Above: Code Fever was provided Raspberry Pi processors. Photo: Carolina Wilson.

Natalia Martinez is a dean of  Awesome Foundation Miami, which Knight Foundation supports as part of its commitment to develop a network of innovators and entrepreneurs in South Florida.

“Money is like manure; it’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around encouraging young things to grow.”

It may be crass, but we at Awesome Foundation Miami stand by this Thornton Wilder truism.

From the first micro grant we awarded in January 2013, we stepped into Miami with incredible optimism. We had hoped that Awesome Miami would become the bridge that helps connect our neighbors to the resources they need, the opportunities they want, and a community at large that wants to know about them. Today, we are thrilled to announce that we have exceeded $50,000 in awarded funding for local projects.

Small can be powerful

Our informal guiding theory is that a rising tide lifts all boats. Larger, community-wide tipping points are the result of the gradual accumulation of individual tipping points, of people “turning on” to trust their own potential, and that of their ideas and projects. Over the past two and a half years, we have witnessed with great respect the talent and curiosity of Miami residents who have come across our radar in the form of applications for our grants. The people we interact with every month have a passionate sense of place and a desire to tackle problems, fix inequities and highlight beauty all around our communities. In response, our role has never been to generate these ideas, but rather to be the engine that helps make small, powerful.

The 50-plus projects we have helped fund have been diverse in topic, scale, and purpose, but they can generally be grouped into three categories: 1) those that promote local innovation and design; 2) those that focus on bridging opportunity gaps; and 3) those that showcase something about Miami from a unique perspective.

Most importantly, we have seen that small can indeed be powerful. We helped Code Fever purchase their first batch of Raspberry Pi computers, and witnessed the organization becoming a pillar of the effort to bridge the digital education divide in South Florida. Buskerfest was born out of a partnership grant with Whereby.us and is now an annual street music festival that livens up downtown. Last year, we funded a pilot for a water testing solution we did not quite fully understand, and now that idea is a successful startup in Hialeah. Granted, not all of the ideas we fund are scalable or replicable, and that is kind of the point; in fact, some of the smallest have been the most powerful in shifting a particular, hyperlocal needle.

1 + 1 can equal 3

At some point along the way, we realized that one of the best avenues to reach and impact a more diverse segment of Miami was to build partnerships that allowed us to focus some additional grants on particular topic areas or populations. As such, we have done targeted grants through the Ashoka Changemakers program, the Global Shapers, the Catalyst Miami Parent Leadership Training Institute, and Wynwood Maker Camp. We have also awarded additional grants in partnership with Whereby.us, Black Tech Week, Refresh Miami, and most recently The Idea Center at Miami Dade College. We even helped celebrate the anniversary of CreativeMornings in Miami by giving every audience member $5 and asking them to do something compelling for someone else!  

This month, we will be launching a collaboration with the Saldaña Family Fund, the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship and LaunchCode South Florida’s CS50x Miami. Later in the fall, we will also be partnering with Akerman LLP for a series of grants around social issues in our community. Separate and distinct entities coming together to dovetail their efforts, this is the spirit of collaboration that we believe will create a truly thriving ecosystem in Miami, and we are proud to play a role convening such interests.

Wynwood Maker Camp photo by Carolina Wilson.

When in doubt, kiss the girl

We are often asked about the requirements placed on our grantees to ensure the completion of their projects. Our answer is that “no strings attached” means just that; you don’t owe us a report, a financial breakdown of your costs, or a tally of what worked seamlessly and what failed miserably. We choose to believe in the potential of the grants we award, to trust in the beauty of those rogue, misfit, outlandish, often untested and powerful ideas.

What this speaks to is the balance that a $1,000 grant strikes for both the board of trustees and our grant winners. For the latter, the award is small enough to not be burdensome, but substantive enough to engender a sense of responsibility and commitment. For the trustees, it is an amount we take seriously, but also one we feel comfortable playing around with—and precisely at this intersection is where debate, excitement, and magic percolate. Ultimately, part of our vision is to be the resource that makes bets on unfamiliar horses: We believe in ideas that seem a bit wild and brash, and we sometimes vote and support projects with no proof of concept. We are the resource that wants to help the average Miamian bridge crazy with doable.

A recent New York Times article describes Awesome Foundation as “rogues giving to rogues. It’s misfit money for the weird and wonderful.” In the end we most often regret the chances we didn’t take so as a group we have learned, when in doubt, just kiss the girl.

The journey to exceeding $50,000 has been incredibly rewarding, and we remain immensely thankful to the organizations who have partnered with us, as well as Knight Foundation and The Miami Foundation for their support. Above all else, thank you to the Miamians who contribute their ideas every month. It is a privilege to support your projects and to see firsthand your creativity thriving in all corners of our city. Keep ’em coming.

To learn more about our grants, subscribe to our monthly announcements and follow us on Twitter @AwesomeMiami. Apply for our monthly grants by the 15th of every month. To contribute to our grants through a donation, see here.