San Francisco, CA
99 Red Balloons
Por Ellen C McBarnette December 2024Take back joy, one pop at a time!
Por AZUL December 2024Midwinter Magick Festival
Por Luc Z and Sylvia Z November 2024Guns to Gardens Safe Surrender
Por sterling sam October 2024The Mindful Maze: A Playful Path to Community Conn
Por Jerreece Ann Jackson September 2024Homegrown Ceramics
Por Ada King September 2024Bike locks for community bike shop users
Por July Tenenbaum August 2024Hella Flowers
Por Victoria Hendrix Oppenheimer July 2024The Little Letterpress Museum
Por Don Buerer June 2024Wilderness Education for Immigrant Students
Por Anneke Castro Vonk May 2024Artivism at the Border
Por Maureen McGarry April 2024Wheelchair modding workshop
Por Liz Henry March 2024Bubbles: 101
Por Melinda Ramirez February 2024Young Riders Afterschool Program
Por Aisha McElroy January 2024Rice Hull Chair
Por Liam McArdle-Hankin December 2023Dance O Ween
Por Elyse Lefebvre November 2023The Pick Me Up Project
Por Julie Alland October 2023Rock and Roll Middle School
Por Sarah C Nelson September 2023The Fourth
Por Eirinie Carson September 2023Colusa Donation Based Garden Stand
Por Nicole Day August 2023"Dazzling Lights Over Water"
Por Mel Flores July 2023Lifting Fog
Por Lani Fehr June 2023Food Picked with Love
Por Audrey Lowell May 2023Crip Ecstasy
Por Octavia Rose Hingle April 2023RAINBOW FALLS TO COSTUME-CON39!
Por Melody Cooper March 2023StoryMap of California’s Water
Por Sarita February 2023The Chicken of Change
Por Kym Hansen January 2023Healing and Learning Garden Program
Por Dheyanira Calahorrano December 2022Everyone Needs Underwear...and Maybe Glasses Too!
Por Eliana Swerdlow November 2022BABELOGUE
Por Axel Osterberg October 2022thirdspace
Por Bria Goeller September 2022Rant Recital
Por Chelsea Hollow August 2022Loud Cinema
Por Isabella Parlamis July 2022TRAUMA, TRESSES, & TRUTH
Por Lyzette Wanzer June 2022Recycled glass art
Por Matthew Harvey May 2022Nothing is Poison, Everything is Poison
Por Orly Politi April 2022We Drank Tea & Stars
Por Josh Senyak March 2022Solar History Project
Por Rachel Parish February 2022Winter in America: "State of Emergency"
Por Pearl Ubungen January 2022Atrocity Hospital
Por Kyra December 2021Claim the Space
Por Nia Povroznik November 2021Kids gone camping! Together we rise!
Por Jennifer Teguia October 2021MiniMuseums
Por Sydney Parcell October 2021Once Upon a Time... Publishing
Por nicole jenkins September 2021Music Box Orchestra
Por Rick Darnell August 2021Clown Conservatory Documentary
Por Abraham Dover July 2021We Are Water
Por Heidi Quante June 2021Interactive Mural for School
Por Anna Grossi May 2021Lou Harrison Archival Sample Packs
Por Timothy Lillis April 2021Voices of the Golden Ghosts
Por Mark Oliver March 2021Tenderloin Resident Art Exhibition and Quilt
Por Mattie Loyce March 2021The People Who Make Elections Happen
Por Anna Rotty February 2021The Vanishing Hardwoods
Por Sarah Duryea January 2021Social Justice Financial Dominatrix
Por Min Yoon January 2021Queer Cat Productions 2021 Commission
Por Carson Beker, on behalf of Queer Cat Productions January 2021Reinvigorating several Community Gardens in BVHP
Por Isaiah Powell December 2020The True Tale of Princess Kaguya
Por Ai Aida November 2020Cirque Du Vote-leil
Por Jenny Gottstein October 2020Helping the disabled look and feel good
Por Still look good foundation September 2020Practice fundraising/Equipment
Por Jason Taylor September 2020SF African American Senior Narrative Quilt Project
Por William Rhodes August 2020Climate Resilient Schools
Por Lil Milagro Henriquez July 2020Un Respiro de Vida / A Breath Of Life
Por Belinda Hernandez Arriaga June 2020Bike Match: Free Bikes for COV19 Essential Workers
Por Stephen Braitsch (written by Alicia Escott) May 2020Within the First 50 paces
Por Frederick Green May 2020Something Labs
Por Sam Haynor April 2020Engineering for Covid-19 PAPR Project!
Por Zach Reed April 2020ICONIC HARVEY MILK
Por Khoi Nguyen March 2020Acknowledgment Committee
Por Acknowledgment Committee March 2020The Little Theater at the WSPS
Por William Lewis & Lea Redmond February 2020Val-U-Mart
Por Ad January 2020Fancy Phone Numbers - 16mm film
Por Sequinette January 2020"Waiting for San Francisco to Vanish"
Por Paul Wiley December 2019Solar-powered Internet for People's Park!
Por Marc Juul November 2019Dirty Kid Prom
Por Melissa Matheney November 2019Write vs. Wrong
Por Hannah Rothstein October 2019Re-Introduction of Pacific Tree Frogs to FFACC
Por Danielle L Fernandez September 2019Wildfire Progression Sculptures
Por Adrien Segal September 2019Russell City, CA: Documenting a Town Now Gone
Por Megan Wilkinson July 2019The Jellyfish Camera
Por Jeremiah Barber July 2019Buried Ships Project
Por Justin Oliphant June 2019Stoop Stories
Por Ellie MacBride May 2019Project Kolateral in San Francisco!
Por Mixkaela VIllalon April 2019We’re not going Anywhere
Por Richie Rhombus March 2019The Sideshow
Por Michelle Ibarra February 2019Star Stories Live, a Podcast
Por Kay Matschullat January 2019Song of Songs Seder Celebrating Queer Sexuality
Por Susala Kay January 2019Sonoma Poetry Festival
Por Meg Hamill December 2018Robot 44
Por Sean Cheong November 2018nègre
Por Simone Bailey November 2018Tricyclolo
Por Michael Arcega November 2018“Our Future Is Renewable”
Por Alessandra Mondolfi October 2018Every Record Ever Recorded
Por Hannah Blair October 2018mySight (Homelessness Blinders street theater)
Por Jennifer M Johnson October 2018100 Jars of Jelly
Por Robyn Waxman August 2018Ice on Ice: an Ice Capade!
Por Andrew Miguel Fuller July 2018Whose World Is This
Por Salvin Chahal July 2018Trace Evidence
Por Rachelle Reichert and Annie Malcolm June 2018The Art of Survival
Por Madi Pignetti May 2018Aaron Swartz Day VR Museum, Art Gallery, Fun House
Por Lisa Rein May 2018NGALAC
Por Mark Willson May 2018Liquid Loom
Por Cere Davis March 2018Fresco Exchange
Por Felipe Ortiz March 2018This land was made for you and me
Por Katie Williams February 2018Food For Thought: A 5-Star Ohlone Banquet
Por Malcolm Margolin December 2017Community Street Painting
Por Melissa Dickenson November 201734 Trinity Arts & News
Por Jackie Hasa November 2017Force of Nature: Women's Work Visualized
Por Sawyer Rose October 2017Gilded
Por Xandra Ibarra September 2017Insect Trading Cards
Por David Garnick September 2017"you've got my eyes" - a dork-punk show-n-tell
Por Mark Krawczuk August 2017The Artship at Playland at 43rd Avenue
Por Susan Ryan July 2017Another brief History of the Sunset
Por Alicia Escott June 2017Q-Finder: A view into the possible
Por Edith Borrebach June 2017Drag Queen Story Hour
Por Juliana Delgado May 2017Cyclecide Moving Fund
Por Cyclecide Civetgrass April 2017First Female President
Por Margaret McCarthy March 2017Nomadic Keyboard Trike
Por Jennifer Murphy March 2017The Banana Peel
Por Cody Frost February 2017Why Fish Don't Exist
Por Lulu Miller February 2017Resurrecting Lou Harrison's Lost Electronic Music
Por Ryan Page January 2017GollOrbs—Flying Wind-Powered Kinetic Sculptures
Por Jeffrey Gollober November 2016Replacing Missing Piers of SF’s Embarcadero
Por Julie Crossman November 2016Badass Boarders
Por Kasley Killam October 2016World's Largest Nachos!
Por Laura D'Asaro October 2016Mobility Scooter Cruise Control Circuit!
Por Zach Reed September 2016The Period Party
Por Meghan Freebeck August 2016Screen Queens Face Fail
Por Harris David Harris July 2016Deej - community engagement campaign
Por Robert Rooy and DJ Savarese July 2016Stellar Displacement
Por Albert Kong June 2016Neighborhood Seeds
Por Maren Salomon May 2016Gotta Give Us Hope
Por Jamie Beckenstein April 2016LYFT for Seniors
Por Jacqueline Zimmer Jones April 2016NOTAFLOF Collective
Por Liam Kelly March 2016People's Open Network
Por Marc Juul February 20161-855-LADYFUN
Por Joe Veix February 2016The 90-Second Newbery Film Festival
Por James Kennedy January 2016LuminoKinetic Artist / Engineer
Por Carl Pisaturo December 2015Smuggling Nature: Walking Poems Across Golden Gate
Por Leath Tonino November 2015San Francisco Moby-Dick Marathon
Por Daniel Herman October 2015Project I AM
Por Meghan Peter October 2015Re:Sound
Por Jen Boyd September 2015Oakland FIGMENT
Por Oakland FIGMENT Team September 2015homobiles app hackathon space
Por Lynn Breedlove August 2015Litter Critters
Por Debbie McCann and Althea Marie McCann Tabor July 2015Teaching Electronics to Visually Impaired Students
Por Allen Pan July 2015Tangible Possibility: playful speed dating
Por Lea Redmond June 2015Grow'n & Chef'n Proper in Lower W. Oakland!
Por Justin Vandenbroeck May 2015Villainette: Bangs
Por Dax Tran-Caffee May 2015War Gastronomy - Recipes of Relocation
Por Justin Charles Hoover (胡智騰) and Chris Treggiari April 2015Swing Low Sweet Bicycles
Por Anonymous April 2015Limbus Lab
Por Andrew Maxwell-Parish April 2015Land Action Squatter House Prototype
Por Marcus Owens February 2015Oakland students make the future!
Por James Kealey & Nicholas Gilpinwright January 2015The Bayview Bus Project: Art Not Ads!
Por Jericha Senyak (The Museum of Joy) December 2014Jam 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 2014Capturing Pinball Physics
Por Melissa Harmon August 2014Changing the world one love note at a time
Por shannon Weber July 2014Wildcat Hauling
Por Timothy Furstnau (with FICTILIS) June 2014Superheroes at Angel Island
Por Neil Rivas June 2014Musical Peddles
Por Alvin Shiu May 2014Automata Subterranea
Por Nick Jones (aka Nick Knave) April 2014NMU, The Wire People
Por Isabel Halpern and Lucia Sanchez March 2014Traveling Heart Hospital Bags
Por Caroline Lovell February 2014A Portrait Project at the Zen Hospice
Por Claudia Biçen February 2014A Stop to Bullying
Por Vinnie Kang December 2013Awesöme Orchestra Collective
Por David Möschler November 2013The Library of Joy (A Museum of Joy Project)
Por Jericha Senyak October 2013Poetry with Elders
Por Silvi Alcivar September 2013The Mobile Wishing Well
Por Kari Marboe and Erin Johnson August 2013Sleep for Moms
Por Suzanne L'Heureux July 2013StreetStage and Kids POP!
Por Jeremy Shaw July 2013EOYDC summer Science class
Por Ashaki Scott July 2013SF Postcard Project
Por Hunter Franks May 2013Your Store
Por Kathryn Kenworth and Sarah Klein April 2013Real Spider-Man Web
Por Abel Melecio April 2013Youth Community Center and Garden
Por Youth Revolution March 2013Growing Together: Neighborhood Orchard Project
Por Mallika Nair February 2013Valentine's Day Love Letter Scavenger Hunt!
Por Olga Nunes January 2013Today's Future Sound Presents: Beats4Lunch
Por Elliot Gann December 2012"Walking on the Wall"
Por Calen Barca-Hall November 201224/7 Bike Repair Vending Machine
Por Marria Grace October 2012The Golden Hour
Por Julie Crossman August 2012Sonic Kung Fu Battle
Por Mike Lai August 2012OuterBody Games
Por Jason Wilson July 2012Cardboard Castle Building Workshop
Por Charlie Hufnagel July 2012Bathtub Street Gondola!
Por Ray Oppenheimer May 2012Lunar Topographies
Por Craig Dorety May 2012Come Out and Play San Francisco
Por Jackie Hasa April 2012The Balloon-Powered Dance Party!
Por George Zisiadis, Will Skinner, Isaac Shivvers April 2012Scents of San Francisco
Por Zee Boudreaux February 2012Little Opera
Por Erin Bregman November 2011Ourshelves Lending Library
Por Kristina Kearns October 2011Inner Sunset Street Fair 2011
Por Adam Greenfield September 2011Inquiring Minds: Science Camp for Adults
Por Julie Ron June 2011Sidewalk Natural History
Por Joel Pomerantz June 2011Panoranima / Spitting Image
Por Finley Coyl May 2011Meanwhile, San Francisco Microcommunities
Por wendy macnaughton April 2011100 Dinosaur Painting Scavenger Hunt
Por Adam Davis February 2011Scarf-a-day
Por Meredith Scheff January 2011Hoods To The Woods
Por Anthony J. Carranza October 2010Papergirl San Francisco
Por Heather Tompkins & Colleen Stockman September 2010Sounding the Waters (Sea Change)
Por Claire Schoen July 2010Robotic Desk Lamps
Por Jonathan Foote June 2010A History of the Sky
Por Ken Murphy May 2010Sobre Nós
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