The Awesome Foundation for

the arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive range of m ...

and

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

s is an international network of autonomous 'chapters' (groups) of

philanthropists Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

that provide small

grants Grant or Grants may refer to: People * Grant (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Grant (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters ** Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885), the 18th president of the U ...

for projects to "people devoted to forwarding the interest of awesomeness in the universe." Most chapters consist of ten trustees who pool contributions in a

crowd-funding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance, to fund projects "without standard financia ...

model and award a $1,000 grant each month to a project and person of their choice. Awesome chapters assume no ownership of the projects they fund and provide the funds with no strings attached.

History

The Awesome Foundation was founded by Tim Hwang in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

in 2009. Tim developed the idea along with Emily Daniels and Jon Pierce during a

road trip A road trip, sometimes spelled roadtrip, is a long-distance Travel, journey traveled by a car or a motorcycle. History First road trips by automobile The world's first recorded long-distance road trip by the automobile took place in German Em ...

to a meet up at

AS220 AS220 is a non-profit community arts center located in Downtown, Providence, Rhode Island, United States. AS220 maintains four dozen artist live/work studios, around a dozen individual work studios, six rotating exhibition spaces, a main stage, a ...

and soon after sent out the call for the first set of trustees. Less than two weeks after the call, the foundation announced its first trustees.

Notable projects

The Awesome Foundation has funded a wide range of projects including the arts, science, and social causes. Examples include creating a free library system in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

using birdhouses, growing mushrooms from phonebooks in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

, creating a free phone service for homeless people in Portland, and theatre for street youth in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

. The inaugural $1,000 grant from the organization went towards the construction of a giant, long

hammock A hammock, from Spanish , borrowed from Taíno language, Taíno and Arawak language, Arawak , is a sling made of fabric, rope, or netting, suspended between two or more points, used for swing (seat), swinging, sleeping, or Human relaxation, res ...

in Boston. The resulting final project set a record for the world's largest portable hammock, using curved steel pipes to frame 4,278 feet of rope fashioned from recycled bottles. A video of Random Swings of Joy, a project funded by the

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

chapter to install $1,000 worth of swings around the city, went viral in June 2011, receiving coverage from

the Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...

, and LAist. Swings have also been installed in the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is an island country west of the International Date Line and north of the equator in the Micronesia region of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The territory consists of 29 c ...

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, and

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. Following the success of the Los Angeles video, Jeff Waldman started a

kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

project to bring the project to

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

, where the median age in 2011 was just 22.5.

Chapters

There are 96 active chapters of the organization in operation. Chapters are based in cities or small locales around the world with four chapters dedicated to specific causes worldwide. Chapters are autonomous, though the original Boston chapter spearheaded an organizational model of

consensus-based decision-making Consensus decision-making is a group decision-making process in which participants work together to develop proposals for actions that achieve a broad acceptance. Consensus is reached when everyone in the group ''assents'' to a decision (or ...

. Chapters have access to all of the applications that the Awesome Foundation receives, though many will first look at applicants in their geographic area.

Institute on Higher Awesome Studies

The Awesome Foundation is an autonomous collection of chapters, but is loosely shepherded by the Institute on Higher Awesome Studies. The institute has applied for non-profit 501(c)3 status, and seeks to provide infrastructure (such as the Awesome Foundation website) and spread Awesome as widely as possible. Awesome Foundation trustees and board members include * Dan Barber, chef, Awesome Food trustee *

Amanda Hesser Amanda Hesser (born 1971) is an American food writer, editor, cookbook author and entrepreneur. Most notably, she was the food editor of ''The New York Times Magazine'', the editor of '' T Living'', a quarterly publication of ''The New York Times' ...

, journalist and entrepreneur, Awesome Food trustee *

Jennifer 8. Lee Jennifer 8. Lee ( Chinese name: ; pinyin: '; POJ: '; born March 15, 1976) is an American journalist who previously worked for ''The New York Times''. She is the co-founder and president of the literary studio Plympton and a producer of '' The S ...

, journalist, Awesome Food trustee and board member of The Institute on Higher Awesome Studies. * S.I. Newhouse IV, media executive, board member of The Institute on Higher Awesome Studies. *

Alexis Ohanian Alexis Kerry Ohanian (; born April 24, 1983) is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is best known as the co-founder and former executive chairman of the social media site Reddit along with Steve Huffman and Aaron Swartz. He also ...

, entrepreneur and

Reddit Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...

co-founder, treasurer of The Institute on Higher Awesome Studies. *

Ethan Zuckerman Ethan Zuckerman (born January 4, 1973) is an American media scholar, blogger, and Internet activist. He was the director of the MIT Center for Civic Media, and Associate Professor of the Practice in Media Arts and Sciences at MIT until May 2020 ...

, MIT researcher, board member of The Institute on Higher Awesome Studies.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Philanthropic organizations based in the United States Grants (money)