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Finance Best Practices
The University of Illinois Alumni Association (UIAA) is here to support your alumni group’s goals and initiatives in a variety of ways. One of those ways to provide guidance on important alumni group governance, such as finance.
Alumni Clubs and Special Interest Groups are encouraged to open a bank account specific to your alumni group. An active checking account allows the UIAA to provide financial assistance to your group in addition to allowing the group to make payments to vendors, collect membership dues, and fundraise for alumni club scholarships.
Below, we have outlined some best practices for our alumni volunteer groups. If you do not see a specific item that addresses your question or concern, please reach out to Tyler Gagai, Director of Alumni Clubs, at gagai@uillinois.edu for further assistance.
Bank Account
For club and special interest group bank accounts, the UIAA recommends that groups follow these suggested best practices to ensure:
- Transition to electronic record keeping.
- Two signatures are required on each bank account and all financial transactions.
- Max of two local accounts (group checking account & group savings account) per alumni group
- President & Treasurer have access to all banking documents.
- Weekly monitoring of all financial activities by President & Treasurer to ensure account accuracy.
- Monthly bank statements should be sent from the bank directly to the Treasurer and preferably the club President. (This officer should review the statement, canceled checks and deposits for accuracy and appropriate use of funds). Email is an acceptable delivery method, but should be directly from the bank.
- Provide copies of banking statements to the executive board at meetings.
- Utilize “banking alerts” for transactions over $x dollars. The group needs to decide what “x” is because it will likely be different for each group.
- Alumni groups are encouraged to open bank accounts with business banking rather than personal checking. Business banking accounts are made only with a group and not an individual. This is helpful with alumni group leadership transitions and ensures continuity.
- Ensure the name of the account matches the official name of your alumni club.
- Alumni groups may need to establish EIN number in order to open a business checking account. If your financial institution requires an EIN, please report your EIN to the UIAA.
- There is no UIAA-preferred bank for your group to open a checking account.
- Ensure the bank can deposit US dollars.
- Each bank may vary on documentation required in setting up accounts. Please contact Tyler Gagai if you have any questions regarding documentation requested by your financial institution.
Opening a Club Checking Account with University of Illinois Community Credit Union
Our partners are the UICCU are happy to assist our Illini Clubs in establishing a dues/fees-free checking account. In order to take advantaage of this resource, your club will need to obtain an EIN from the IRS Website.
STEPS FOR OBTAINING YOUR EIN – PER THE IRS WEBSITE
o Step 1: Determine your eligibility.
After all validations are done you will get your EIN immediately upon completion. You can then download, save, and print your EIN confirmation notice.
You may apply for an EIN online if your principal business is in the United States or U.S. Territories.
The person applying online must have a valid Taxpayer Identification Number (SSN, ITIN, EIN).
You are limited to one EIN per responsible party per day.
The “responsible party” is the person who ultimately owns or controls the entity or who exercises ultimate effective control over the entity. Unless the applicant is a government entity, the responsible party must be an individual (i.e., a natural person), not an entity.
o Step 2: Understand the online application.
You must complete this application in one session, as you will not be able to save and return at a later time.
Your session will expire after 15 minutes of inactivity, and you will need to start over.|
o Step 3: Submit your application
After all validations are done you will get your EIN immediately upon completion. You can then download, save, and print your EIN confirmation notice.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION TO KNOW ABOUT APPLYING FOR YOUR EIN
You must complete this application in one session, as you will not be able to save and return at a later time.
For security purposes, your session will expire after 15 minutes of inactivity, and you will need to start over.
You will receive your EIN immediately upon verification. When will I be able to use my EIN?
If you wish to receive your confirmation letter online, we strongly recommended that you install Adobe Reader before beginning the application if it is not already installed.
Restrictions
Effective May 21, 2012, to ensure fair and equitable treatment for all taxpayers, the Internal Revenue Service will limit Employer Identification Number (EIN) issuance to one per responsible party per day. This limitation is applicable to all requests for EINs whether online or by phone, fax or mail. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
If a third party designee (TPD) is completing the online application on behalf of the taxpayer, the taxpayer must authorize the third party to apply for and receive the EIN on his or her behalf.
The business location must be within the United States or U.S. territories.
Foreign filers without an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) cannot use this assistant to obtain an EIN.
If you were incorporated outside of the United States or the U.S. territories, you cannot apply for an EIN online. Please call us at 267-941-1099 (this is not a toll-free number).
Effective May 21, 2012, to ensure fair and equitable treatment for all taxpayers, the Internal Revenue Service will limit Employer Identification Number (EIN) issuance to one per responsible party per day. This limitation is applicable to all requests for EINs whether online or by phone, fax or mail. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
If a third party designee (TPD) is completing the online application on behalf of the taxpayer, the taxpayer must authorize the third party to apply for and receive the EIN on his or her behalf.
The business location must be within the United States or U.S. territories.
Foreign filers without an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) cannot use this assistant to obtain an EIN.
REMAINING ITEMS NEEDED TO OBTAIN THE ACCOUNT
- U.S. Issued Driver’s Liscense, State ID, or Passport for all signers.
- Social Security Number or Temporary Tax ID Number for all signers
- Card is not required, as long as it is verifiable with IRS.
- Proof of Address for all signers (if not listed on ID)
- Lease Agreement, Utility Bill, Proof of Residency from housing.illinois.edu.
- All Signers must be present at the credit union to sign documents together.
UICCU is aware that some of the UIAA Clubs are in different parts of the country and unable to all be present at the Credit Union. If all required documents, beneficial owner forms, and identity validation is present we can usually make arrangements for electronic signing.
What you need to apply for a UICCU account for your Club:
After you’ve received your EIN, please contact Liz Welch at the UICCU to open your account. Liz can be reached at 217-239-6692.
Necessary Documents to Open an Organizational Account
If all required documents, beneficial owner forms, and identity validation is present we can usually make special arrangements for online electronic signing:
EIN for Organization document – Please visit EIN Individual Request – Online Application (irs.gov) to register organization for EIN and then print off EIN document.
U.S. Issued Driver’s License, State ID, or Passport for all signers.
Social Security Number or Temporary Tax ID Number of all signers
Card not required, if verifiable with IRS
Proof of Address for all signers (if not listed on ID)
Event Finance
For alumni groups that collect registration payments involving cash at events, the UIAA strongly recommends that two or more club leaders count and record monies collected during the event. This should be done prior to leaving venue and then documentation should be provided at club board meetings confirming accurate deposit.
The UIAA recommends that your events go cashless when possible. We recommend that your club considers a Venmo, PayPal, or Sqaure account to help facilitate cashless transactions. A cashless option is also more favorable to younger alumni.
Illini Clubs are discouraged to provide gratuity for service in excess of 20% of the final bill.
The UIAA encourages alumni groups to create budgets for any event that involves financial commitments from the club and/or events that involve utilization of financial assistance from the UIAA.
Tier Funding Suggestions
Maximizing the potential of your club’s tier system finances
Alumni clubs who participate in the UIAA’s tier program are allocated $1250/$500/$250 in the form of reimbursements annually for their club’s events. The intentions of these financial resources are primarily to help your club enhance its events and make events more financially friendly for alumni of all ages. Below are some guidelines and suggested best practices to maximize the potential of your club’s tier system funding. If you have any questions regarding any instance not specifically listed below, please feel free to reach out to Tyler Gagai, Director of Alumni Clubs, at gagai@illinois.edu for further discussion.
Guidelines and Restrictions
- Tier funding reimbursements cannot be used towards expenses incurred related to NIL expenditures. Alumni clubs who choose to leverage NIL opportunities with student athletes must do so with their own funds.
- Tier funding reimbursements cannot be used for donations to the club’s scholarship fund or another non-profit entity. Recommendations for using funds to benefit your club’s scholarship fundraising efforts are outlined in the section below.
- For Main Quad level clubs, you may request up to $750 reimbursement per event that you host. Please keep in mind that your club’s reimbursement allotment is $1250, so please budget and spend wisely.
- Illini Union and Morrow Plots tier level clubs can request up to $350 and $250 respectively in reimbursements per event
- Your tier funding reimbursement allotments per club ($1250/$500/$250) can be used at your discretion, and don’t need to conform the 4/2/1 number of events that your club will host annually. In other words, if you are a Main Quad level club and your club is planning to host 6 events annually, your club may request reimbursements for each of those events if the total amounts do not exceed the $1250 maximum per fiscal year.
Suggested Best Practices for Use of Tier Funding
