Are you:
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Looking for funding for your campus sustainability or environmental justice project?
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Interested in making a big change on our campus to improve sustainability?
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Excited to learn more about UC Berkeley's campus sustainability efforts?
If the answer is yes, The Green Initiative Fund is for you!
The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF) is UC Berkeley’s Campus Green Fund. TGIF provides funding, via grants, for projects that improve and support UC Berkeley’s campus sustainability efforts. TGIF allocates funds to projects that promote sustainable modes of transportation, increase energy and water efficiency, restore habitat, promote environmental and food justice, and reduce the amount of waste created by UC Berkeley. Portions of the fund also support education & behavior change initiatives, student financial aid (via return to aid), and student internships. Students, faculty, and staff may submit project proposals, which are selected for funding by the annually-appointed TGIF Committee, consisting of students, faculty, and staff, on which the students have the majority vote.
Our Programs
TGIF is administered by the TGIF Committee, the TGIF Manager, and the TGIF student staff team. The Committee’s voting members include one student representative each from the ASUC, Graduate Assembly, and 2 application-based at-large representatives, in addition to a representative each from Capital Strategies, Administration, and Faculty. Non-voting members include a representative from the Committee on Student Fees, ex-officios from the Office of Sustainability, Energy Office, and the SERC Director. TGIF is funded by an $10.00 per semester student fee, which began in the fall of 2007, was renewed in 2016, and will persist until 2027. In 2025, TGIF will be beginning a third referendum campaign to reimagine what the next decade of TGIF will be. Student leaders created a massive and successful campus campaign, and the fee referendum was approved by the student body during the April 2007 elections of the Associated Students of the University of California, then renewed in 2016 by a renewal campaign and referendum.
It received final approval by the Chancellor and UC Regents during the summer of 2007.
In 2013, The Green Initiative Fund was moved under the portfolio of the Student Environmental Resource Center (SERC), in recognition of TGIF and SERC’s shared history as student-initiated sustainability-focused programs and TGIF’s reputation as a national model for campus green funds. TGIF is now an initiative of SERC.