Main fundraiser photo

Stanford Basic Needs Fund

To meet existing unmet needs, we are fundraising $100,000 for a Basic Needs Fund. This fund will go towards Stanford students and their families who are struggling to meet their basic needs during this time throughout the academic year. Any Stanford student will be able to request aid, including incoming frosh, undergrads, graduate students, post-docs, and students taking leaves of absence. 


Access to basic needs such as food, housing, and healthcare should never be an issue for any student at Stanford. However, current university resources have been insufficient in meeting some of the urgent needs of students and their families who have been hit the hardest. 


If you have the means, please consider donating to the Basic Needs Fund to help support your friends and classmates! Your donations will go towards providing food, rent relief, and healthcare for our community. Let’s help take care of one another during this challenging time. 

Why a fund is needed:
---------------------------

Current university resources have proven insufficient in meeting many of the urgent needs of Stanford students and their families. 


While the administration can provide resources to support students during the academic year, funds are unavailable to students when they are not enrolled in classes. During the upcoming modified COVID 2020-2021 Academic Year, many students are not in a position to enroll in academic classes. Furthermore, due to challenges imposed by COVID-19 such as lost student on-campus jobs (such as student staff roles which countless students rely on) and lost familial financial support due to high unemployment, student need has skyrocketed during this time period and will likely remain high for the foreseeable future. 


Additionally, the university is unable to provide financial support for a student’s family members, despite the fact that the well-being and livelihood of one’s family is, of course, inextricably linked to the well-being and livelihood of students. While the university provides resources such as the Opportunity Fund, funds are only open to students whose expected student contribution and expected family contribution are each under $5000. This hard cutoff leaves many students who are unequivocally in need ineligible for financial support from the university.

The Basic Needs Fund is a resource for students for whom university resources have been insufficient and/or are ineligible for university resources.


BASIC NEEDS FUND MISSION
-----------------------------------------

Access to basic needs such as food, housing, and healthcare should never be an issue for any Stanford student, but has been and continues to be, especially in the time of the pandemic. Take just one look at this 1-1 Mutual Aid Sheet or any of the reporting on food and housing-insecurity throughout the years (1, 2, 3) and this will be abundantly clear. 


The Basic Needs Coalition @ Stanford is launching a Basic Needs Fund, a student-led initiative to mobilize our Stanford community and institutional resources to ensure the basic needs of all Stanford students and their families are comprehensively met, both during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. 


WHO ARE WE?
---------------------

The Basic Needs Coalition @ Stanford, whose members also represent student organizations such as FLIP (First-Generation Low-Income Partnership), Stanford Mutual Aid, Stanford Food Recovery, ASSU (Associated Students of Stanford University), and SWR (Students for Workers’ Rights), among others, is a group committed to ensuring the basic needs of the full Stanford community are comprehensively met.


We are fundraising an initial $100,000 for a Basic Needs Fund to support Stanford students and their families struggling to meet their basic needs in this unprecedented time. 


Our team consists of students, alumni, and staff who previously ran the Mutual Aid Spreadsheet that helped 100s of Stanford affiliates share resources with each other and redistributed an estimated $30,000 in mutual aid to students in need, the ASSU Support fund (which distributed $191,000 to 1500 students), the Columbae Student Support Fund (which distributed $110,000 of community donations to 1100 students), and the FLIP Housing Match Initiative (which paired 125 housing-insecure students with temporary housing for Spring Quarter and Summer).


FAQ
------

What counts as a Basic Need?
--------------------------------------

Our framework, developed in conversation with organizers at Basic Needs Centers at several other private and public universities such as the University of Southern California, UC Berkeley, and UCLA, accounts for resources that are essential to living. These include food, shelter (including rent and utilities), and healthcare (including mental health care). 


PS: Every University of California and California State University school has a dedicated Basic Needs Center. Stanford does not. 


Who is eligible for the Basic Needs Fund?
-----------------------------------------------------

Any Stanford student in need is eligible to request aid from this fund to help with their and their family’s basic needs. 


This includes: 

Undergraduate students
Graduate students
Postdocs
Students taking leaves of absences due to COVID-19
Incoming frosh and transfers
Frosh and transfer students deferring enrollment due to COVID-19
New alumni impacted by COVID-19 (specifically the Class of 2020)

Note: Eligible undergraduate students are asked to apply for funds via the Opportunity Fund first, before accessing this community-organized Basic Needs Fund.


This Basic Needs Fund will help students meet needs that are not eligible for resources from FLI Office/Financial Aid/Grant in Aid and/or were only partially covered by the Opportunity Fund. 



How are requests handled and processed? 
------------------------------------------------------

The fund request process starts with the Basic Needs Fund Request Form, which informs students of alternative sources of university funding for which they might be eligible. (The Basic Needs Fund is not an institutional source of funding and should be seen as a last resort to cover basic needs).


Students then have the opportunity to describe their needs, which are anonymized. Anonymized requests are then passed on to the Basic Needs Fund management board, composed of students who were nominated and confirmed by student communities that have long been engaged in advocacy work related to Basic Needs. The management board meets at least weekly to review applications and grant what the fund allows, while also conferring on an ad-hoc basis to address urgent requests. Lastly, a separate student volunteer—not on the management board—helps distribute the funds to students to protect student privacy. 



How quickly are requests being processed?
-------------------------------------------------------

Generally within 1 week, dependent on the timing and volume of donations. More urgent requests (ie. funds needed in less than 7 days in less than 7 days) will be processed accordingly.

Donations 

  • Lawrence Reh
    • $150 
    • 3 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $50 
    • 3 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $50 
    • 3 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $30 
    • 4 yrs
  • Lily Susman
    • $100 
    • 4 yrs

Organizer and beneficiary

Basic Needs Fund
Organizer
Stanford, CA
Andrew Watkins
Beneficiary

Your easy, powerful, and trusted home for help

  • Easy

    Donate quickly and easily.

  • Powerful

    Send help right to the people and causes you care about.

  • Trusted

    Your donation is protected by the  GoFundMe Giving Guarantee.