An Awesome Foundation "Chapter" is born when a group of 10 seemingly normal people (or unruly misfits) come together and agree to pool $100 each of their own money, every month. Some chapters are assisted by more than 10 donors to raise funds for the grant. The self-organized group then collectively decides upon a project to receive their collective $1000.
While the Awesome Foundation's first circle of ten originated in Boston, MA in 2009, it has since exploded into a worldwide phenomenon with 89 chapters and in 18 countries. So far, the Awesome Foundation has funded 3079 3081 projects (that's $3,079081,000!). Each chapter is completely autonomous, and organized around geographic location or topic of interest, including technology, arts, food, social good, and beyond.
Ultimately, it is a way for regular people to philanthropically support other regular people's dreams, because we all know that it is regular people have the most ingenious flashes of brilliance, wildest fantasies, and diversity of interest and experience in making something unique happen!