Being Awesome at @awesomefoundsyd

This morning I discovered the wonderful news that I had been accepted as a micro-trustee and founding board member of the Sydney chapter of the Awesome Foundation. As clichéd as it sounds, it is so totally awesome.

What is the Awesome Foundation? It’s a group of 10 people in a city who want to fund stuff that’s just plain awesome with a no strings attached $1000 grant. The micro-trustees don’t want any sort of reimbursement, compensation or IP ownership around your idea – they just want to help you bring it to life. It originated in Boston in 2009, and has spread like wildfire across the world over the last two years.

I first heard about it when Ross Hill launched the Melbourne chapter at the end of last year and when Steve Hopkins and Bruno Mattarollo decided to launch a Sydney chapter, Ross introduced me to them as “the top contender in Sydney for the person who says Awesome the most in day to day conversation” – not sure whether that completely convinced them but I knew I had to put my hand up to get involved after seeing how something so simple could transform an amazing idea into reality. Additionally, their entire colour scheme is pink and I get to use the word ‘Awesome’ about a bazillion times more now, so it’s totally a win-win situation for me.

So what’s involved on my end? Every month the other nine Sydney chapter trustees and I donate $100 to a pool to fund the $1000 grant. There’s no tax deductions or anything like that involved. We receive applications from the Awesome Foundation website to review and once a month we will meet up, deliberate and decide on the idea that will receive funding.

We need ideas to review, so if you have an idea and you know it’s awesome - apply now.

I have been asked where I’m going to get this $100 a month from and simply I am going to sacrifice $100 from my monthly cocktail budget to fund this – which is a massive deal for me because many of you know I am obsessed with cocktails… so I guess my yardstick for establishing how ‘awesome’ an idea is will whether it’s worth the 6-7 cocktails I’m missing out on.

To give you some inspiration – here are some of the previous ideas that have been funded by the Awesome Foundation:

• A Human Sized Transformer
• A huge community hammock
• The Scarf-a-day project
• Robotic Desk Lamps
• A Cotton Candy Cannon
• City Rooftop Honey (The Melbourne Chapter’s first grant!)

If you’ve got any other questions, feel free to comment/tweet me, and there’s additional FAQ here. But I am looking forward to reading your applications for all those awesome ideas you have!

Finally, thanks to Ross for the connection and thanks to Steve and Bruno for letting me be a part of something just… awesome.

PS. I found this and thought it was the perfect way of describing what the Awesome Foundation does: