The Wisconsin Department of Transportation Division of Motor Vehicles recently launched an online option for ordering special or personalized plates.
Wisconsin DMV offers 52 special plate options, plus the opportunity to personalize. The DMV Special and Personalized License Plate Application portal tracks all the options, estimates the fees and places the order online so new customized plates are ready faster.
Last year, more than 33,000 special license plates, which provide recognition for the sponsoring group, were ordered. 

A specialty license plate featuring Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member and Arizona resident Alice Cooper could hit the state's roadways later this year.
A bill passed by Arizona Legislature and signed by Gov. Doug Ducey earlier this month not only creates a new specialty plate design, but also establishes the Youth Music and Art Special Plate Fund.
The fund is dedicated to helping Alice Cooper's Solid Rock Teen Centers, a faith-based nonprofit based in Phoenix and Mesa that mentors people ages 12 to 20 and helps them discover their talents at no cost.
After researching specialty plates, the nonprofit determined having one would help to gain exposure and some extra income. 

Virginia has the highest volume of vanity — or specialty — license plates per capita of any state in the country with 19% of drivers owning one in 2021, according to a story in Virginia Living, citing stats from the American Association of Vehicle Administrators and the state’s department of motor vehicles. The state offers a wide variety of plates that let drivers associate themselves with good causes and nonprofits.

New Hampshire state’s license plates that include the state motto “Live Free or Die” are made by prison inmates working for New Hampshire Correctional Industries.

​Virginia lawmakers have passed legislation that will create a new license plate with the slogan “VB Strong” honoring the victims of a mass shooting in Virginia Beach.
The bill sponsored by Sen. Bill DeSteph has passed unanimously out of both chambers and heads to the governor’s desk for his signature, The Virginian-Pilot reported Wednesday.
The plates won’t be available until 450 people apply for them and pay a $10 fee that goes toward Department of Motor Vehicles operations by Nov. 20.
“It was a horrific tragedy, and we felt like this was just one way that people could help memorialize the event and ensure that people know that the tragic events that occurred that day are not going to be forgotten,” said Scott Humphrey, a legislative aide for DeSteph’s office.
The DMV offers more than 250 specialty license plates.

Dreams of the issuance of a special Reston license plate have fallen flat, and now those who applied will be getting their money back.
In 2006, Reston’s Dan McGuire began a campaign along with the Reston Citizens Association to garner enough support to get the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles to issue a Reston-themed license plate. Special license plates are eligible to be issued for any group that receives at least 450 prepaid $10 applications, as well as authorization from the General Assembly.
Virginia offers more than 250 unique varieties of license plates.
The design for Reston’s special plate, which featured the “Live, Work, Play” motto, was by Doug Fuller. Though McGuire and the RCA campaigned for the plates for several years, the effort fell short. McGuire died in 2013.
Tuesday, the Reston Citizens Association announced it will refund all residents who signed up. RCA says it will be sending notifications to all applicants, letting them know they have a refund coming. Any funds that are unable to be returned by Oct. 1 will be donated to a local charity.
Moira Callaghan, vice president of RCA, said 83 applications were prepaid. She said any future effort to create a Reston specialty plate would have to be “an entirely new campaign.”
“The best course of action [right now] is to refund these applicants and possibly start over,” she said.
For more information, contact Callaghan at [email protected].

If all goes according to plan, hundreds of cars on Virginia’s roadways will soon display a special license plate with a small gold ribbon and a far bigger goal: to make passing motorists think about the wide-reaching impact of childhood cancer.

During the General Assembly session this month, Del. Thomas A. “Tag” Greason (R-Loudoun) will present a bill that would make specialty license plates, featuring the gold ribbon of childhood cancer awareness, available to all Virginia drivers. The bill marks the culmination of a project started by the family of Mathias Giordano, a cheerful and athletic Leesburg youth who was diagnosed with a form of bone cancer as a fifth-grader in 2012.

Soon after his diagnosis, Mathias had part of his leg amputated and began a grueling cycle of more than 20 chemotherapy courses. In the midst of Mathias’s treatment, the family bought a new car to take him to his many appointments and out-of-state surgeries. When his mother, Roya Giordano, went to the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles to get a new license plate for the car, she learned that there was no special plate to signify childhood cancer awareness.“I requested the gold childhood cancer ribbon, and the gentleman behind the counter said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ ” Giordano said. “He said they had the yellow one for the troops, and the pink one for breast cancer. But no ribbon for childhood cancer. I thought, that can’t be right.”Mathias echoed that reaction when Giordano told him the news, she said.

“He said, ‘That can’t be right. Everyone knows what the pink ribbon stands for. We have to get the gold out there, Mom.’ ” She promised him they would.

Mathias died at home in December at age 13. Reeling from his loss, his family is even more determined to pursue an end to the illness that took his life. Compared with finding a cure, a license plate is a small step, Giordano said, but making people aware of the illness is critical.

“I knew about childhood cancer, but I didn’t really do anything about it before Mathias was diagnosed,” Giordano said. “It’s such a difficult and painful problem to contemplate.”