The Associated Students of Madison Finance Committee’s purpose is to give out funds in three general areas: travel, events and operations grants.

The grants go to registered student organizations requesting assistance in the three areas. Finance Committee chair Ben Hawke emphasizes the word “assist,” and said the job of the Committee to decide individual grants is not intended to focus on an RSO’s entire budget, adding that co-sponsorship of an event or travel opportunity is thought to be important.

RSOs approaching the Committee for a grant must fill out an application weeks before the event takes place or the money is needed. After the application is completed, the Committee hears the proposal in its weekly meetings, and typically decides money allocation the same night. If the money proposed for a group’s grant for travel or an event exceeds a certain amount, it must be heard for final approval for the next Student Council meeting as well as any operations grant.

Another new way of funding student organizations is through an “open” fund, where the groups can get what Hawke calls a “mini-operations grant,” which could include money for printing, office supplies and advertising.

Though both the Student Services Finance Committee and the ASM Finance Committee allocate money to RSOs, Hawke was quick to point out differences in the two fiscal bodies.

One of the Finance Committee’s jobs is to start the internal budget for ASM, and it also take into consideration how much money the Committee has left in its budget. Hawke also pointed out the quantity of groups that receive grants in Finance differs from SSFC.

“There are about 20 or so groups that receive funding from SSFC,” Hawke said. “In Finance (Committee) there are many more.”

The funding stemming from Committee grants is routinely of smaller amounts, but Hawke stressed the significance of the grants.

“I wouldn’t say it’s less important (than SSFC decisions),” Hawke, who is also a member of SSFC, said.

Hawke added his personal goal for this year is to make “this service available to as many organizations as possible.”

“This money is available for them, I want to get the word out.”

Of the total amount of grants approved by the nine-member Committee in the last fiscal year, 171 operation applications received grants, and approximately 70 travel applications and 140 event grant applications got funding, respectively.