The Awesome Foundation Grant (Chicago chapter)

The Awesome Foundation Grant (Chicago chapter) is sponsored by The Awesome Foundation (Chicago chapter). The Awesome Foundation is a global network that provides $1,000 micro-grants to support innovative and impactful projects. Each chapter operates independently, usually awarding grants monthly.

Chicago, IL - The Awesome Foundation Live at principle barbers: TIMBRE Jazz at RT 66 HOTDOG HOTDOG: 4D Audiovisual Experience The Real Steele: Messages From the Mic Bad Draft Reading Series 2026 Nabala Cafe's Sukoon Sessions Jordan Communty School Miyawaki mini-forest Chicago Alternative Comics Expo Cupcake Mentorship Canine-assisted literacy programs: CPS K-2nd Grade Light Up the Season Tree Lighting Celebration Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Right Día de los Muertos Community Altar/OfrendA Art in Motion Pop-Up: Douglass Library Edition Honor Boxes: Flowers While They’re Here Made in Chicago Literary Fun Run Tour + Q&A Fab Lab for underserved students Engaged Arts and Craftivisms By Anthony Michael Stokes Improvised Music for Pipe Organ in Chicago Raising the Bar for Women's Cycling in Chicago Little Village Arts Fest 2024 Ceasefire Choir Convening in Chicago Disability Dance & Ensemble Thinking Workshop Guardians of the Earth and Sky Euripides' Medea by Bump in the Night Theatre The Black & Brown Femme Film Festival Martial Arts & Self Defense for Refugee Kids Performances for hospice and bed bound older adult Alzheimer's/Dementia Ofrenda Bike Carrier Trailer for Orchard Village Bike Club LGBTQ/Seniors Movie And Dinner Events Picnic with the Pollinators Clear the Chicago River Bank of Invasives!

Ladies of Song Button-o-matic Women Who Discovered How to Measure the Universe Satire at the End of the World By Michelle Kliman + Michael Greene West Side Equestrian Trick Riding Club South/West Side Community Jams Reentry Program for women at Cook County Jail Public Classes in the Ancient Art of Popotillo By Breanne "Cari" Carlson Souper Heroes Feeds Chicago By Lauren Tighe (on behalf of Kenneth Purnell) Urban Native Transit Project By Becky DeGraffenried, Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative Real world skills in the surreal world.

Mutual Aid Garden and Free Seed Library The Go Hub: A Community Mobility Center Humboldt Park Cinema Club KEEN Winter Care Packages Gardening Club for Individuals With Disabilities Outdoor Micro Gallery for Terrain EveryMom Chicago Newborn Kits M. E. A.

N. Girls Empowerment Wellness Picnic Sensory Kits for Students at Esperanza School Summer Gardening /Recreation Youth Project Anne's Haven - Women in the Workforce OnWord Skate Co.

Building a Better Chicago By Lid Madrid / OnWord Skate Collective Covid Self-Care Kits in Domestic Violence Shelters Storytelling for Children with Visual Impairments Asphalt to Awesome: A Monarch Butterfly Garden Field Trips to the Circus By Rex Cassidy and Alex Cassidy The Gage Park Mural Project Stone Temple Community Garden - Fencing in Peace A Place to Demand Justice Put Your Hands Together-Emergency Food Assistance Project 1033: A proposal to empower Chicagoans By Institute for Transparent Policing By Chicago Awesome Foundation The Connection Community Garden CPR for the Deaf and Disabled Rogers Park Community Response Team (RPCRT) Jumping Juniors Double Dutch COVID-19 Emergency Response Programming Community Language Classes Online Scholastic Chess Tournaments You Got The Juice (COVID-19 Emergency Assistance) The Arts for Illinois Relief Fund Craft Circle to Empower Our Youth Culture Coach Stage Comes to Your Neighborhood The Elders of South Side Music Legacies By Brandon Payton-Carrillo Wasted - A Youth Production about Pollution Reflections on Fire: Abandoning Old Ideas Flu Shots & Drink Shots -- Immunology @ a Bar!

Helping Rebuilding Exchange Build for the Future Community-Based Scent Education TRQPiTECA Queer Pride Chicago 2019 - Sound System AMFM Presents: Feast "A Festival in Three Courses" The Chicago Mobile Makerspace Throwing a Citywide Wedding Ball for LGBT Muslims Crafternoons with LGBTQIA Elders Know Your Rights Education Safety Planning Clinic for Undocumented Families An Arm and a Leg:Podcast re: Cost of Health Care Ghostskate 2018 Season & Chicago Expansion Glass Case Mini Art Gallery at The WasteShed Afrofuturist mural in Englewood!

Where is Washington Heights?

Refugee Education & Adventure CHallenge (REACH) SHE CAST : a for-youth by-youth podcast Back of the Yards - Bread truck mobile art exhibit TECHNE: Electronic Music Powered by Girls Chicago OPEN STUDIO: A CELEBRATION OF CHICAGO'S DRAG SCENE YogaCare: Training Yoga Teachers on the South Side Operation Evergreen: Guitars Over Guns Program Empowering Teen Authors & Teen Publishers All-Latino re-imagining of WAITING FOR GODOT By Tympanic Theatre Company By Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford Project Onward Artist Book Water for a Thirsty Therapeutic Garden Operation Endangered Species Free stamps and envelopes on tax day Walk All Night - A Drum Beat Journey 4Us Girls Club Self-Image Zine Project Thresholds: Illusions for the Senses & the Mind Open Source Furniture: Enzo Mari Design Workshop Literature Emitting Diodes "I Looked Up To The Screen Above" By Catherine Paula Muskett Red Line Comfort Stations By Rhoda Rosen and Billy McGuinness Beach Party at the End of the World Memoir Writing Workshops for Seniors Community Portraits: North & South Lawndale Cook County Sheriff Beekeeping Initiative Multi-generational Community Engagement Screening Community Nursing Home Garden By Chelsea Middendorf on behalf of Potluck: Chicago Home is where the heart is...

Love Life Balloons (Johnny's Red Balloon Project) World's Largest Cardboard Box Castle By Elizabeth Ortiz & Gilberto Sandoval Dunes Learning Center Food Waste Education Garfield Park Positive Improvements Free Art for the Residents of Englewood Milwaukee Avenue Mini Golf Course The Great Fire: A Traveling Truck Show Silent Theater Seeks Voice Da Favela to the Guetto: Pinhole Photography Open Source Scanning Tunneling Microscope Possibility Potlucks & "What if" Stores Neighborhood Little Free Library The Chicago chapter of the Awesome Foundation has been funding awesomeness in Chicagoland since the summer of 2011.

We've funded everything from little free libraries and puppet shows to electron microscopes and a temporary mini golf course on Milwaukee Avenue with no-strings-attached $1,000 grants. See a map of the projects we have funded over the years . We are proudly and excitedly connected to the wider Awesome Foundation network.

What's your awesome idea? Do you have an awesome idea that would make your Chicagoland-based community awesome? Of course you do.

Apply today for a $1,000 no-strings-attached grant to make your awesome idea a reality. Our short grant application is available here. The trustees review period is from the 15th to the 14th overlapping months.

We evaluate each month’s applications on the fourth Tuesday of the following month (2026 expected dates: January 27th, February 24th, March 24th, April 28th, May 26th, June 23rd, July 28th, August 25th, September 22nd, October 27th, November 24th, December 22nd) If you are unsure if your idea matches the types of project we fund, please review our past award winners listed above.

Financial Contribution : Commit $100 per month in the interest of Awesome in Chicago for at least 6 months. This contribution goes towards the $1,000 award we grant each month. Reach out if this is a barrier to joining Participation : Play an active role in accepting and reviewing applications, and in deciding with the other trustees by consensus who will receive the grant.

New Projects : With no specific leadership roles, every trustee is a leader in their own right. We like trustees to come up with new project ideas for the chapter to do, and help organize the group into getting it done. Trustees serve until they resign.

If you're interested in joining us as a trustee, we invite you to complete our rolling application , and we'll try to get back to you shortly.