About Us

ABOUT US 

Have a crazy brilliant idea that needs funding? Awesome Watertown is a giving circle that awards $1,000 cash EVERY month to weird, wonderful, and timely projects that make our community more awesome. It couldn't be simpler!

The barriers to making things more awesome are a lot lower than we expect. You don’t need a fancy building or a big foundation, you simply need members of the community to get involved and have some fun. We hope to help people accomplish just that!

We’re an entirely volunteer-run and self-funded organization. We don’t distribute grants, and we’re not organized as a nonprofit (yet). 

Simply put: We give no-strings-attached cash to one awesome project every month. Your idea is yours alone. We don't want a stake in it. We just want to help you make it happen!

DEADLINES

►► Please submit your project ideas by 12:01 AM on the first of EVERY month.

►► Winners will be announced by the 10th of every month. 

►► Just because you didn’t win, doesn’t mean we don’t love your idea. Please don’t hesitate to submit again!.

APPLICATION

What makes a project AWESOME?

We use the following <very> loose criteria to select projects. Consider addressing these areas in your application:

►► Is it AWESOME? Is it unique? Is it interesting? Is it impactful? Maybe something is unfundable through traditional means? There’s all sorts of awesomeness out there! Click apply for a grant below to tell us about yours!

►► How will the project HELP the WATERTOWN AREA? It’s important to us to fund projects that directly support and impact our neighbors in the Watertown community. We put heavy weight on funding projects which benefit our community directly.

►► Will $1000 make an ACTUAL IMPACT?  We try to support individuals and small groups, rather than organizations who are already super well-funded. We’re looking for the small (but mighty) projects for which $1000 will make a huge difference. Be as specific as possible; tell us exactly how the cash will be spent, so we can best understand your idea.

►► Is it IMMEDIATELY actionable? Similar to the actual impact, we heavily prefer projects that are a month or two away, so that the money can create an immediate awesome impact in the community. If your project is a year away, please wait to apply for a better chance at getting the grant.

What do we not typically fund?

►► Personal use: We think you’re really awesome, but we can't give you $1000 for personal salary, a car, vacation, rent, home renovation, a unicorn, etc.

►► Charities, foundations, organizations: We’re primarily interested in new ventures and not the continuation of an existing organization. However, existing organizations with a new, specific, creative $1000 project can apply!

►► Promotion: We want to hear all about your awesome idea and how we can help make it happen. We can’t fund promotional material as it is the ideas we want to help with.