After a year packed with meetings and paperwork, the Ann Radcliffe Trust is now up and running, with its first ever grants process well underway.

Director of the Trust Karen E. Avery '87 had received nearly 20 grant requests when the application deadline passed Tuesday, and she said the Trust expects to give funds to nearly all those applicants, provided their proposal fits within the Trust's mission statement.

The Trust aims to raise awareness of women, women's leadership and women's issues at Harvard and beyond, and funds groups or students who are interested in planning an event or project that deals with women's issues on campus.

The Trust will have nearly $20,000 to dole out to student groups this year. Much of that money comes from a gift of $50,000 made this summer by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

"We depend on that money to make these grants," said Avery, who is also associate dean of the College.

With the grants process well under way, Avery said she, College administrator Julia Fox and Trust student advisory committee member Aruna D. Balakrishnan '03 are also sorting through applications for the five student positions currently open on the Trust's student-Faculty Advisory Committee.

Establishing a selection process for future members of the committee was a major issue for the Trust last spring, after Avery herself selected the committee's first members.

Avery said yesterday that this semester, five members of last year's committee are returning, five representatives from women's groups on campus will serve on a rotating basis and five members will be selected from the student body as a whole through the application process.