Honorariums

RISD follows the Internal Revenue Service’s definition to determine when an individual is qualified to receive a payment as an honorarium.

Definition: An honorarium is a one‐time nominal payment made to an individual (not a corporation, business or partnership), who is not an employee, student employee, or a student of the College, for a special and non‐recurring activity or event with a short duration for which a fee is not legally or customarily required and which fixed business price has not been set. The payment should be recognized, not as an equivalent value to a professional charge, but as a token of appreciation, and a nominal value assigned to it.

Examples would be a nominal payment to a guest speaker or lecturer as a “thank you” and as a gesture of goodwill and appreciation, or a token payment for other unique, incidental and infrequent services not traditionally required on an ongoing basis.

• A special lecture

• Serving as a guest speaker at an educational event or other similar function

• Participating as a guest speaker at outreach events

Honorarium payments are made payable to the individual (no Corporations or partnerships) who provided the gratuitous service. RISD does not make charitable contributions to organizations in lieu of an honorarium payment.  

An honorarium cannot be used to pay independent contractors, consultants or RISD employees or students.

Non-US Individuals:

• If the service will be completed in the United States then they must be cleared by International Student & Scholar Affairs (ISSA)  before committing to compensate a non-US citizen payee, in order to ensure that disbursements meet proper requirements.

• If the services will be completed outside the United States (aka via Zoom), the recipient can be invited to be a supplier via PaymentWorks without Academic Affairs or ISSA's involvement.

Honorarium Payment Process

Non-US Individuals will be invited by ISSA or Academic Affairs to PaymentWorks (for Work being completed in the United States)

1) Confirm in Workday that they are set up as a supplier. If the individual to be paid is not in the supplier database, you must send them an invitation to PaymentWorks in order to set them up as a supplier. The invitation should be sent once you have identified the recipient of an honorarium. (do not wait for the event)

2) Once the recipient is a supplier in Workday, a Supplier Invoice Request (SIR) must be submitted. An honorarium invoice must be attached to the SIR request. After entering the required information, the request will route to Accounts Payable for approval and completion.  Honorariums are paid after the event.

Honorarium Payments must be $2,500 or less.

Payments to individuals over $2,500 will be considered payment for services and will require an Independent Contractor Contract or an Appearance contract created via the Contract Request in etrieve.

Additional information on Independent Contractors can be found on the Independent Contractor Page