As the Executive Director and Co-Founder of AMPED (Academy of Music Production Education and Development), Dave W. Christopher, is use to filling out grant request forms. After all, grants help sustain many of the nonprofit’s programs, which includes instrument instruction, voice lessons, music theory, audio engineering, video production and photography, for at-risk youth ages 11 to 17 in a safe and productive environment at its West Louisville headquarters on 4425 Greenwood Ave.
However, the application titled “Are you Ready to Get Awesome” was no ordinary grant application. Sure, it asked for Christopher’s project’s title and how AMPED was going to use the money—but it also asked for his favorite movie quote.
Christopher wasn’t seeking a grant from just any foundation, but the Awesome Foundation. And the Awesome Foundation, says oSha Shireman, Awesome Foundation Administrator, “Carry the awesome all the way through the process so even the application is fun and easy.”
According to its website, the Awesome Foundation was created in Boston in 2009 as a global community advancing the interest of awesome in the universe, $1,000 at a time. Each fully autonomous chapter supports awesome projects through micro-grants. These micro-grants, $1,000 or the local equivalent, come out of pockets of the chapter’s “trustees” and are given on a no-strings-attached basis to people and groups working on awesome projects. Currently, 82 Awesome Foundation chapters across 18 countries have funded $1,783,000 worth of projects (1,783 projects funded).
Bringing Awesome to Louisville
Two and a half years ago Ben Reno-Weber, Project Director, Greater Louisville Project, met one of the Washington D.C. Awesome Trustees and knew immediately that the Awesome Foundation concept fit perfectly in the Louisville community. He secured the charter, but it didn’t launch until both Sasha Belenky and Susan Barry independently came across the concept and started talking about it. The three met once over wine at VINT Coffee, and the rest is history.
“There is already lots of awesome in Louisville and the more you connect, the more you find,” says Reno-Weber. “The concept of engaged, curious, innovative people joining forces to support the creation of more awesome in the world seemed a very easy fit for Louisville, and we have found that it is. Louisville is a canvas that is big enough to be worth painting on, but small enough that everyone’s paint matters.”
The Louisville Awesome Foundation gives $1,000 worth of paint six times a year. Individual trustees make a $700 investment per year to the foundation. But, Shireman is quick to point out, “we often find it is the ideas, expertise and networking of the trustees that offers the most value to the organizations and people funded.”
The Awesome Foundation model is setup to include 10 trustees per chapter at any given moment. “People step in and out as their life circumstances allow, so we’re always looking for new people. And the concept is cool enough that we always have plenty of interest,” says Shireman.
Anyone is eligible for a grant—individuals, groups and organizations. They don’t fund requests for personal grants (i.e. rent) or small business operations (i.e. admin or start-up costs). They admit to loving projects that involve social entrepreneurship, community building and technology and that benefit lots of people.
Trustees consider the applications via their online portal, vote to narrow those down to finalists, meet on the third Tuesday (or Wednesday) of every other month and invite the creators of their favorite projects to make their pitch. Directly after, they vote, announce the winner and hand over the money. Yes, it’s that laid-back and straight-forward.
“Ten people listen to a pitch and make a decision,” says Trustee Suzanne Bergmeister. “We want to fund awesome projects that help make our community more awesome.”
Projects Deemed Awesome
The most recent recipient of a Louisville Awesome Foundation Grant is Surgery on Sunday, Inc., a Louisville-based nonprofit that provides in-kind outpatient surgical and endoscopic care to income-eligible members of the community who are uninsured or underinsured. The program is modeled after Surgery on Sunday, Inc., which is based in Lexington, Ky.
Other Awesome Foundation grant recipients include the Happy Birthday Park; Squallis Puppeteers and Looking for Lilith Theatre Company .
“Sometime projects find us and other times we find projects to bring to the group,” says Trustee Trisha Finnegan. “Often times the grant is secondary to connections we can help a project make. We’ve helped organizations connect with potential partners and donors, even if we didn’t make a grant, and that’s often just as important as a grant.”
AMPED’s Executive Director/Co-Founder, Dave W. Christopher, first learned about the Awesome Foundation through Finnegan. “The entire experience of working with the Awesome Foundation was pretty amazing,” he says. “The members were so kind and helpful.”
During Christopher’s face-to-face meeting he pitched the AMPED’s Mobile Recording Studio. The grant was specifically used to purchase materials for the booth, which took on a life of its own. IdeaFestival invited AMPED and the Mobile Recording Studio to be a part of the 2014 festivities at the The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts. Awesome Foundation Trustees helped construct the studio. Today, the mobile studio can be rented out for events for a fee that goes back to support AMPED programming.
“The Awesome Foundation really cared about AMPED. They were one of the first organizations to offer to help us,” says Christopher, who still keeps in touch with the Trustees. “They are truly awesome.”
