There are many ways you can get involved with Awesome New Orleans! Here are a few:
Contribute to Awesome New Orleans
As our membership rotates, we’re always on the lookout for new trustees. Interested? Being a trustee means that you get to be a part of deciding who gets the $1000 monthly grant! As a trustee, you would attend our monthly trustee meeting. Trustees are also asked to help distribute flyers about upcoming Awesome Hours events. And each trustee contributes financially (within their means) to Awesome New Orleans so that we can give “social good” grants during the months of the year that aren’t funded by the Knight Foundation.
Some of our trustees share a chair. As co-chairs, they also share a vote. And only one needs to be present per meeting. This is good for people who might be very busy, and one meeting per month is too much.
We also welcome Guest Trustees. A Guest Trustee is invited to sit in on a meeting and participate in the voting process, but isn’t necessarily a full member. Guest Trustees are invited to contribute financially as well.
To apply for a trustee position, complete this form.
Our goal is to offer this grant opportunity to every community in New Orleans because all our voices need to be heard. So we host a 2-hour Awesome Community Hours
We need volunteers to: 1) help distribute flyers about upcoming Awesome Hours events, 2) help to identify and secure future Awesome Hours locations around the city, and 3) help at the event itself with set up, clean up, getting participants to sign in, passing out applications, etc.
Most chapters of the Awesome Foundation are 100% trustee-funded, meaning that each trustee contributes (usually about $100 per month) to make the $1000 monthly grants.
We are fortunate to have support from the Knight Foundation (for one year) to fund “civic media” projects in New Orleans eight months out of the year. During the other four months, we gather together our own dollars to give out $1000 grants to general “social good” projects.
Anyone (not only trustees) is welcome to contribute either monthly or a one-time gift. We are working on an easy online payment system called Awesome Tax. Until it’s ready, we accept good old-fashioned checks. Checks should be made payable to “Institute For Higher Awesome Studies,” which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (so the donation is tax-deductible!) Make sure to put “Awesome New Orleans” in the Memo line, otherwise our chapter won’t get the money!
You can drop your check in the mail:
OR give it to any of the trustees to pass along.
OR drop it off with any trustee at an Awesome Hours event. Upcoming events are updated regularly on our website: awesomenola.org. And we send out announcements via email, as well as Facebook and Twitter.
Invite Us To Your Community
Awesome New Orleans wants EVERYBODY in New Orleans to have a chance to receive a no-strings-attached grant for their awesome project. We realize that email and social media only go so far. So we like to go out into communities with Awesome Hours to talk to people one-on-one about their project ideas and help them with applications! You can invite us to your church, civic group or community center, your local library or public park, or an upcoming event or festival in your area. Shoot us an email at neworleans@awesomefoundation.org or complete this simple form to bring us to YOUR community.
Of course, there are also other ways to get involved: writing for the blog, planning future events, helping to raise funds for grants, etc.. Tell us how you want to participate!! Email us at neworleans@awesomefoundation.org.