Awesome Foundation Los Angeles Chapter

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OVERVIEW: The Awesome Foundation’s Los Angeles chapter supports innovative startups across a broad range of community interests. Many grantees work with children and youth.

IP TAKE: Children living below the poverty level are a consistent priority for Awesome Foundation Los Angeles, with numerous grants going towards helping youth have better opportunities. This is an excellent opportunity for small startups to score an infusion of $1,000 to get their ideas in action. Application consists of a simple online form, and trustees review submissions monthly. If your project is not selected in a given month, feel free to reapply.

PROFILE: The Awesome Foundation has a chapter based in Los Angeles, California. This is one of many chapters of the Awesome Foundation, which is a “global community advancing the interest of awesome in the universe, $1,000 at a time.” This chapter believes that “[n]o idea's too stupid, strange, sincere, or ridiculous.” The chapter is made up of a group of trustees who review applications every month. This funder does not name specific grantmaking interests, judging its applicants on innovation and the potential for positive contribution to the Los Angles community. Past giving has supported projects concerning the arts, technology, community development, human services, youth, recreation and more.

Grants for Youth, Education, Work and Opportunity, Health, Mental Health, Racial Justice and Community Development

The Awesome Foundation gives across a broad range of areas, selecting projects based on their innovation and merit. Most grants support small organizations in the earliest stages of development.

  • A majority of grantees work with children and youth. Recipients include Pages for Pediatrics, which provides reading materials for hospitalized children, and My Bedding Project, which provides bedding and other necessities to young people aging out of foster care.

  • Other recent grantees include Students Run LA, which helps teens train to compete in the Los Angeles Marathon; Dana’s Beauty Supply, which “reimagine[s] the beauty supply as a space for community, creativity, and critical dialogue,” and Acceler8, “innovative automotive education program for at-risk teens and opportunity youth.”

Important Grant Details

All grants are awarded in the amount of $1,000.

  • Grants mainly provide early funding to small, innovative startups.

  • Funding has only supported organizations in Los Angeles.

  • This funder accepts applications via an online application form and reviews applications monthly. According to the organization’s webpage, trustees “generally only review applications from the current month's pool,” so if your project was not selected in a given month, “feel free to reapply.”

  • Profiles of past grantees are available on the chapter’s web page.

Direct general questions to the Los Angeles Chapter of the Awesome Foundation via email at la@awesomefoundation.org.

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