The microgrant fund celebrates over a decade
of doing AWESOME work
NEW
YORK, May 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Warning:
explosive awesomeness ahead! This spring, the Harnisch Foundation
celebrated over a decade of distributing microgrants, which is the
formal term for "giving talented people cold, hard cash, no strings
attached!"
Each week, the foundation awarded $1,000 to projects in need as a chapter of the
Awesome Foundation in a program called Awesome Without Borders. The
Harnisch Foundation—with the backing of its co-founder Ruth Ann
Harnisch—has distributed almost $600,000 in individual grants to hundreds of
awesome projects.
Awesome Without Borders championed projects that tend not to
attract the attention of other grant-giving institutions. Think:
off-beat street symphonies, lost language revivals, quirky ceramics
projects, sensory experiences, documentaries, refugee resettlement
programs, traveling circuses, public art installations, drag shows,
flying cheese sandwiches, and more. It backed individuals with
dreams and fledgling organizations in need of help for experimental
programs. It has given grants here at home and across the globe,
from Nigeria and Mexico to Montenegro and Serbia. It's drawn attention to
Indigenous rights, language and seed preservation, and the
disability community. Throughout this past decade, Awesome Without
Borders has seen—and rewarded—goodness. Its grantees have
illuminated just how much there is of it in the world. And don't
lose hope just yet! The Awesome Foundation's work continues, with
its dozens of chapters across five continents.
"Our Awesome Without Borders grantees are the good people
putting love and extraordinary effort in to making the world a
little bit brighter, and these microgrants were just one small
affirmation for their hard work and awesome ideas!" said
Jenny Raymond, executive director of
the Harnisch Foundation.
"Because the Harnisch Foundation started with a relatively
modest budget, our grants were small," said Ruth Ann Harnisch, founder of the Harnisch
Foundation. "Nonetheless, the results were outsized! Thanks poured
in from grantees for whom $500 made a
powerful difference. So we knew that microgrants were effective,
and could be AWESOME!"
About the Harnisch Foundation: Since 1998, the Harnisch
Foundation has invested in creative, progressive, spirited
philanthropy. Its vision for social change rests on three pillars:
leadership, which it supports through its signature Funny Girls
curriculum, storytelling, and convenings. Its founder Ruth Ann Harnisch began her career in
Nashville, Tennessee, as a
television news reporter and has since remained committed to the
power of media to influence and drive ideas and policy. In its
two-plus decades, the Harnisch Foundation has distributed millions
of dollars and written thousands of grants.
About the Awesome Foundation: The Awesome Foundation is a
global community advancing the interest of awesome in the universe,
$1,000 at a time. Each fully
autonomous chapter supports awesome projects through micro-grants,
which are given on a no-strings-attached basis to people and groups
working on awesome projects.
Contact Information:
The Harnisch Foundation
212.904.0454
Email: 378130@email4pr.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theharnischfoundation/
Awesome Without Borders: https://awesomewithoutborders.org/
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SOURCE The Harnisch Foundation