Artivism Student Action Program (ASAP)

Any UW–Madison student is welcome to apply. Preference is given to proposals led by a Registered Student Organization (RSO). Individual students not associated with an RSO are encouraged to partner with a faculty or staff member, an RSO, and/or a campus or community organization to help support and promote your event.

ASAP will provide funding to support you or your student organization. Funding can range from a direct payment to an honorarium, or be used to procure a variety of goods or services to ensure the success of your project, including but not limited to venue rental, equipment, or food for public performances, events, art exhibitions, or film screenings by guest artists or students as long as they follow university guidelines.

A budget is one of the requirements in the application where you can further elaborate on your project’s costs. Feel free to use this budget template (.xslx).

An individual applicant is eligible for funding up to $750. Registered Student Organizations, proposals with defined collaborations between two or more students, faculty, staff, and/or community organizations may apply for up to $1,500. Applicants are encouraged to use the budget template (.xlsx) while developing proposals.

No match is required. Campus and community partnerships are encouraged to leverage “in-kind” support whenever possible. The funding may impact your financial aid package, but we will work with you to look at options to reduce that impact.

A total of $15,000 is available for the 2023-24 academic year.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the 2023-2024 academic year based on available funding. They are evaluated on a biweekly basis, and applicants will receive decision notifications within one month of receipt. Please note that applications will not be reviewed during the winter break (December 22, 2023 – January 20, 2024) or spring recess (March 23-31, 2024). The review process will take longer if applications are shared during campus break periods.

A twenty-five point scale will be used by our committee to evaluate proposals. Applicants are encouraged to refer to the evaluation guidelines (PDF) while developing proposals. It is recommended to write the major components of your application in a separate document to refer back to later and copy and paste into the application fields.

Once applicants receive notification of the award, they will be asked to fill out an ASAP award acceptance form.

• Please note, processing payments at UW can take a long time and the process is quicker once you have completed and submitted any required forms.
• IMPORTANT TO NOTE: This funding may affect your financial aid or your taxes. The Division of the Arts does all it can to reduce these impacts, but you are ultimately responsible for resolving financial issues. Due to both UW policy and federal law, the Division cannot offer advice. If you suspect this award will cause you difficulty, please reach out to a licensed tax professional or to the Office of Student Financial Aid at finaid@finaid.wisc.edu or 608-262-3060 before accepting payment of your award.

At the time you apply for ASAP, your contact info will be submitted to the ShopUW+ system as a supplier. The ShopUW+ system will email you (see screen shot example below) asking that you create a profile:

Payments to Individual Students

Individual students will usually be paid by scholarship through the Bursar’s Office.

• Successful applicants will need to provide their campus ID and verify their citizenship.
• If you currently have any outstanding debt to the Bursar’s Office, your ASAP payment will be applied first to this negative balance. For example if you have $200 due and you were granted $500, your net would be $300.
• International students (Non-Resident Alien) must have taxes deducted from their scholarships. Consequently, these scholarships need to be processed through payroll and not by the Bursar’s Office.

Payments to Registered Student Organizations (RSO) and/or Campus Partner

Registered Student Organizations will be paid as a vendor by check or funding string transfer.

• RSOs must provide a W-9 including their Employer Identification Numbers (EINs) to be an active vendor.  Learn more about applying for or identifying your EIN at Center for Leadership & Involvement (CfLI). It is your RSO’s responsibility to provide the forms. We are not able to do that for you.

If you are working with a campus department or unit, we can also use a campus recognized funding string to transfer funds. One of these types of funding structures needs to be in place before the university is able to distribute funding. We are not able to help support you on getting an EIN approved or set up a new campus funding string. You will also need to complete an invoice.

Applicants who receive approval will be expected to include the ASAP logo on any promotional materials for their project, if applicable. For guidelines, please review our recipient media kit.

You are encouraged to display Arts on Campus notebooks or Arts for Everyone, Everywhere tote bags, which the Division of the Arts will supply, if applicable.

For successful applicants, a short final report will be required to complete and send in within 30 days of completion of your ASAP-funded project.