Changes

Tim Hwang founded The Awesome Foundation in 2009, to address his frustration with the unavailability of small amounts of funding for small projects. So, he rallied 10 friends to begin this experiment in 'guerilla funding'. In their home-made Foundation, anyone could be eligible for the $1000 grant by submitting a simple application on their foundation's website.

They found that $1000 was a very sweet amount of money- it was small enough that the trustees did not worry about risk in what they were investing in, knowing another month would role roll around fast, but it was plenty of funding to legitimize the awesomeness of a person's idea and motivate them to GO BIG with it (like an activation energy!). The grants began to create great ripple effects in the community; festivals funded once would reoccur annually, people's inventions would receive media coverage and lead to more inventions, and they would find highly commendable applications at home and abroad. Casual tinkerers were becoming bonafide citizen problem solvers! Communities And in their communities, and it didn't take billionaires to get them started. 

In 2011, in the wake of the Haiti Earthquake foreign aid scramble, the Foundation established [https://www.awesomestudies.org/ <b>The Institute on Higher Awesome Studies</b>]&nbsp;with the resounding cry for alternatives to traditional forms of aid. Mainstream aid is plagued with many inefficiencies in short -sighted goals, rigidity and use of outsiders over indigenous resources and knowledge. AF&nbsp;recognized that their flexibility in being a sum of many decentralized small parts allowed them to adapt to tough aid crisis, chapter by chapter, month by month, and empowering task forces native to the areas they are trying to help. These chapters are already cropping up in New Orleans and Detroit.