Some of you may have noticed that some things about the world are a bit depressing. Economic crises, unemployment, famine, poverty, disease… There isn’t much that we can do about these things as individuals, but there are some initiatives up and running that might help to make the world a slightly less depressing and slightly more awesome place to live in.

I’m talking, of course, about the Awesome Foundation! This group has been going since June 2009 when it was founded in Boston. Since then dozens of branch organisations have grown up around the movement and in August 2011 I joined the Ottawa chapter as a trustee.  The basic model is this: 10 budding philanthropists join forces and chip-in $100 each to make a pot of $1000.  They meet and decide (using whatever voting system they desire) which of a series of applicants is most awesome and, therefore, deserving of the cash.  The money is given without strings attached and any kind of project can be funded.  The only criterion is that the project is AWESOME!

I know all of the groups love to get as many applications as possible, so if anybody has an idea for something that would make the world a little more awesome then submit it through the application form on the website.

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P.S.  To give you some idea of how our group thinks (and all the chapters are different), the first project ever funded by an Awesome grant was a giant hammock that seated 20 and was made from recycled bottles, and in Ottawa we now compare all applications to a German guy who wanted to build a bike that shoots fire.  We would encourage safer projects, as well, though…