About Us

We're the San Francisco chapter. We love sparking laughter, discussion, action, participation. ⫸⫸

Want a $1000 grant? Please apply! We fund based on our personal reactions. We most love knowing your creative ambition!

NOTE: Profit-centered business projects will not be considered.

Who are we? See bottom of page ⤵︎ where you can also learn how and when to write to Joel, the Dean of Awesome for our chapter.

Our microgrants of $1,000 are given

⟁ with no strings attached

🗝 based on your awkward, inspired, short description

⦕ one per month, from usually 30–80 applicants, half of whom ignore the hints on this page, at their peril

⨳ preferentially to individuals—especially beginners—over organizations

Please tell us you have

🔦 an inspired way to address urgent issues or absurd ones

🎈while leveraging playfulness

⦿ and community cohesion

⚡with plans we'd find unpredictable!

Best projects are

⊱ informal

☂ easy to accomplish with just $1,000

✂ deviations from the main work of your life or your nonprofit or your bigger project

⚗ experiments subject to change as you go along

⥹ interactive or public in some way

➰ daring, odd, loose, too silly for a normal grant source to fund

⇅ within our region (very loosely defined)

Hints

∰ Rave about possibility rather than nailing down every detail. Vague budgets are OK, or skip it.

⏢ Represent an established organization? We probably are not your best backing source.

♨ Attempt something strange or something important using unusual methods.

⎌ Be unexpectedly political or wtf fanciful. Tap the mischievous genius of the unsuspecting public. Jostle patterns. Stimulate quaint solutions. Clarify or muddy, as necessary.

We view whimsy as an essential hacking tool and life as a wake-up call.

Break out! The world is serious and polarized. Grassroots political creativity is in short supply. It's time for ideas that tickle us free. As long as anyone is in danger from injustice, violence, or ecological crash, as long as short-term wealth priorities push sanity aside, as long as we're trained to fear, fit in, stifle creative urges, we feel that more awesome is desperately needed around here. Sometimes the best ways to tackle serious shit is by goofy whimsy or distraction.

Thank you for creating a more awesome world! ⫸⫸

When to apply ❓ ❓

Proposals are welcome any time. The grant is decided at our monthly meeting where we look through ideas that came during the previous calendar month. For example, apply in May and it'll be considered and announced some time in June. We only have funds for one project per month.

♬ Planning an event? Apply more than seven weeks ahead to give us time to discuss before your event. If time gets away from you, apply anyway. We may decide to support it, depending on what else we review that month.

Who are we ❓ ❓

The Awesome Foundation is a DIY operation—small clusters of people all around the world. Each chapter pools small personal donations then gives a local, collective, monthly gift from us. We’re informal, not some stuffy organization. Ask us questions or advice. Now. Whenever. Use sf@awesomefoundation.org to reach Joel, SF's 5th Dean of Awesome.

When to send an email to Joel ❓ ❓

℞ You have a question or want advice about applying

Ω You want to be a microtrustee (pitch in $100 per month, help decide grant winners)

⨕ You want to be on our community discussion list (Friends of Awesome)

⟥ You want to chat with Joel about something completely irrelevant