The IEEE Signal Processing Society has enjoyed healthy financial operations for a number of years, thanks to the tremendous amount of effort from volunteers and the support from the staff. In order to leverage its financial strength to serve members and invest for the future prosperity of the signal processing community, the SPS Board of Governors has set aside a sizable amount of funds for 2011 and is working on the 2012 budget to explore various initiatives to expand member benefits and values, to outreach to signal processing communities worldwide, and to enhance the visibility of the SPS. For example, the Society has approved to allocate a substantial annual fund to support students and researchers in needs from developing countries to attend ICASSP and ICIP. Fifty-one SPS members who are ICASSP 2011 authors have been selected as the first group of travel grantees.