One Awesome Party.

Sunday, February 26th, 2012

Three awesome things happened last Wednesday in Melbourne.

The Melbourne Awesome Foundation turned one.

We threw a party.

We gave away $4,317 in our first mega grant.

 

We got together at Inspire 9‘s co-working space and were greeted at the door by probably the only Tram Inspector we ever will be happy to see.

We’d come together on this night on the common ground of a few things: we like to eat, we like to drink, and we like to spread awesomeness. Miss Tresna Lee, you are an epic party planner and many thanks go your way. Here’s what the night entailed:

 

- Rooftop Honey: One of our previous grant winners gave everyone a sample of their honey tasting spectrum; honeypots from each suburb of Melbourne. We have to say, Northside takes the cake. 

- We listened to the sweet sounds of previous grant winner, Tram Sessions, all night. Including the likes of Courtney Barnett and Johnny Rock and The Limits.

-The West Winds Gin boys got everyone talking: Sabre gin, matured lemon juice, crumbled Rooftop Honeycomb – need we say more.


-Miss Chu, the Rice Paper Queen gave us some incredible chow.- Little Creatures provided us some nice brews.

- Monk Bohdi Dharma made us believe that perhaps vegans do it better, with some ridiculously good cupcakes.

-10 kilos of Calendar Cheese stole the show.- Fabulous door prizes from  Market Lane.


Simon Taylor was MC for the night, probing the mega grant finalists on why they deserved to win. Here’s a quick recap:

-YGAP’s Five Cent Project: Collecting and doing something useful with the abundance of unwanted 5 cent pieces in Australia, totalling $150 million. This something useful involves the support of communities in Melbourne, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bangladesh and Ghana.

-The Art Truck by Felicity Strong: Taking the food truck concept one step further, Felicity plans to make a roving art truck to showcase local artists at festivals and around Australia at different events.

- One Girl’s Toilet Project: One Girl has already achieved a lot of awesome, sending over 100 girls to school in Sierra Leone. There next mission is to build two secure toilets within the school, allowing for not only the health but safety of their students. This is all stemmed from an incident where one of their students was bitten by a snake when walking to find a bathroom. So much awesome, and one tough decision. We debated, we persuaded, and eventually we all had to choose.

The wining project by just one vote was One Girl.

Kudos to a very worthy cause.

 

Posted by Leslie Swearingin at 5:19 am Comments

Awesome Squared. Welcome to Melbourne.

Sunday, February 12th, 2012

The Awesome Foundation begins their second chapter in Melbourne, Awesome Squared, with five positions available for the taking.

There are undeniably a lot of awesome things happening in Melbourne. We are after all, the most livable city in the world. That’s why the Awesome Foundation exists. So what if there was 2x as much Awesome?

Enter Awesome Squared. A whole new crew, a whole new vibe. Why? Why not?

Awesome Squared currently has five members locked in, they include one that likes to draw, one that writes, one that blogs, one that tweets and one that funds other mega grants. They’re looking for five more board members. Anyone can apply for the position or a grant by contacting contact@awesomefoundation.org and providing a short and sweet bio.

 

Posted by Edward Harran at 11:03 pm Comments

The Awesome Mega Grant Party!

Friday, January 13th, 2012

We’re throwing a party February 22nd and we want you there!

Melbourne is pretty awesome so when it throws a party you know it’s going to be one of epic proportions and unlike any you’ve attended before.

Since our founding nearly one year ago, we’ve funded $12,000 worth of awesome projects in Melbourne and beyond and have recently started another chapter to bring you twice the awesome each month. None of which would be possible without the support we receive each month from the community — you rock Melbourne!

And now it’s time for us to really share the awesomeness with you at The Awesome Mega Grant Party! We hope you will join us and become a Melbourne Awesome Foundation micro-trustee for a night to help us chose an awesome project to receive a grant of $3,000 plus. The more that is pledged, the bigger the party and grant can be. Funds raised through Pozible will go towards throwing the party and awarding the grant.

Every support pledge of over $50 will be given a vote, with bigger and better rewards available for larger pledges!

For support pledges over $100 you will be given a ticket to attend one of the coolest parties in town featuring:

- A super secret location (close to public transport) revealed the day of!

- A room full of beautiful awesome people

- The hosting brilliance of Mr Simon Taylor

- Cocktails from The West Winds Gin

- Food and wine from local producers

- Music from Tram Sessions

- And a showcase of previous Awesome Foundation grant recipients like Rooftop Honey

Make your pledge on Pozible today to be a part of the most awesome party Melbourne’s ever seen!

BUY YOUR TICKETS  —–> HERE 

All January and February Awesome Foundation applications will be in the running for the mega grant – get the word out!

Posted by Leslie Swearingin at 12:15 am Comments

Boston Office Hours: Part 2! Thursday, January 12th

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012

awesomedog.jpgEvery month we are floored by the fun/inspiring/hilarious/surprising/moving applications that arrive via the complex set of tubes known as the interwebs. 

At our last meeting we got to talking about how the text based format of the review process doesn’t do justice to some of the submissions we receive. Sometimes a tweak in how an idea is explained or the addition of a quirky twist to the project plan can take a really cool application and dial it up to completely freakin’ AWESOME.

To add that missing Interactive/3D/IRL component to the funding process, we held the first ‘Office Hours’ session in December. A bunch of Boston trustees hung out with awesome, super creative, dynamic peeps interested in applying for a grant. We discussed ideas and gave tips on strengthening proposals. It went so well that we decided to make it a regular thing.

HOW IT’LL WORK:
About once a month (most likely on a Thursday), we’ll hold court in an embarrassingly nerdy/trendy establishment after work. Ideas will be exchanged. Brains will be stormed. Noms and beverages will be consumed.

WHO’S INVITED?
You!  Trustees, past grantees, applicants, and friends/community members. We’re keeping it broad ’cause wouldn’t it be cool if some of these crazy/brilliant ideas met, fell in love, and had babies? In all seriousness, the people who apply for awesome foundation grants are an unconventional and remarkable crew. If we put y’all in a room together, hijinks will surely ensue. So, let’s get together, chat, and we’ll be happy to provide guidance regarding what makes a proposal stand out.

WHEN:
Thursday, January 12, 2012 @ 6:30PM – 8:30PM

WHERE:
Think Tank in Cambridge’s Kendall Square. (Check the map here.)

SIGN-UP:
If you can come to only part of the office hours, that’s fine but please do RSVP so we can coordinate. Reserve a time slot here on ohours.org or email Sam Novey at snovey@gmail.com. Make sure to include your email addy and cell number so we can get in touch if need be.

Posted by Kara Brickman at 11:23 pm Comments

AF-San Francisco Funds Operas Written and Directed By Little Kids

Monday, December 19th, 2011

Hello everyone!

It’s official: the trustees of Awesome Foundation San Francisco are extremely proud this month to make an award to Erin Bregman of the Little Opera Company. Erin’s project is simple, but awesome. She works with children between 2nd and 5th grade at the West Portal Elementary School to write, produce, and perform complete operas. That’s singing and dancing.

Since they come out of the collective minds of the kids that Erin works with, the topics of these operas are unbelievably intense: previous works have included operas about evil ponies on Mars, pirates, and Custer’s Last Stand (see video above). Naturally, we’re all about this, so AF-SF is helping to fund their upcoming production in March. We’ll post more details as they come together – but from what Erin tells us, the performance is set to include wild animals, magical moons, and spooky forests, so it pretty much is going to be awesome.

Also: they’re looking for people to lend a hand! If you know of a small performance space that might be a good place for it – be sure to drop us a line at contact@awesomefoundation.org. Also, if you’re interested in donating to these efforts, the Little Opera Company has a page set up over at IndieGoGo where you can help out.

In short, we’re ridiculously excited. Congratulations Erin!

Posted by Tim Hwang at 6:23 am Comments
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