Addis Ababa (Inactive)

This chapter is currently inactive. An inactive chapter is one that has not given a grant in six months. If you are interested in re-activating this chapter, you can learn more about getting started.

About Us

ABOUT AWESOME ADDIS | awesomeaddis.org | @addisome

The Awesome Foundation is an international organization with hundreds of chapters around the world helping fund community, culture and art projects that make the world more awesome and unique. Awesome Foundation chapters are entirely volunteer-run and self-funded through trustee donations with independent chapters around the world that have funded more than $3 million in grants through 87 chapters in 19 countries.

Awesome Foundation Addis (Awesome Addis) is an energetic, action-oriented giving circle consists of diverse members of the Ethiopian-American, friends of Ethiopia, and residents of Addis Ababa communities looking to make a difference in Addis Ababa and its surrounding area, in turn making the city more awesome. Awesome Addis is the sole African chapter of the Awesome Foundation and we plan to make it the most awesome chapter in the world. #LetsDoThisAddis

AWESOME ADDIS: Making Addis more awesome, $1000 at a time. Our mission is to inspire & support ideas from young Ethiopians that can make Addis and Ethiopia an even better place to live, work and play.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH $1,000?

The Addis chapter of the Awesome Foundation aims to reflect the growth and change of Addis, the capital of Ethiopia and Africa. We are looking to fund awesome projects that touch everything from technology to education, art to social media, innovation and far-out creativity. All are welcome to submit their ideas! Applications are reviewed on a quarterly basis and grants are up to US$1,000.

BELOW ARE OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES:

We like things that are possible:

We're all for crazy ideas, but we also want to know that you can achieve what you're setting out to do. If a project fails, we want it to be due to the inherent risks of the idea, not the implementation.

We like projects that are not incremental:

Keeping a good thing going is great, but it's not what we're here for. We want our grants to help new ideas take off!

We like local projects:

We're invested in our local community and we want to do things that help Addis grow and prosper. If your project isn't based in the Addis area, we might consider it if it meets our other criteria.

We like projects that are visible and have a clear community benefit: Continuing with our focus on community, we also lean towards projects that bring diverse people together. We like to see people coming together through a project instead of enjoying it in isolation.

We like projects that are run by people: There are a lot of funding channels for established organizations, and we're all for that. However, we prefer to use this money to support individuals and small groups.

We like projects that are Awesome, also known as Arif: Like we said before, these aren't rules, they're guidelines. We are more than happy to throw away everything we mentioned earlier for any project that makes us stop in our tracks and quote Al Pacino in Scent of a Women “Whoo-Ah!"

YOUR APPLICATION SHOULD ADDRESS THE FOLLOWING FOUR QUESTIONS:

  1. Is it awesome, unique, or interesting?

  2. Does it directly benefit Addis and its surrounding areas?

  3. Will US$1,000 make an actual impact?

  4. Is it immediately actionable?

OUR ONLY RULES:

  1. The project must be feasible and completed within 3 months of the award.

  2. The money cannot be used for personal expenses or operating expenses for an established charity.

  3. You agree to report back to the trustees via a video or in writing; and tell the community all about your project, thus inspiring future awesomeness.

(Hint for success: In your application, state very specifically, how your project will make Addis even more awesome and please provide photos or videos that can support your application.)

Meet the Trustees