The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has announced a $20,000 grant to support and expand the grant-giving capacity of the Awesome Foundation Miami chapter. For more details, please see the press release or visit the grant page. Since awarding our first grant in January (a meditation program for high school students), we have received hundreds of proposals. Applicants have spanned every geographic area of Greater Miami.  They’ve come from a diverse group of applicants: from students to artists, business professionals to residents of homeless shelters. As a consequence, we’ve been fortunate to fund a range of awesome and uniquely Miami ideas such as surfing classes for kids, a community garden in Little Haiti and a mural display by local artists in Wynwood. We’ve also learned that $1,000 a month, while it provides enough to kick-start many projects, doesn’t go very far when you have so many applicants. Multiple times, instead of awarding a grant, we’ve brainstormed how to connect an applicant with someone who is working on complementary projects or an organization that might fund the idea. We hope to foster more of these connections that might not happen otherwise. Thanks to Knight’s support, we will continue to fund great ideas and build connections across our city through social… read more →

Thrilled recently to be contacted by Robi Esialimba, who is interested in starting up an Awesome Foundation chapter in Nairobi! Him and his co-founder Weldon Kennedy are putting out an open call for trustees, so drop a line to Robi if you’re interested or know someone who might be someone great for them to team up with. Here’s their pitch for the new chapter: Nairobians for an Awesome Nairobi – Join the Awesome Foundation Nairobi Chapter Nairobi is a bustling, happening city, full of verve and a palpable mojo attracting Kenyans from upcountry and foreigners in equal measure to experience its offerings. With its swanky bars and restaurants, artsy events and concerts, hip and yuppie culture, it feels like it has a lot going for it. But Nairobi has a dark side to it too: widespread poverty, spiraling crime, squalid public spaces, dust and pollution and unforgettably the pain in the backside matatus! Some of us look forward longingly to the next election hoping that, maybe just maybe, the next county or national government will get its act together only for those hopes to be brutally dashed – again. Many of us feel jaded and have implicitly or explicitly decided to “accept and… read more →

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A local group of 3D printing enthusiasts have teamed up with Internationally renowned artist Jeff de Boer to create “Linked,” the world’s first crowdsourced 3D sculpture, set to debut in Calgary this September, and they’ve won Awesome Foundation – Calgary’s 27th $1,000 micro-grant to help them do so.

AwesomeNYC is proud to announce their August 2013 grant to Climate Models Calendar, which will create a calendar featuring pictures of climate scientists and their favorite dataset, chart or climate phenomenon.  We were impressed by this project’s new take on communicating the work done by these researchers. Photography is a powerful medium that instantly connects subject and viewer. Our Climate Models calendar project brings climate research into the realm of the everyday public. The photographs break barriers between scientists and non-scientists — literally bringing a face to this important research. Most of what the public knows about climate science comes from distillations of scientific papers. The people behind these papers, their passion and their everyday working environments are rarely seen. In collaboration with Jordan Matter, a NYT bestselling photographer (Dancers Among Us), our Climate Models project will create powerful and compelling portraits of the researchers. For more information on the calendar, visit the project page!