Basic Needs Microgrant FAQs

Any currently enrolled graduate student at the Ann Arbor campus can apply. You don't have to be in a Rackham degree program. Both domestic and international graduate students are eligible.

Undergraduates, postdocs, visiting scholars, non candidate for degree students, alumni, students on a leave of absence, and students from other U-M campuses are not eligible. We encourage you to visit the Provost's Office website which has a list of other sources of emergency funding available.

The RSG Microgrant can fund a wide range of eligible items, which include the broad categories of:

• Fitness equipment (Yoga mats, dumbbells/weights, fitness app memberships, etc.)

• Technology for remote work (Computer equipment (mice, keyboards, video cameras), office equipment, printers/ink, routers, hot spots, etc.)

• Personal Hygiene Products (Feminine products, soap/shampoo, hand sanitizer, etc.)

• Childcare products (Diapers, formula, medication, maternity/postpartum products, etc.)

• Health needs (First aid supplies, prescription drugs, co-pays for health services, etc.)

• Automotive needs (Windshield wipers, subsidy towards replacement parts, oil changes, etc.)

• Housing needs (Replacement keys, late fees for housing payments, groceries, etc.)

• Parking & Transportation (Parking passes, bus/train tickets, etc.)

• Academic Needs (Safety glasses, learning equipment, software subscriptions, notebooks, etc.)

• Tax Needs

This is not an exhaustive list of items that are supported or not supported by the RSG Microgrant Program. Other items in different categories can be funded and are at the discretion of the RSG Treasurer and the reviewers. 

Ineligible items

To ensure distribution of funds to those who need it most, the RSG Microgrant program will NOT fund the following items:

• Parking tickets

• Leisure items (Video games, recreational books, recreational drugs, etc.)

• Alcohol

• Meal delivery services (Uber Eats, GrubHub, etc.)

• Research items (lab supplies, reagents, etc.)

Based on our experience in the past, most payments will be disbursed through the Office of Financial Aid, meaning they will show on your student account and be paid out in the same way you would receive a student loan, a grant, or a fellowship. 

However, it's possible that the payment will end up on a paycheck (if you're a University employee, such as a GSI or GSRA) or that you'll receive a check in the mail. We don't have any control over the method, and we don't have a way of letting you select which you prefer—we're stuck with what they give us. 

For the fastest possible payment, we strongly encourage you to ensure your direct deposit information is up to date with the University (or to add direct deposit information if you don't already have it on file). Here's more information on how to do it: Enroll in Direct Deposit | Financial Aid | University of Michigan (umich.edu) 

Yes, but we won't fund more than $150 total per student this round. 

You must include each item on your application, up to a maximum of $150, as you can't submit multiple applications.

No, you don't need to fill out a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). However, we encourage you to do this each year (if you are a domestic student) to maximize the resources available to you.

If you have filled out a FAFSA and are receiving aid, receiving the RSG Microgrant could (but is unlikely to) affect this aid. See below.

It could, but it probably won't. 

Since it's such a small amount, it's unlikely that this award will affect your financial aid, especially if you are a PhD student, since most PhD students are funded as a GSRA, GSI, or GSSA, which is paid as wages and not subject to the financial aid system. Still, we're unable to promise that it won't affect your financial aid, as those decisions are made by the Office of Financial Aid in accordance with federal law. You should consult with them if you have questions about how this award might affect your aid. Visit finaid.umich.edu for more information and contacts. The only way we can assist you is by holding off on submitting your award, if you receive an award from us, until you consult with the Office of Financial Aid. You should notify us promptly when we send out an award notice if you want us to do this.

By applying, you agree that RSG won't be responsible for any problems with your financial aid that may arise from this award. 

We are unable to advise on any tax implications of this award. It may or may not be reported on a tax form, including but not limited to a 1098-T, 1099-MISC, or W-2, may or may not have taxes withheld, and may or may not be taxable at the time of filing your 2024 taxes. You should seek professional guidance if you require assistance. The only way we can assist you is by holding off on submitting your award, if you receive an award from us, until you consult with a professional. You should notify us promptly when we send out an award notice if you want us to do this.

By applying, you agree that RSG won't be responsible for any tax implications that may arise from this award. 

No. We consider equally items you have already purchased and are seeking reimbursement for, and items that you want to purchase but need the funding to buy. 

We may reach out for clarification if it's an item you purchased a long time ago, but as long as it's within the last few months, past purchases are just fine.

Not exactly.

We require you to submit, as part of the application, either a receipt (for an item you already bought) or an estimate, invoice, or some other kind of proof of pricing (for an item that you haven't bought yet). It must add up to at least $150.

We don't require you to follow up with us and submit a receipt for items you haven't purchased at the time of the application—we're just relying on the honor system, trusting that you'll purchase what you said you would. 

If you no longer need to purchase the item that you said you were going to purchase, we just ask that you instead use the funding for something similar that will also contribute to your well-being.

There are several aspects of our decision process, and it can be quite complex at times. We'll cover the basics of how we make the decisions.

Step 1: We quickly review each application and determine whether it meets our criteria (i.e. applications that request prohibited items, applications from ineligible individuals, and incomplete/invalid applications are rejected at this point). 

Step 2: We look at the resources we have, and the sources of those resources, and compare them to the eligible applications we received. 

Step 3: We evaluate each application individually, determining the level of need. (We may skip this step if resources allow funding all eligible applications within a subset.)

Step 4: We determine which levels of need we can fully fund based on our resources, and fund all the applications in those levels (starting from highest need and moving downward).

Step 5: Should funds remain, we take the applications in the next highest level of need (the level below the lowest level we were able to fully fund) and randomly select which applications to fund.

We try to be as fair as we can with our criteria, but of course, there is a level of discretion inherent to funding competitions like this. We reserve the right to adjust our process, and our decisions are final—we do not have an appeal process.

We are an entirely graduate student run organization, so we understand how financially difficult graduate school can be. 

We're sorry if we're not able to fund your application—in most cases, it doesn't reflect on the quality of your application. It's simply that we can't fund everyone who applies, and there may have been more needy applicants (or perhaps you were in a lottery category and just weren't selected).

If we were able to fund you, we're glad we were able to help, but we know it might not be enough. 

In either case, a great place to start is the Office of the Provost's list of Student Emergency Funds. These funds have far more to give than we do, although they usually have more stringent requirements than us. You'll want to consult the administrators of those funds for more information.

The Office of Financial Aid may have options for you too. If you haven't already applied for general financial aid, and you're eligible (the vast majority of domestic students are eligible for at least loans), we encourage you to do so by filling out the FAFSA. Then, contact the Office of Financial Aid to discuss your options. You may be eligible for a loan. It's not the same as a grant, but if you are in dire need of funds—especially a large amount of funds—it could be your best option for some quick cash flow.

No, this doesn't mean your application was denied. We don't necessarily send out decisions in the order that we receive applications. Instead, a number of factors go into when you receive a decision:

• Urgency of your application -- applications that we feel demonstrate a more urgent need may receive a quicker decision

• Workload/schedule

  • This could be the workload/schedule of your individual reviewer (your application was in someone's pool who suddenly had a lab crisis and had to set down applications for a few days, for example)

  • This could be because of the overall workload (we haven't finished processing decisions that have already been made, so in reality, your decision actually was made before your friend's)

• Availability of funds -- we might be trying to fund your application but have to make sure we can cover applications that have higher need first, and that means waiting for more potential high-need applications

It could also, indeed, mean your application won't be funded. Unless you applied for an ineligible item, or your application was incomplete or invalid, you won't receive a rejection until April 15.

In any case, please don't reach out to us for an update. You will be sent a standard response that we are working on it and that you'll receive a decision by April 15. We won't give specific updates or speed up your application in response to these types of emails.

It depends on what kind of edit.

• Before we give you a decision: For any edits, just email rsg-microgrant@umich.edu from your U-M email with the edit you need us to make.

  • We don't need edits to proof of payment (i.e. if you turned in an invoice, which was valid, but now have a receipt) unless you know you made a mistake on it.

• After we give you a decision

  • Email us at rsg-microgrant@umich.edu if your mailing address changes

  • Otherwise, edits aren't necessary

We know that some of the information you may want or need to share—whether that's the expense itself, or the justification for the expense, or something else—might be sensitive. We want you to know that we take your privacy seriously and have multiple steps in place to ensure that no one unauthorized accesses your information.

If you've applied in the past, you may have seen a note about applications being reviewed anonymously. After a careful evaluation of the process for this year, we've determined that this is not practical. But we're implementing multiple safeguards to avoid associating an application with an individual that someone knows.

• Reviewers will immediately hand off any application from anyone they know to another reviewer as soon as they see the name. 

• We're encouraging applicants to remove identifying information from their proof of payment/estimate document, as it's not necessary there.

• We'll instruct reviewers how to "hide" on their end, when the feature is available, names from applications.

• Reviewer access to applications will be logged, and only select individuals with a genuine need will have access to applications when the initial review is complete—others will have their access revoked.

In addition, the fact that U-M is a very large institution makes it unlikely that the individuals reviewing your application will have any idea who you are.

The Treasurer will have to briefly review each application to process it, even if they do know the applicant, but due to the volume of applications, they will likely only be looking at emails, dollar amounts, and general purposes.

Overall, we just want you to know that we're your peers—we know that you're sharing potentially sensitive information. And we're doing everything we can to keep it safe.