More Miami residents with ‘awesome’ ideas to be funded and connected

Awesome Foundation expands micro-granting program with $20,000 from Knight Foundation

MIAMI – The Miami chapter of the Awesome Foundation, a global network that supports awesome community projects with $1,000 grants, will expand its local program with $20,000 from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Since its launch in Jan. 2013, the Awesome Foundation Miami chapter has helped strengthen Miami’s entrepreneurial and creative community by supporting compelling ideas that need seed funding to progress. With Knight support, the Awesome Foundation work to expand its impact by increasing the dollar amount and number of grants it makes. Additionally, the Awesome Foundation will develop a social marketing campaign to attract more applicants and hold events to connect grantees with each other and the community. In this way, the Awesome Foundation hopes to become a well-known source of small-scale funding for the best community ideas and create new ways to spotlight the work of grantees.

“We have only just begun to tap into the ideas of Miami’s creative community, like funding surfing classes for kids and a community garden in Little Haiti” said Natalia Martinez, trustee and dean of the Awesome Foundation Miami. “With our increased capacity, we’re looking forward to discovering and supporting more of these uniquely Miami ideas, as well as targeting outreach to specific groups in our community.”

“Miami’s emergence as a center for arts, culture and tech is becoming clear, however we still need to find new and fun ways to support our local creative community,” said Matt Haggman, Knight Foundation program director in Miami. “The Awesome Foundation is doing just that by creating an approachable, viable source of small grants for innovative ideas. By supporting these efforts we hope to strengthen the Awesome Foundation’s impact in Miami, while bringing more attention to opportunities for entrepreneurs and fostering connections between them.”

Grants are awarded monthly and applications can be submitted online by the 15th of every month. The application is available in English, Spanish and Creole to reflect the city’s composition. Funding is awarded with no strings attached.

In October, the Awesome Foundation Miami will host an event to bring together grant winners, past and future applicants, and those interested in learning more about awesome projects that are happening in the Miami area. The event will be free and available to the public. Stay tuned to @awesomemiami for more information.

The Awesome Foundation, founded in Boston in 2009, has since expanded to 80 chapters in 15 countries. Through these autonomous, self-funding chapters, $1,000 grants have been awarded to more than 650 projects that promote awesomeness in the universe, to total more than $660,000.

The Awesome Founation Miami accepts contributions through The Miami Foundation.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit www.KnightFoundation.org.

About Awesome Foundation

The Awesome Foundation is an ever-growing, worldwide network of people devoted to forwarding the interest of awesomeness in the universe. Created in the summer of 2009 in Boston, the Foundation distributes a series of monthly $1,000 grants to projects and their creators. The money is pooled together from the coffers of a board of self-organizing “micro-trustees” and given upfront in cash or check. The chapters are autonomous and organized by the trustees around geographic areas or topics of interest.

The Miami chapter of the Awesome Foundation has been in effect for nine months and is composed of 12 trustees. The group is excited to reflect the growth and change of the community and is looking to fund awesome projects in Miami that touch everything from technology to education, art to social media, innovation and far-out creativity. For more information on the chapter, the trustees, funded projects, or upcoming news and events, please visit the Awesome Foundation Miami website, follow them on Twitter, and like them on Facebook.


About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. We believe that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.