Washington, DC
Shake Off Seasonal Sadness: A Hip-Hop Dance Party
От ANNASTAZIA MARIE UNCE December 2024Tulipalooza REDUX
От Jim Guckert October 2024Trinidad History & Future Festival
От Trinidad Neighbor Volunteers September 2024Local Authors Book Vending Machine
От Lauren Woods July 2024Cultivate DC Youth Changemakers
От Rachael Buck June 2024Small & Strange - A Lil House Art Show
От Tom Kim May 2024Museum Square Blooms
От Nhi Nguyen April 2024Melanie the Violinist’s Black Musician Academy
От Melanie Bates March 2024DC Black Liberation School
От Jen Jenkins February 2024Labor of Fire
От Benedetta Castrioto January 2024Baldwin House Cooperative Association
От Baldwin House January 2024DAPSN Volunteers are Awesome!
От Meriwether Beatty January 2024Capitol Archaeology Sticker Activity Book
От Beth Pruitt December 2023Treehouse DC
От Qaree Dreher October 2023SW (Bellevue) Halloween Haunted House
От Marquis Haskel September 2023Introducing: the mobile law library!
От Rebecca Katz August 2023Blind DC Residents and Friends Paddle the Potomac
От Qudsiya Naqui June 2023Many Extra Only More
От Sarah Beth Oppenheim May 2023ASL Interpretation at Constellation Theatre Co.
От Anne Marie Wells April 20231st Annual CFA Youth Improv Slam
От Canady Foundation for the Arts / Marjuan Canady March 2023Our Climate, Our Action
От Savanna Neb February 2023DC Culinary Circle
От Christina Perrin January 2023Lady Bugs Literacy Love and Language Lounge
От Chenise Pugh December 2022Fresh Energy Wellness
От Lakesha Miller October 2022Bricks4Brooks
От Luke Voss September 2022Festivals & Regalia Project (TPE)
От Walker Donnelly August 2022Nash Street Gardens
От Ayesha Johnson June 2022Jazz4Justice Juneteenth Festival
От Shannon Gunn May 2022The Newtons VEX Worlds Fund
От Pierce Lilly April 2022The Mobile Music Project
От Patrise Holden, PhD March 2022STEM for Girls: Math Speaks Weekend Academy
От Shaundranetta Wood February 2022Get Off The Ground Project
От Tim Howard January 2022EMTomorrow
От Cornelia Williams December 2021Catching the Chain: Voices of the Incarcerated
От Dr. Britany Gatewood December 2021"Focus On Me" - Foster Youth Digital Stories
От Zoe Couacaud October 2021A is for Awareness
От Alicia Pinkett September 2021Dancing On The Air: The Teenarama Story
От Beverly Lindsay-Johnson July 2021LOC DOC
От Ryan Thomas June 2021DC Summer Youth 1988 Mural Restoration
От Jim Guckert May 2021Rise Above
От Jewel J Stroman April 2021Black Women & Mental Health
От Roddia J. Paul March 2021DC Queer Scifi Zine!
От dave ring February 2021Black Women in Opera
От Renee Ombaba January 2021PrimeAbility Biking Program
От Alex Clark December 2020Girlz by Design
От Katie Loos, Sam Carpenter and Katie Sigety December 2020Metro Secret Santa: Twenty magical gifts for 2020
От Secret Santa December 2020WeFitDC
От Ayanna Wells October 2020Keep DC Rolling!
От Leah Fantle October 2020Young Men of Promise: The Power of Purple Week
От Marc Williams September 2020SWIM UP DC
От Mary Bergstrom August 2020#BikeMatchDC
От Rachel Maisler July 2020Constellations Gift of Music Initiative
От Ellen Hwangbo July 2020The Future Foundation's Community Care Collectives
От Aiyi'nah D.Ford June 2020The Block Print Bike
От Allie Tripp May 2020Victory Hanging Garden Urbanized
От "Quest" Chelsea Skinner May 2020DC Shop Small
От Mallory Shelter May 2020Street Revitialization
От Lorraine Stanislaus May 2020Theatre For Shut-ins
От Andrew L Baughman April 2020Mask Making for Ward 8 Citizens
От Alli Mofor April 2020Artist support in the age of COVID-19
От Starsha Valentine March 2020LEARNING THROUGH THE ROPES
От Joy Jones February 2020"Country Road" Urban Pollinator Project
От Jim Guckert January 2020District Impact Skating Club
От Eric Karlins December 2019The Good Listening Project
От Frankie Abralind December 2019Terra pretta machine
От Matt McEntee December 2019The Lottery
От Xena Ni October 2019“What’s in a Wag?: Decoding Dog Talk in DC”
От Courtney Sexton September 2019Bridge Spot Graffiti and Paint Jam
От Alex Goldstein August 2019The Ruby Bridges Literacy Program
От Tera Proby July 2019Very Sad Lab
От Naoko Wowsugi June 2019B.E.N. with E.L.I.
От Shenita-Ann Grymes June 2019One Night One BUILD
От Will Leitch May 201933 | DC'S Game
От Lloyd Foster April 2019FUNLAND
От Charlie Visconage March 2019The Wash & Learn Initiative
От Allister Chang February 2019Eat Your Hart Out: A Fat Burlesque Revue
От Ophelia Zayna Hart January 2019DC Puzzle Swap
От Crystal Sanchez December 2018Sex Worker-Led Harm Reduction Pilot in DC
От M Strickland December 2018Night of 1,000 Fridas
От Theodore Carter October 2018This Could Go Boom!
От Erin Frisby October 2018Concerto on the River
От Chad Cunha September 2018Limestone of Lost Legends
От Lauryn Renford August 2018Museum of Bureaucracy
От Jason Haserodt June 2018TINY CAT - Dark Music Festival/Benefit for Charity
От Stephen Petix June 2018The Shape Up: The Barbershop Talk Series
От Charlyn Anderson May 2018Gourmet Symphony’s Taste Your Music Project
От Dr. John Devlin April 2018Good In Our Neighborhood Film Festival
От Yolanda R. Whitted March 2018The Genesis Intergenerational Program
От Elizabeth Miranda February 2018Plants and Blooms ReImagined
От Kaifa Anderson-Hall February 2018LISTEN TO MY HEARTBEAT
От Nyjia July December 2017Awesome Weekend
От Awesome Foundation DC November 2017All One City Meetups
От Justin Rood October 2017Prescription Ey
От Nick Farano October 2017dc1968 project
От Marya McQuirter September 2017The Protégé Project
От Clementina Maduforo September 2017DC hosts the AweSummit
От Awesome DC July 2017Mindful Mama Support Circle Scholarship
От Katy Cribbs June 2017PrintShop at New Community ArtSpace
От Rachel Dickerson May 2017Literature & Laundry
От Donna Lewis Johnson April 2017Elementary School Vertical Gardening
От Dee Dacey Emory April 2017Tightshift Laboring Cooperative
От Juan Reid March 2017Women in Horror Month- D.C.
От Caroline Carr Gould January 2017Children of Promise
От Sandra Bears December 2016Beat & Beans
От Carl Walker November 2016Community Bus Stop
От Umair Ahsan November 2016Theatre Prometheus presents CYMBELINE
От Natalie Thielen Helper (Managing & Development Director, Theatre Prometheus) October 2016NHDA Youth and Young Adult Hand Dance Symposium
От Beverly Lindsay-Johnson August 2016Anti-Bullying Movement
От Tyler McClendon July 2016Teen Food Action
От Rebecca Davis July 2016Punk Shot
От Naoko Wowsugi June 2016Tour De Bike Lane
От David Confer June 2016SOULAR SUNDAY in Marvin Gaye Park
От Christine A. Rhone May 2016DC Youth to Flint
От Samantha Davis April 2016Black Broadway on U: A Transmedia Project
От Shellée M. Haynesworth March 2016District Displaced
От Mark Thomas February 2016Design.District: Identity Lounge
От Somos Thompson January 2016Up Top Acres
От Jeffrey Prost-Greene December 2015CODE + YOGA
От Alexis Irias November 2015Rebuilding Re-entry Hackathon - DC
От Laurin Hodge October 2015COMEDY HACK DAY DC
От Kelli Herod September 2015The DC Wheels -Summer Santa-
От Jimmy Pelletier - The DC Wheels August 2015ATTIC DC
От Tarek Anandan July 2015Lead the Way Expedition
От Bonnie Johnson June 2015RightRides DC
От Zosia Sztykowski May 2015Day of Archaeology Festival
От Alexandra Jones April 2015Ward 8 Farmers Market
От Nathan Harrington February 2015Just Be
От Shannon Quinn January 2015Lincoln Road Looks
От Tia Thompson December 2014The Day of Learning
От Danny Harris September 2014STEAMfwd ™Creating socially responsible innovators
От Christine Johnson (DiversiTech) July 2014Kingman Park-Rosedale Community Garden
От Kingman Park-Rosedale Community Garden June 2014Peace Camp Scholarships for Refugee Kids
От Mary Liepold March 2014Funk Parade
От Justin Rood March 2014Floor Charts
От William Gray November 2013Fair Trade Music DC
От Chris Naoum September 2013Radio CPR Transmitter Repair
От Radio CPR August 2013More Sound Bike
От Rafi Bortnick July 2013THE MOBILE LANGUAGE MUSEUM
От JOHN-JOSEPH SMITH, PRESIDENT May 2013The DC Neighborhood Portal
От Jim Webb April 2013myDeanwood Polaroid Project
От seshat Walker January 2013The EarPhone Project
От Malauna Steele October 2012Wangari Gardens
От Michael Durante September 2012Connecting Communities Through Wireless Networks
От Ann Millspaugh August 2012Outfit Our Kitchen Classroom
От Frances Evangelista July 2012Make a low income farmers market awesome
От Michael Segal July 2012CodeNow
От Ryan Seashore December 2011Bluebrain's 'The Living House'
От Ryan Holladay December 2011DC Sound Garden
От Jocelyn Frank December 2011Audio Warhol
От CounterPoint December 2011Awesome Students Reinvent the World
От Katie Kindle December 2011Arts Mentoring: Spring 2012
От Katrieia Snipes August 2011Indiana Jones and the Alley of Doom
От Laurenellen McCann August 2011One Night Stand
От Randall Scott July 2011GirlTrek
От Vanessa Garrison May 2011Petworth Jazz Project
От Thomas Pipkin March 2011DC Diaper Bank - Nonprofit Fees & Website Launch
От Corinne Cannon January 2011Fab Lab DC
От P. D. Klein December 2010За Нас
Next grant deadline: Sunday, January 19th
Have an idea to make DC more awesome? Watch this grant applicant guide, read our example grant guide, and apply for a $1,000 grant!
(Fysa, upcoming future monthly grant deadline: February 16, 2025.)
What is Awesome Foundation DC?
We are a giving circle collective of DC residents who help fund a wide spectrum of amazing arts, culture, and community experiences, ranging from the founding Funk Parade to the Indiana Jones and The Alley of Doom to seed-bombing Capitol Hill to DC Bike Party's Sound Bike to Hand-Dancing, a DC-originated style of Swing dancing to skateboarding Santa Clauses to recycled flower arrangements for senior centers, community groups and low-income housing to community hackathons to youth literacy programs at local laundromats to community gardens to human-dog communication training workshops to Floor Charts tracking Congressional charts (so DC!).
Our group and grant winners have been featured in The New York Times, The BBC, NPR, WAMU, 730DC, The Hill Rag, Fox 5, Brightest Young Things, PBS Newshour, Huffington Post, The Washington Post, DCist, Washington City Paper, ABC 7, Brightest Young Things (again!), DCist (again!), Capitol Hill Rag, CBS WUSA 9, Washingtonian, Washington City Paper (again!), Advancing Philanthropy Magazine, DC Inno, Brightest Young Things, Petworth News, East of the River News, Washington Post (again!), Congress Heights on the Rise, and at Creative Mornings DC.
We are entirely volunteer-run and self-funded from Trustees and use the following four evaluation criteria for funding projects that help the city of Washington DC be more awesome. Any grant applicant should answer and address these four areas:
- #1 - Is it awesome? (Is it unique? Interesting? Impactful? There's all sorts of types of awesome.)
- #2 - Does it directly benefit the city of Washington DC? (We put heavy weight on supporting our tiny city/state and the awesomeness within. Fyi, there are Awesome North Virginia and Baltimore chapters, so if your project is focused on those regions you might consider applying there.)
- #3 - Will $1,000 make an actual impact? (Some organizations are super-well funded so we focus on helping individuals and small groups to fund new, small but mighty projects that $1,000 will actually make a difference.)
- #4 - 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 immediate awesome impact in the community. If your project is a year away, wait to apply for a better chance at getting the grant.)
We also created quick video guide to help you apply for a grant:
Background Information, Grant & Trustee Guides and Frequently Asked Questions:
- Awesome DC Grant Applicant Guide, Pro Tips & FAQ
- Awesome DC Trustee Guide & FAQ
- Tax Deductible Donation Guide & FAQ
- Awesome Foundation DC Press Information
- Have a question or is something missing in these guides? Email DC [at] awesomefoundation.org
Love what we are doing and want to support the group?
We are an entirely volunteer-driven organization and completely self-funded by trustees' own money. In previous years, we've run audit of all of our finances and grants and found that our operating expenses are a mere 3.3% overhead (mainly spent on bank fees, our domain name and a batch of stickers we ordered to promote the group). That means 96.7% of all money that comes into the Awesome Foundation DC goes directly to funding grants in the community. This is pretty much unheard of in the nonprofit world. Want to help us fund more grants? There are many ways you can participate:
- Interested in becoming a trustee and/or funding a trustee spot? Read more!
- Buy some Awesome DC gear:From t-shirts to hot leggings to cornhole sets!
- Donations: We can take anonymous donations to help fund our projects if you'd prefer that: Check or tax-deductible donations: Contact DC [at] awesomefoundation.org for details
- Venmo: Send funds to AwesomeFoundationDC
- Paypal: Send funds to paypal.me/awesomefoundationdc
- Spread the word about us! Tell your friends, post on social media, encourage people to apply and evangelize the grants we give and Grantees we select!
Connect with us on social media to learn more about grant deadlines, awards & Awesome projects in DC:
- Twitter.com/Awesome_DC
- Facebook.com/AwesomeFoundationDC
- Instagram.com/AwesomeFoundationDC
- Linkedin.com/company/awesome-foundation-dc
- Or via our monthly email newsletter...
Background info on The Awesome Foundation & the DC chapter:
The Awesome Foundation is an international organization with nearly one hundred chapters around the world helping fund community, culture and arts projects that make the world more awesome and unique. Awesome Foundation chapters are entirely volunteer-run and self-funded through trustee donations. The 90+ independent chapters around the world that have have funded more than $5 million in grants globally. The Awesome Foundation holds the semi-annual Awesome Summit, in which all our autonomous chapters share best practices and bond with others Awesome folks from around the world. We hosted the Summit in 2017.
The DC Chapter of the Awesome Foundation was founded in 2010 and has given more than $100,000 to the local community for awesome projects. We pick our monthly grant winners usually at the end of each month and notify all applicants after the selection has been made. Here's a map of where our grants have been awarded in DC:
Learn more about the Awesome Foundation DC, from the Founding Dean, Bonnie Shaw (who is now spreading Awesomeness in Australia):
Founded first in Boston in 2009, each Awesome Foundation local chapter distributes monthly $1,000 microgrants, no strings attached, to projects and creators. At each fully autonomous and local chapter, the money is pooled together from the coffers of ten or so self-organizing, volunteer “Trustees” and given in cash to the grant winner each month.
Learn more about the Awesome Foundation vision from the New York trustees on CCTV:
Diversity & Inclusion:
The trustees of the Awesome Foundation DC are committed to supporting and embracing the diversity of the vibrant DC community. We acknowledge we are not as diverse as we should be to represent DC at the moment. While we cap the number of trustees at any given time to make sure the group is manageable, when we have openings for Full Time Trustees, we actively seek out diverse individuals who can commit and contribute to the group. If you or someone you know is interested, please read more about the Trustee experience and different roles in the Trustee FAQ and contact us at DC [at] awesomefoundation.org. Even if no openings are currently available please reach out, we value new, diverse voices in the room and would love to have you as a guest and keep you in the loop when openings are available. We also seek to fund diverse grant proposals and try to fund different projects that will affect large groups from different communities and spread awesome experiences to the diverse populous of Washington D.C. We try to not fund too many of any of the same type of event (for instance, community gardens or several book proposals, etc.) and are working to seek out and identify new grant opportunities in all of DC’s wards. For more grant applicant advice, please see our written guide and watch our video tutorial.
Stupendous Sponsors:
- Sascha Meinrath, former Full Trustee, Trustee of the Awesome Foundation State College chapter, Founder of the Open Tech Institute, and whose Acorn Active Media Foundation is our fiscal sponsor allowing for tax-deductible donations.
- Kristin Tracz is an Awesome Foundation DC Floater Trustee AND a Behind the Scenes Trustee sponsoring one of our Full Trustee positions to help us better represent the diversity of the DC community. She grew up in the DMV and is excited to be part of the Awesome Foundation making our DC community even more awesome.
- Shana Glickfield is a former Awesome Foundation DC Dean and founding Full Trustee, who sponsors one of our Full Trustee positions to help us better represent the diversity of the DC community.
- Steve Ressler is a DC-based entrepreneur and investor who fervently believes in supporting all things "awesome."
Are you interested in helping support Awesome DC as a Behind the Scenes Trustee? Learn more in the Trustee guide or contact us at DC [at] awesomefoundation.org.
DC Chapter Shout Outs:
We'd like to send out a special thank you to Bonnie Shaw, our chapter founder and founding Dean, and Shana Glickfield, Alex Dickinson, and Will Sullivan our longest-lived Deans, each serving more than half a decade, who helped shape AFDC to be the successful, model chapter it is in the Awesome Foundation network and DC philanthropy scene. Also, thanks go to recent past trustees and contributors for their awesome service! We continue to fund and celebrate awesomeness following their example:
- Charlyn Andersen
- Martin Austermuhle
- Alex Barth
- Sam Bishop
- Steph Bloch Newman
- Rob Bole
- Brad Bosserman
- Todd Bowers
- Corinne Cannon
- Austin Clemens
- Claire Corbett
- Peter Corbett
- Joel Daly
- Alex Dickinson
- Mark Drapeau
- Johann Ducharme
- Nick Farina
- Whitney Fisler
- Melissa Flagg
- Vanessa French
- Abigail Friedman
- Erin Frisby
- Dan Gordon
- Kate Gorman
- Garlin Gilchrist
- Shana Glickfield
- Bill Gray
- Danny Harris
- Joanna Hoffschneider
- Ryan Holladay
- Julie Hord
- Max Horwitz
- Alex Howard
- Philippa Hughes
- Shee Shee Jin
- Gene Keselman
- Elizabeth LaBerge
- Jon Long
- Miriam Magdieli
- Adam Martin
- Caroline Martin
- Laurenellen McCann
- Sean McDonald
- Sascha Meinrath
- Chris Mihm
- Sarah Miller
- Erik Moe
- Amy Morse
- Ellen Miller
- Eric Mill
- Barbara Mullinex
- Yantee Neufville
- Caitie Ofiesh
- Akiba Perry
- Ari Pollak
- Karolle Rabarison
- Marty Ringlein
- Todd Rudolph
- Wesley Sapp
- Miriam Schwedt
- Will Sullivan
- Jessica Teachey
- Krystal Thomas
- Frank Tobia
- Sarah Wald
- Kali Wasenko
- Kevin Webb
- Erica Williams
- Catharine Young