in order to further our goal of making the conference more accessible to community members and students. We anticipate that to keep the registration fee as low as we have we would require a subsidy of $1,000 per 25 attendees.
- The third is the costs of the annual publications. Currently the costs of publishing a book with selected articles from the conference is approximately $2,000.
How to Give
All funds are received and disbursed by the University of Toronto. If you are interested in financially supporting the conference please contact the organizers at tamils@chass.utoronto.ca and inform them of your interest. Subsequently you can make your contribution directly to the University officer who handles donor relations.
Payment
- All cheques should be made payable to the “University of Toronto” with a notation in the Memo that states "Tamil Studies Conference Fund." Cheques must be for a minimum of $100.
- Payment can be also be made by credit card or wire transfers. For donors residing outside Canada we prefer credit card payments or wire transfers in order to avoid lengthy delays involved in processing cheques.
- Charitable Donation receipts for tax purposes can be provided on request. Please note that such receipts can not be provided for in-kind donations, though a letter of acknowledgement from the organizers, indicating the value of the donation, can be provided on request.
- Annual donors should download, complete and email the Annual Pledge Card to tamils@chass.utoronto.ca.
All cheques must be mailed to Jeffrey Little, the University of Toronto officer responsible for the conference's donor relations, and queries about the donation process should be directed to him. All credit card payments and wire transfers will be processed through his office at:
Jeffrey Little
Program Administrator & Event Coordinator
Asian Institute at the University of Toronto
Munk Centre for International Studies
1 Devonshire Place, Room 227N
Toronto, Ontario
Canada, M5S 3K7
Tel: + 1.416.946.8996
Email:
asian.institute@utoronto.ca