Washington, DC
Trinidad History & Future Festival
By Erie K Meyer September 2024Local Authors Book Vending Machine
By Lauren Woods July 2024Cultivate DC Youth Changemakers
By Rachael Buck June 2024Small & Strange - A Lil House Art Show
By Tom Kim May 2024Museum Square Blooms
By Nhi Nguyen April 2024Melanie the Violinist’s Black Musician Academy
By Melanie Bates March 2024DC Black Liberation School
By Jen Jenkins February 2024Labor of Fire
By Benedetta Castrioto January 2024Baldwin House Cooperative Association
By Baldwin House January 2024DAPSN Volunteers are Awesome!
By Meriwether Beatty January 2024Capitol Archaeology Sticker Activity Book
By Beth Pruitt December 2023Treehouse DC
By Qaree Dreher October 2023SW (Bellevue) Halloween Haunted House
By Marquis Haskel September 2023Introducing: the mobile law library!
By Rebecca Katz August 2023Blind DC Residents and Friends Paddle the Potomac
By Qudsiya Naqui June 2023Many Extra Only More
By Sarah Beth Oppenheim May 2023ASL Interpretation at Constellation Theatre Co.
By Anne Marie Wells April 20231st Annual CFA Youth Improv Slam
By Canady Foundation for the Arts / Marjuan Canady March 2023Our Climate, Our Action
By Savanna Neb February 2023DC Culinary Circle
By Christina Perrin January 2023Lady Bugs Literacy Love and Language Lounge
By Chenise Pugh December 2022Fresh Energy Wellness
By Lakesha Miller October 2022Bricks4Brooks
By Luke Voss September 2022Festivals & Regalia Project (TPE)
By Walker Donnelly August 2022Nash Street Gardens
By Ayesha Johnson June 2022Jazz4Justice Juneteenth Festival
By Shannon Gunn May 2022The Newtons VEX Worlds Fund
By Pierce Lilly April 2022The Mobile Music Project
By Patrise Holden, PhD March 2022STEM for Girls: Math Speaks Weekend Academy
By Shaundranetta Wood February 2022Get Off The Ground Project
By Tim Howard January 2022EMTomorrow
By Cornelia Williams December 2021Catching the Chain: Voices of the Incarcerated
By Dr. Britany Gatewood December 2021"Focus On Me" - Foster Youth Digital Stories
By Zoe Couacaud October 2021A is for Awareness
By Alicia Pinkett September 2021Dancing On The Air: The Teenarama Story
By Beverly Lindsay-Johnson July 2021LOC DOC
By Ryan Thomas June 2021DC Summer Youth 1988 Mural Restoration
By Jim Guckert May 2021Rise Above
By Jewel J Stroman April 2021Black Women & Mental Health
By Roddia J. Paul March 2021DC Queer Scifi Zine!
By dave ring February 2021Black Women in Opera
By Renee Ombaba January 2021PrimeAbility Biking Program
By Alex Clark December 2020Girlz by Design
By Katie Loos, Sam Carpenter and Katie Sigety December 2020Metro Secret Santa: Twenty magical gifts for 2020
By Secret Santa December 2020Keep DC Rolling!
By Leah Fantle October 2020WeFitDC
By Ayanna Wells October 2020Young Men of Promise: The Power of Purple Week
By Marc Williams September 2020SWIM UP DC
By Mary Bergstrom August 2020#BikeMatchDC
By Rachel Maisler July 2020Constellations Gift of Music Initiative
By Ellen Hwangbo July 2020The Future Foundation's Community Care Collectives
By Aiyi'nah D.Ford June 2020The Block Print Bike
By Allie Tripp May 2020Victory Hanging Garden Urbanized
By "Quest" Chelsea Skinner May 2020Street Revitialization
By Lorraine Stanislaus May 2020DC Shop Small
By Mallory Shelter May 2020Theatre For Shut-ins
By Andrew L Baughman April 2020Mask Making for Ward 8 Citizens
By Alli Mofor April 2020Artist support in the age of COVID-19
By Starsha Valentine March 2020LEARNING THROUGH THE ROPES
By Joy Jones February 2020"Country Road" Urban Pollinator Project
By Jim Guckert January 2020District Impact Skating Club
By Eric Karlins December 2019The Good Listening Project
By Frankie Abralind December 2019Terra pretta machine
By Matt McEntee December 2019The Lottery
By Xena Ni October 2019“What’s in a Wag?: Decoding Dog Talk in DC”
By Courtney Sexton September 2019Bridge Spot Graffiti and Paint Jam
By Alex Goldstein August 2019The Ruby Bridges Literacy Program
By Tera Proby July 2019Very Sad Lab
By Naoko Wowsugi June 2019B.E.N. with E.L.I.
By Shenita-Ann Grymes June 2019One Night One BUILD
By Will Leitch May 201933 | DC'S Game
By Lloyd Foster April 2019FUNLAND
By Charlie Visconage March 2019The Wash & Learn Initiative
By Allister Chang February 2019Eat Your Hart Out: A Fat Burlesque Revue
By Ophelia Zayna Hart January 2019DC Puzzle Swap
By Crystal Sanchez December 2018Sex Worker-Led Harm Reduction Pilot in DC
By M Strickland December 2018Night of 1,000 Fridas
By Theodore Carter October 2018This Could Go Boom!
By Erin Frisby October 2018Concerto on the River
By Chad Cunha September 2018Limestone of Lost Legends
By Lauryn Renford August 2018Museum of Bureaucracy
By Jason Haserodt June 2018TINY CAT - Dark Music Festival/Benefit for Charity
By Stephen Petix June 2018The Shape Up: The Barbershop Talk Series
By Charlyn Anderson May 2018Gourmet Symphony’s Taste Your Music Project
By Dr. John Devlin April 2018Good In Our Neighborhood Film Festival
By Yolanda R. Whitted March 2018The Genesis Intergenerational Program
By Elizabeth Miranda February 2018Plants and Blooms ReImagined
By Kaifa Anderson-Hall February 2018LISTEN TO MY HEARTBEAT
By Nyjia July December 2017Awesome Weekend
By Awesome Foundation DC November 2017All One City Meetups
By Justin Rood October 2017Prescription Ey
By Nick Farano October 2017dc1968 project
By Marya McQuirter September 2017The Protégé Project
By Clementina Maduforo September 2017DC hosts the AweSummit
By Awesome DC July 2017Mindful Mama Support Circle Scholarship
By Katy Cribbs June 2017PrintShop at New Community ArtSpace
By Rachel Dickerson May 2017Literature & Laundry
By Donna Lewis Johnson April 2017Elementary School Vertical Gardening
By Dee Dacey Emory April 2017Tightshift Laboring Cooperative
By Juan Reid March 2017Women in Horror Month- D.C.
By Caroline Carr Gould January 2017Children of Promise
By Sandra Bears December 2016Beat & Beans
By Carl Walker November 2016Community Bus Stop
By Umair Ahsan November 2016Theatre Prometheus presents CYMBELINE
By Natalie Thielen Helper (Managing & Development Director, Theatre Prometheus) October 2016NHDA Youth and Young Adult Hand Dance Symposium
By Beverly Lindsay-Johnson August 2016Anti-Bullying Movement
By Tyler McClendon July 2016Teen Food Action
By Rebecca Davis July 2016Punk Shot
By Naoko Wowsugi June 2016Tour De Bike Lane
By David Confer June 2016SOULAR SUNDAY in Marvin Gaye Park
By Christine A. Rhone May 2016DC Youth to Flint
By Samantha Davis April 2016Black Broadway on U: A Transmedia Project
By Shellée M. Haynesworth March 2016District Displaced
By Mark Thomas February 2016Design.District: Identity Lounge
By Somos Thompson January 2016Up Top Acres
By Jeffrey Prost-Greene December 2015CODE + YOGA
By Alexis Irias November 2015Rebuilding Re-entry Hackathon - DC
By Laurin Hodge October 2015COMEDY HACK DAY DC
By Kelli Herod September 2015The DC Wheels -Summer Santa-
By Jimmy Pelletier - The DC Wheels August 2015ATTIC DC
By Tarek Anandan July 2015Lead the Way Expedition
By Bonnie Johnson June 2015RightRides DC
By Zosia Sztykowski May 2015Day of Archaeology Festival
By Alexandra Jones April 2015Ward 8 Farmers Market
By Nathan Harrington February 2015Just Be
By Shannon Quinn January 2015Lincoln Road Looks
By Tia Thompson December 2014The Day of Learning
By Danny Harris September 2014STEAMfwd ™Creating socially responsible innovators
By Christine Johnson (DiversiTech) July 2014Kingman Park-Rosedale Community Garden
By Kingman Park-Rosedale Community Garden June 2014Peace Camp Scholarships for Refugee Kids
By Mary Liepold March 2014Funk Parade
By Justin Rood March 2014Floor Charts
By William Gray November 2013Fair Trade Music DC
By Chris Naoum September 2013Radio CPR Transmitter Repair
By Radio CPR August 2013More Sound Bike
By Rafi Bortnick July 2013THE MOBILE LANGUAGE MUSEUM
By JOHN-JOSEPH SMITH, PRESIDENT May 2013The DC Neighborhood Portal
By Jim Webb April 2013myDeanwood Polaroid Project
By seshat Walker January 2013The EarPhone Project
By Malauna Steele October 2012Wangari Gardens
By Michael Durante September 2012Connecting Communities Through Wireless Networks
By Ann Millspaugh August 2012Make a low income farmers market awesome
By Michael Segal July 2012Outfit Our Kitchen Classroom
By Frances Evangelista July 2012CodeNow
By Ryan Seashore December 2011Awesome Students Reinvent the World
By Katie Kindle December 2011Bluebrain's 'The Living House'
By Ryan Holladay December 2011Audio Warhol
By CounterPoint December 2011DC Sound Garden
By Jocelyn Frank December 2011Indiana Jones and the Alley of Doom
By Laurenellen McCann August 2011Arts Mentoring: Spring 2012
By Katrieia Snipes August 2011One Night Stand
By Randall Scott July 2011GirlTrek
By Vanessa Garrison May 2011Petworth Jazz Project
By Thomas Pipkin March 2011DC Diaper Bank - Nonprofit Fees & Website Launch
By Corinne Cannon January 2011Fab Lab DC
By P. D. Klein December 2010О нас
Next grant deadline: Sunday, October 20th
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: December 1, 2024.)
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