The Associated Students of Madison Finance Committee has started the process of sorting through more than $291,000 in student organization grant requests.

The Finance Committee, which started hearing presentations Tuesday from student groups that applied for funds, will continue to hear presentations from groups this weekend and will make final allocations on March 23.

These operational grants are used by an assortment of groups to fund their respective services.

This year, ASM has an estimated $145,000 set aside to budget the grant requests, and operational grant requests range from $200 to around $10,000.

ASM Finance Committee Chair Matt Beemsterboer said that in most hearings the requests are largely more than the operational grant budget. The total grant requests this year come in around $291,000.

Groups that have applied for grants from ASM give an in-depth presentation for their cause and are then reviewed by the Finance Committee.

Finance Committee member Tim Fung saidmore than 80 groups will present at the hearings. He said the Finance Committee would review each group equally and award the grant money based on their presentation.

“We expect to hear presentations from roughly two-thirds of the requests on Sunday,” Beemsterboer said. “There is a very large range of group sizes still to come through.”

He said groups are given two minutes to present, in order to budget time.

“Rather than explaining what their group is about, most will present their budget and how they will make good if awarded their grant request,” Beemsterboer said.

He went on to say that the best presentations are the ones that fully explain why it is important to their group.

Based on if the committee’s budget, Fung says that each group will be awarded part, if not all, of their grant request.

“Typically groups request money for advertising, agenda and flyer printing, too. Once in a while, a group will request money for membership fees for fraternities or sororities as well,” Fung said.

In the past, Fung said ASM has denied a few grant requests for various reasons.

“Requests to cover food expenses are not part of the finance committee’s policy,” Fung said.

However, Fung said that if a group’s request comes in under $200, there is an Open Fund that will cover their costs.

The Open Fund is part of the ASM budget and is used on a first come, first serve basis.

Fung said that final decisions on grants will be made Tuesday.

Shortly following, there will be an appeals period in which groups can request more money as well. He said the Finance Committee is on track to come in right at their budget.

The largest grant requested in this set of hearings is from the Campus Women’s Center at around $38,000.

The Campus Women’s Center was denied funding by SSFC from last year which accounts for their large request.

Beemsterboer said that the grants will be awarded for next year and can be expected to be available on July 1.