The Awesome Foundation is an online movement comprised of independent chapters around the world that self-fund monthly $1,000 grants from the group’s members. The Awesome Foundation is not a traditional foundation and does not make grants itself; rather, it provides a platform for local affiliates to be solicited for grants and to manage grant applications. The Awesome Foundation website is maintained by the Institute on Higher Awesome Studies, which is a registered charitable organization. ^{1 2}

Founding and History

The Awesome Foundation was founded in 2009 by Harvard student Tim Hwang (not the Tim Hwang who founded Fiscal Note). The Institute on Higher Awesome Studies board includes Alexis Ohanian, the cofounder of Reddit. ³ As of August 2023, the organization claims that its affiliated member groups have made grants totaling $6,409,000 to 6,409 projects around the world. ⁴

Finances

As the Awesome Foundation itself openly states in its handbook, it does not distribute grants like a traditional foundation. Rather, it provides a platform for the decentralized Awesome movement independent chapters. Its website and basic infrastructure is maintained by the Institute on Higher Awesome Studies, a registered charitable organization that does little more than maintain the Awesome Foundation’s website and volunteer infrastructure. ⁵

The Institute on Higher Awesome Studies does not have a publicly available tax return since 2014, having filed the IRS “e-Postcard” for small organizations in each year since. ⁶ In 2014, it reported $104,883 in revenue, the entire amount of which was derived from contributions and grants, $44,828 in expenses, of which $14,000 was allocated for grants and contributions, and $2,000 for employee salaries and compensation. It ended the year with $74,716 in net assets. ⁷

Organization Structure

The Awesome Foundation itself does not provide grants. Rather it provides a platform for affiliated groups that are entirely independent to receive grant requests and be identified as affiliates. There is no specific mission or vision behind the movement other than helping to promote things the affiliates deem “awesome.” ⁸

Individual chapters are not nonprofit organizations and are self-funded by members who raise money to give to grant applicants. Because the chapters are not nonprofit organizations they are exempt from certain legal restrictions on what organized nonprofits can fund. ⁹

Funded projects can include any number of things but are often beneficial to the community in some nature, ranging from improvements to local public venues, contributions to local startups that seek to invest in the community, food-bank type events, education programs, and libraries. ¹⁰

Leadership

The Awesome Foundation was cofounded by the lawyer Tim Hwang, a Harvard graduate who received a law degree from University of California, Berkeley. He was formerly the head of public policy for Google concerning machine learning and artificial intelligence. He is currently a partner at the boutique law firm Rosen, Wolfe, and Hwang. ¹¹

1. “The Awesome Foundation.” The Awesome Foundation. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://www.awesomefoundation.org/en.
2. “Awesome Foundation New Chapter Handbook.” The Awesome Project, 2017. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://wiki.awesomestudies.org/images/9/92/Awesome_Foundation_New_Chapter_Handbook.pdf.
3. “Institute on Higher Awesome Studies — Tech Philanthropy.” Inside Philanthropy, November 10, 2021. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/guide-to-individual-donors/tag/Institute+on+Higher+Awesome+Studies.
4. “The Awesome Foundation.” The Awesome Foundation. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://www.awesomefoundation.org/en.
5. “Awesome Foundation New Chapter Handbook.” The Awesome Project, 2017. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://wiki.awesomestudies.org/images/9/92/Awesome_Foundation_New_Chapter_Handbook.pdf.
6. IRS Exempt Organization Search, Institute on Higher Awesome Studies (EIN 27-5002182). Queries conducted September 22, 2023.
7. The Institute on Higher Awesome Studies, Return for an organization exempt from taxation, (Form 990). 2014, Part I
8. “Awesome Foundation New Chapter Handbook.” The Awesome Project, 2017. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://wiki.awesomestudies.org/images/9/92/Awesome_Foundation_New_Chapter_Handbook.pdf.
9. “Awesome Foundation New Chapter Handbook.” The Awesome Project, 2017. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://wiki.awesomestudies.org/images/9/92/Awesome_Foundation_New_Chapter_Handbook.pdf.
10. “Projects.” The Awesome Foundation. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://www.awesomefoundation.org/en/projects.
11. “About.” Rosen, Wolfe, and Hwang. Accessed August 28, 2023. https://rwh.law/about.