To apply for financial assistance, to help pay yearly subscriptions, support externally given mandatory training or buy Girlguiding core resources which are not included in the BGO new unit grant please provide the following:
A unit may not apply more than once a year to the hardship fund and the request should come from the unit leader.
All applications, using the hardship grant application form should be sent to finance@british-girlguiding-overseas.org.uk in the first instance.
A finance committee has been set up to consider requests twice a year and these dates will be published to the BGO membership via the website. Usually they will be around the end of January and the start of September each year.
It should be noted that, ideally, the BGO finance advisor will buy what has been requested in the hardship support application rather than money being sent to units to avoid paying international bank transfer fees from the sum.
Requests for subscription payment support: Should the amount of support not cover all the subscription levy, the BGO finance advisor will request that the unit send the invoice to her and pay the balance to BGO rather than HQ. She will then pay HQ. Should all subscription levy be covered by the fund, the BGO finance advisor will request the unit send the invoice to her and she will pay HQ.
After the finance committee has sat, the decision will be sent in an email to the local commissioner with the unit leader in copy so that the local commissioner can offer further support if necessary.