It’s with awesome pleasure that we can announce the founding board of micro-trustees for the Awesome Foundation Sydney! As you all know, the Awesome Foundation has been spreading it’s seeds across the planet these last 12 months and it’s exciting to see chapters opening up in places like Sydney, Melbourne, Toronto, LA and many more! The Awesome Foundation Sydney has been brought together by founding members, Bruno Mattarollo and Steve Hopkins. Like all other chapters, it will provide a $1000 no-strings-attached grant once a month to a project which the board deems suitably awesome. The founding board for AF Sydney is: Bruno Mattarollo: Proud Dad of one amazing boy. Has a love of the web and sustainability. Interests include human rights and social innovation. Steve Hopkins: @trampolineday founder and coffee drinker. Working with an ecosystems approach to make good stuff happen. Jess Nichols: Cocktail-obsessed social media tragic who works on the web at @deloitteonline (part of @green_dot). James Martin: Generalising technologist and asker of questions. Greg Turner: Interaction designer and djangohead. Greg is an interaction designer and computer scientist who specialises in emerging forms of interaction, online and otherwise. Alan Rogers: Thingmaker. Suzie Graham: India, Vedic philosophy, Reiki II, Philanthropy, Indigenous… read more →

This is a post from  Awesome Foundation Melbourne micro-trustee Jan Stewart. Tonight the Awesome Melbourne Foundation dinner took place for the second time. The thing that struck me about our meeting was the amazingly rapid development in social cohesion amongst the group and the creativity and transformation that occurred in each person’s life in the space of a month. The co-founders deliberately chose a very diverse group of individuals for the Melbourne chapter of Awesome. It can often take time for such diversity to find common ground. The element I underestimated in this whole situation is awesomeness itself. Each person in the group asked to be a part of this because we obviously love and value awesomeness immensely. It is this quality that we have in common, and it is this quality that was responsible for the massive development in social cohesion and creativity in a very short amount of time. In keeping our eye primarily on awesomeness, even though there was the temptation to be distracted by our differences, this aspect pulled us all together collectively and forward individually. Most people in the group also experienced a massive shift in their personal life circumstances within the last month, from choosing… read more →

Next month will mark the 1-year anniversary of the Awesome Foundation San Francisco, and we thought, “Close enough. Let’s have a party!” So on Sunday, February 13th, we held our first Awesome Foundation SF party (hopefully the first of many to come), and invited past recipients and friends to come celebrate with us. In true Awesome fashion, what started off as a just-for-fun get together turned into an inspiring look at how micro-financing of local innovators can encourage large-scale change. The party was produced on a modest budget with each trustee chipping in just enough to supply a little hummus, some wine, and perhaps 1 too many cases of beer (my bad). Hosted by the lovely people of PariSoma in downtown San Francisco, the spirited crowd was a diverse collection of go-getting artists, scientists, DIY makers, and general do-gooders. Jesse Taggert, our Dean of Awesome, kicked off the party with a few introductions to the trustees and a quick congrats to this year’s recipients. Then, since most of them have never met one another, each recipient got an opportunity to say a few words about their project and give thanks to their amazing partners in crime. And thanks to Rod… read more →

We’re throwing a party on March 23 and we want you there! Word on the street says it’s going to be AWESOME! The Awesome Foundation DC has been around for a few months now, we’ve funded a handful of spectacular projects, and have been overwhelmed with all the awesomely enthusiastic applications we have received from our community here. You guys are truly… well shucks… you know. So now it’s time to share that awesomeness with the rest of the District. We hope will join us to officially launch the Awesome Foundation DC and celebrate just how awesome you all are. Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011, 6 – 10 p.m DISTRICT, 2473 18th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009  (in the heart of Adams Morgan) Get in and grab your ticket now: http://dcawesome.eventbrite.com/ Your $10 Ticket to Awesome includes: 1 drink and 3 Awesome Tokens to donate to a selection of people who will be demo’ing their awesome ideas! ($15 = 8 Awesome Tokens, $20 = 13 Awesome Tokens…) There will also be opportunities to share your very own awesome ideas, and of course, awesome DJ’s, drinks and dancing. Hope you can make it! Tell your friends. All welcome. It’s going to be…… read more →

Spring is in the air and we’re excited here in DC.  In fact, we’re toe tapping, booty shaking, finger clicking excited. You could say we’re just totally jazzed to announce our February grant recipient. A huge Awesome Foundation DC congratulations to Tom Pipkin (who tries to be awesome, often), and his project, The Pentworth Jazz Festival – a monthly jazz performance in the local park for the residents and neighbors of Petworth to enjoy, and an excuse for people to meet and interact. The performances will take place about an hour before dusk on Saturdays, once a month over Spring and Summer. Tom told us that “I believe it will show folks how easy it is to bring arts and music to local communities.  There is tons of talent in this city, and loads of people who are thirsty for it. Without this Awesome Grant, I wouldn’t be able to fund the project.” We were particularly impressed with Tom’s ability to describe how his skills and experience would make this a viable and achievable project. He was able to clearly explain how he would spend the grant money (to pay musicians and purchase some AV equipment), and he has already… read more →