Dated: 2nd October 2024, to be reviewed monthly.

We will process expenses within a week and this will then go to the Social Change Nest team (our fiscal host) who will process any payments on their next working day which can be Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Whilst we are a voluntary-led grassroots group who all work unpaid for our community. The types of expenses we will approve in relation to ESA.NE include but are not limited to:

Payment for facilitating events.
Payment for transport to and from events.
Payment for materials.
Payment for participating in events e.g. as speakers.
Payment for refreshments.
Mutual Aid (see below).
Venue costs.
Costs of labour.
Payment/subsidising costs for training that can support ESA.NE community events.
Any payment that is necessary to support the day-to-day organising of and future of our community group.

Any other payments are up to the discretion of the ESA.NE admins of this Open Collective and decisions about this will be made collectively.

To expense us for a cost you must create an invoice or submit an expense to us as a reimbursement.

If you are a community member who is requesting money for participating in an ESA.NE event, a receipt is not compulsory if you invoice us, but if you submit this as a reimbursement, the website will ask you for a receipt.

If you are someone who is requesting costs for labour, we will require an invoice and breakdown of costs as well as any receipts where necessary.

Mutual Aid Fund (To Be Confirmed):
Our mutual aid fund exists to support our communities of colour and LGBTQIA+/QTIPOC communities to access financial mutual aid. This may include: discretionary payments for housing, bills, and general living costs (dependent on the funds we have available at the time). When this is available, we will have a 'no questions asked' policy regarding why you are accessing the fund.

We also have a 'no questions asked' policy for Black, people of colour, global majority folk, ESA, Palestinian, people seeking sanctuary, refugees, and Muslims to expense us for travel to and from our events, as well as general costs such as, but not limited to, 'safer' transport in day-to-day life (whatever this may look like for you) (see also the paragraph above).

We understand that our communities of colour face systemic oppressions and challenges that intersect, and payments can also be made in these instances.

For accessing this fund, we do not ask questions about why or for proof of why you need to access our fund. We only ask that you confirm who you are to one of the admins of this mutual aid fund.

It is not a requirement to 'contribute' to our mutual aid fund, but we do ask that when people accessing this fund are able to, to please contribute back some money into our fund to support our mutual aid work.

If you wish to expense us and need to confirm who you are OR if you have any questions or concerns, please email us at: esa.northeast@gmail.com