For projects taking place in the 2026-2027 academic year
Qualifications
- Any department, academic unit or registered student organization may apply for a project grant. Department/unit co-sponsorship is required for student proposals.
- All project grants must contribute to the Knapp Bequest goal: “to cultivate in the student body ideals of honesty, sincerity, earnestness, tolerance, and social and political obligations.“
- Examples of eligible expenses:
- Scholarships/fellowships, some student salaries, student registrations, student travel,
- Event expenses (publicity, materials, venue), honorariums for visiting speakers,
- Food, when the project includes an educational component and a high level of student involvement.
- Other expenses may be funded at the committee’s discretion.
- Examples of ineligible expenses:
- Cash awards, prizes
- Non-student salaries or stipends
- Donations (monetary or material) to outside organizations.
- The committee does not fund projects that can and should be supported by grants or research funding.
- The committee does not fund curricular efforts or activities that should be supported by the regular university budget
- The committee does not fund projects supported by fees charged for performances, or exhibitions or lectures supported by other campus committees (Anonymous Fund Committee, University Lectures Committee).
Evaluation Criteria
When considering proposals, the committee favors projects that:
- Meet the proposal qualifications (see above)
- Cross departmental lines
- Have an impact on the educational and cultural life of the university community, particularly projects that benefit undergraduate students or are organized by students
- Seek funding from multiple sources
- Where applicable, have expended previous Knapp funding and submitted an impact report
Award Funding
The committee will notify all applicants of funding decisions by the start of the spring semester (mid-January). Funding will be available in the spring for all projects with the expectation that funding will be spent by the end of the next fiscal year.
All recipients must submit an impact report describing how funded activities benefitted UW–Madison students and furthered Mr. Knapp’s goal “to cultivate the student body ideals of honesty, sincerity, earnestness, tolerance, and social and political obligations.”
About Kemper Knapp
When Kemper K. Knapp graduated from the university in 1879, his classmates included Charles Van Hise, Robert La Follette, and Jean Bascom, the eldest daughter of John Bascom (president of the university from 1874-1887). Van Hise’s development of the Wisconsin Idea can be traced to these remarkable times and Bascom’s teachings that graduates had a moral duty to provide service to the people and institutions funding their education.
Knapp was strongly influenced by these connections, and over 50 prosperous years as a railroad company attorney in Chicago he sought to improve the lives of generations of students and gave thousands of dollars to the university, culminating in a $2.5 million bestowment in 1944.
Among the many, many ways his gifts have been used, the university’s Lectures Committee uses allocated funds to bring outstanding scholars to present lectures on wide-ranging topics, particularly related to “citizenship,” a tenet of the Wisconsin Idea.