San Francisco, CA
WormFest
Por Megan Kownurko March 2025
Support Group for Parents of Incarcerated Children
Por Melissa Wilson February 2025Healthy Soil and Waste Management
Por Antuan Jackson February 2025
Nature Collages: Blurred Apocalypse and Frolicking
Por Russell Stangeland January 2025
99 Red Balloons
Por Ellen C McBarnette December 2024
Take back joy, one pop at a time!
Por AZUL December 2024
Midwinter Magick Festival
Por Luc Z and Sylvia Z November 2024
Guns to Gardens Safe Surrender
Por sterling sam October 2024
Homegrown Ceramics
Por Ada King September 2024
The Mindful Maze: A Playful Path to Community Conn
Por Jerreece Ann Jackson September 2024
Bike locks for community bike shop users
Por July Tenenbaum August 2024
Hella Flowers
Por Victoria Hendrix Oppenheimer July 2024
The Little Letterpress Museum
Por Don Buerer June 2024
Wilderness Education for Immigrant Students
Por Anneke Castro Vonk May 2024Artivism at the Border
Por Maureen McGarry April 2024
Wheelchair modding workshop
Por Liz Henry March 2024
Bubbles: 101
Por Melinda Ramirez February 2024
Young Riders Afterschool Program
Por Aisha McElroy January 2024
Rice Hull Chair
Por Liam McArdle-Hankin December 2023
Dance O Ween
Por Elyse Lefebvre November 2023
The Pick Me Up Project
Por Julie Alland October 2023
The Fourth
Por Eirinie Carson September 2023
Rock and Roll Middle School
Por Sarah C Nelson September 2023
Colusa Donation Based Garden Stand
Por Nicole Day August 2023
"Dazzling Lights Over Water"
Por Mel Flores July 2023Lifting Fog
Por Lani Fehr June 2023
Food Picked with Love
Por Audrey Lowell May 2023
Crip Ecstasy
Por Octavia Rose Hingle April 2023
RAINBOW FALLS TO COSTUME-CON39!
Por Melody Cooper March 2023StoryMap of California’s Water
Por Sarita February 2023
The Chicken of Change
Por Kym Hansen January 2023
Healing and Learning Garden Program
Por Dheyanira Calahorrano December 2022
Everyone Needs Underwear...and Maybe Glasses Too!
Por Eliana Swerdlow November 2022
BABELOGUE
Por Axel Osterberg October 2022
thirdspace
Por Bria Goeller September 2022
Rant Recital
Por Chelsea Hollow August 2022
Loud Cinema
Por Isabella Parlamis July 2022
TRAUMA, TRESSES, & TRUTH
Por Lyzette Wanzer June 2022
Recycled glass art
Por Matthew Harvey May 2022
Nothing is Poison, Everything is Poison
Por Orly Politi April 2022
We Drank Tea & Stars
Por Josh Senyak March 2022
Solar History Project
Por Rachel Parish February 2022
Winter in America: "State of Emergency"
Por Pearl Ubungen January 2022
Atrocity Hospital
Por Kyra December 2021
Claim the Space
Por Nia Povroznik November 2021
MiniMuseums
Por Sydney Parcell October 2021
Kids gone camping! Together we rise!
Por Jennifer Teguia October 2021
Once Upon a Time... Publishing
Por nicole jenkins September 2021
Music Box Orchestra
Por Rick Darnell August 2021
Clown Conservatory Documentary
Por Abraham Dover July 2021We Are Water
Por Heidi Quante June 2021
Interactive Mural for School
Por Anna Grossi May 2021
Lou Harrison Archival Sample Packs
Por Timothy Lillis April 2021
Voices of the Golden Ghosts
Por Mark Oliver March 2021
Tenderloin Resident Art Exhibition and Quilt
Por Mattie Loyce March 2021The People Who Make Elections Happen
Por Anna Rotty February 2021
The Vanishing Hardwoods
Por Sarah Duryea January 2021
Social Justice Financial Dominatrix
Por Min Yoon January 2021
Queer Cat Productions 2021 Commission
Por Carson Beker, on behalf of Queer Cat Productions January 2021
Reinvigorating several Community Gardens in BVHP
Por Isaiah Powell December 2020
The True Tale of Princess Kaguya
Por Ai Aida November 2020
Cirque Du Vote-leil
Por Jenny Gottstein October 2020
Helping the disabled look and feel good
Por Still look good foundation September 2020
Practice fundraising/Equipment
Por Jason Taylor September 2020
SF African American Senior Narrative Quilt Project
Por William Rhodes August 2020
Climate Resilient Schools
Por Lil Milagro Henriquez July 2020
Un Respiro de Vida / A Breath Of Life
Por Belinda Hernandez Arriaga June 2020
Within the First 50 paces
Por Frederick Green May 2020
Bike Match: Free Bikes for COV19 Essential Workers
Por Stephen Braitsch (written by Alicia Escott) May 2020
Something Labs
Por Sam Haynor April 2020
Engineering for Covid-19 PAPR Project!
Por Zach Reed April 2020
Acknowledgment Committee
Por Acknowledgment Committee March 2020
ICONIC HARVEY MILK
Por Khoi Nguyen March 2020
The Little Theater at the WSPS
Por William Lewis & Lea Redmond February 2020
Val-U-Mart
Por Ad January 2020
Fancy Phone Numbers - 16mm film
Por Sequinette January 2020
"Waiting for San Francisco to Vanish"
Por Paul Wiley December 2019
Solar-powered Internet for People's Park!
Por Marc Juul November 2019
Dirty Kid Prom
Por Melissa Matheney November 2019
Write vs. Wrong
Por Hannah Rothstein October 2019
Re-Introduction of Pacific Tree Frogs to FFACC
Por Danielle L Fernandez September 2019
Wildfire Progression Sculptures
Por Adrien Segal September 2019
The Jellyfish Camera
Por Jeremiah Barber July 2019
Russell City, CA: Documenting a Town Now Gone
Por Megan Wilkinson July 2019
Buried Ships Project
Por Justin Oliphant June 2019
Stoop Stories
Por Ellie MacBride May 2019
Project Kolateral in San Francisco!
Por Mixkaela VIllalon April 2019
We’re not going Anywhere
Por Richie Rhombus March 2019
The Sideshow
Por Michelle Ibarra February 2019Star Stories Live, a Podcast
Por Kay Matschullat January 2019
Song of Songs Seder Celebrating Queer Sexuality
Por Susala Kay January 2019
Sonoma Poetry Festival
Por Meg Hamill December 2018
nègre
Por Simone Bailey November 2018
Robot 44
Por Sean Cheong November 2018Tricyclolo
Por Michael Arcega November 2018“Our Future Is Renewable”
Por Alessandra Mondolfi October 2018
Every Record Ever Recorded
Por Hannah Blair October 2018
mySight (Homelessness Blinders street theater)
Por Jennifer M Johnson October 2018
100 Jars of Jelly
Por Robyn Waxman August 2018
Ice on Ice: an Ice Capade!
Por Andrew Miguel Fuller July 2018
Whose World Is This
Por Salvin Chahal July 2018
Trace Evidence
Por Rachelle Reichert and Annie Malcolm June 2018
Aaron Swartz Day VR Museum, Art Gallery, Fun House
Por Lisa Rein May 2018
The Art of Survival
Por Madi Pignetti May 2018
NGALAC
Por Mark Willson May 2018
Liquid Loom
Por Cere Davis March 2018
Fresco Exchange
Por Felipe Ortiz March 2018
This land was made for you and me
Por Katie Williams February 2018
Food For Thought: A 5-Star Ohlone Banquet
Por Malcolm Margolin December 2017
Community Street Painting
Por Melissa Dickenson November 2017
34 Trinity Arts & News
Por Jackie Hasa November 2017Force of Nature: Women's Work Visualized
Por Sawyer Rose October 2017
Insect Trading Cards
Por David Garnick September 2017
Gilded
Por Xandra Ibarra September 2017
"you've got my eyes" - a dork-punk show-n-tell
Por Mark Krawczuk August 2017
The Artship at Playland at 43rd Avenue
Por Susan Ryan July 2017Another brief History of the Sunset
Por Alicia Escott June 2017
Q-Finder: A view into the possible
Por Edith Borrebach June 2017
Drag Queen Story Hour
Por Juliana Delgado May 2017
Cyclecide Moving Fund
Por Cyclecide Civetgrass April 2017
First Female President
Por Margaret McCarthy March 2017
Nomadic Keyboard Trike
Por Jennifer Murphy March 2017
The Banana Peel
Por Cody Frost February 2017
Why Fish Don't Exist
Por Lulu Miller February 2017
Resurrecting Lou Harrison's Lost Electronic Music
Por Ryan Page January 2017
Replacing Missing Piers of SF’s Embarcadero
Por Julie Crossman November 2016
GollOrbs—Flying Wind-Powered Kinetic Sculptures
Por Jeffrey Gollober November 2016
World's Largest Nachos!
Por Laura D'Asaro October 2016
Badass Boarders
Por Kasley Killam October 2016
Mobility Scooter Cruise Control Circuit!
Por Zach Reed September 2016
The Period Party
Por Meghan Freebeck August 2016
Screen Queens Face Fail
Por Harris David Harris July 2016
Deej - community engagement campaign
Por Robert Rooy and DJ Savarese July 2016Stellar Displacement
Por Albert Kong June 2016
Neighborhood Seeds
Por Maren Salomon May 2016
Gotta Give Us Hope
Por Jamie Beckenstein April 2016
LYFT for Seniors
Por Jacqueline Zimmer Jones April 2016
NOTAFLOF Collective
Por Liam Kelly March 2016
People's Open Network
Por Marc Juul February 2016
1-855-LADYFUN
Por Joe Veix February 2016
The 90-Second Newbery Film Festival
Por James Kennedy January 2016
LuminoKinetic Artist / Engineer
Por Carl Pisaturo December 2015
Smuggling Nature: Walking Poems Across Golden Gate
Por Leath Tonino November 2015Project I AM
Por Meghan Peter October 2015
San Francisco Moby-Dick Marathon
Por Daniel Herman October 2015
Re:Sound
Por Jen Boyd September 2015
Oakland FIGMENT
Por Oakland FIGMENT Team September 2015
homobiles app hackathon space
Por Lynn Breedlove August 2015
Litter Critters
Por Debbie McCann and Althea Marie McCann Tabor July 2015
Teaching Electronics to Visually Impaired Students
Por Allen Pan July 2015
Tangible Possibility: playful speed dating
Por Lea Redmond June 2015
Grow'n & Chef'n Proper in Lower W. Oakland!
Por Justin Vandenbroeck May 2015
Villainette: Bangs
Por Dax Tran-Caffee May 2015
War Gastronomy - Recipes of Relocation
Por Justin Charles Hoover (胡智騰) and Chris Treggiari April 2015Swing Low Sweet Bicycles
Por Anonymous April 2015
Limbus Lab
Por Andrew Maxwell-Parish April 2015
Land Action Squatter House Prototype
Por Marcus Owens February 2015
Oakland students make the future!
Por James Kealey & Nicholas Gilpinwright January 2015
The Bayview Bus Project: Art Not Ads!
Por Jericha Senyak (The Museum of Joy) December 2014
Jam Buckets. Hosted by Mission Science Workshop.
Por Kim Westberry November 2014O BEST BELOVED - 2014 Parks Tour Aboard FluxWagon
Por Idiot String (Rebecca Longworth & Joan Howard) September 2014
Capturing Pinball Physics
Por Melissa Harmon August 2014
Changing the world one love note at a time
Por shannon Weber July 2014
Wildcat Hauling
Por Timothy Furstnau (with FICTILIS) June 2014
Superheroes at Angel Island
Por Neil Rivas June 2014
Musical Peddles
Por Alvin Shiu May 2014
Automata Subterranea
Por Nick Jones (aka Nick Knave) April 2014
NMU, The Wire People
Por Isabel Halpern and Lucia Sanchez March 2014
Traveling Heart Hospital Bags
Por Caroline Lovell February 2014A Portrait Project at the Zen Hospice
Por Claudia Biçen February 2014
A Stop to Bullying
Por Vinnie Kang December 2013
Awesöme Orchestra Collective
Por David Möschler November 2013
The Library of Joy (A Museum of Joy Project)
Por Jericha Senyak October 2013
Poetry with Elders
Por Silvi Alcivar September 2013
The Mobile Wishing Well
Por Kari Marboe and Erin Johnson August 2013
Sleep for Moms
Por Suzanne L'Heureux July 2013
EOYDC summer Science class
Por Ashaki Scott July 2013
StreetStage and Kids POP!
Por Jeremy Shaw July 2013SF Postcard Project
Por Hunter Franks May 2013
Your Store
Por Kathryn Kenworth and Sarah Klein April 2013
Real Spider-Man Web
Por Abel Melecio April 2013
Youth Community Center and Garden
Por Youth Revolution March 2013Growing Together: Neighborhood Orchard Project
Por Mallika Nair February 2013
Valentine's Day Love Letter Scavenger Hunt!
Por Olga Nunes January 2013
Today's Future Sound Presents: Beats4Lunch
Por Elliot Gann December 2012
"Walking on the Wall"
Por Calen Barca-Hall November 2012
24/7 Bike Repair Vending Machine
Por Marria Grace October 2012
Sonic Kung Fu Battle
Por Mike Lai August 2012
The Golden Hour
Por Julie Crossman August 2012
OuterBody Games
Por Jason Wilson July 2012
Cardboard Castle Building Workshop
Por Charlie Hufnagel July 2012
Lunar Topographies
Por Craig Dorety May 2012
Bathtub Street Gondola!
Por Ray Oppenheimer May 2012Come Out and Play San Francisco
Por Jackie Hasa April 2012
The Balloon-Powered Dance Party!
Por George Zisiadis, Will Skinner, Isaac Shivvers April 2012
Scents of San Francisco
Por Zee Boudreaux February 2012
Little Opera
Por Erin Bregman November 2011
Ourshelves Lending Library
Por Kristina Kearns October 2011Inner Sunset Street Fair 2011
Por Adam Greenfield September 2011
Sidewalk Natural History
Por Joel Pomerantz June 2011
Inquiring Minds: Science Camp for Adults
Por Julie Ron June 2011
Panoranima / Spitting Image
Por Finley Coyl May 2011
Meanwhile, San Francisco Microcommunities
Por wendy macnaughton April 2011
100 Dinosaur Painting Scavenger Hunt
Por Adam Davis February 2011
Scarf-a-day
Por Meredith Scheff January 2011
Hoods To The Woods
Por Anthony J. Carranza October 2010
Papergirl San Francisco
Por Heather Tompkins & Colleen Stockman September 2010
Sounding the Waters (Sea Change)
Por Claire Schoen July 2010
Robotic Desk Lamps
Por Jonathan Foote June 2010
A History of the Sky
Por Ken Murphy May 2010
Acerca de Nosotros
We're the San Francisco chapter. We love sparking laughter, discussion, action, participation. ⫸⫸
Side-scroll through past grantees ⤴
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