2016 Summit Kickoff

Kickoff Presentation

• PB&J Philanthropy - Ken Castner from Awesome Alaska
• “Grassroots Philanthropy” book on how to do “Peanut Butter and Jelly Philanthropy” [Grass Roots Philanthropy http://smile.amazon.com/Grassroots-Philanthropy-Bill-Somerville/dp/1597140856?sa-no-redirect=1]
• Awesome Foundation is pure philanthropy, not an industry, like many philanthropic organizations become

History of Awesome - Tim Hwang co-founder of AF

• Boston is boring, let’s make it awesome.
• Finding space and making cool things happen cost a lot, why not just give money?
• Awesome Foundation for the Arts & Sciences text website
• Crazy ideas from Dave Secretary, the first idea. A huge hammock that people can hang out
• Scaling through distributed teams and informal guidelines: Granted $1.9 million and 1951 projects funded so far, 82 chapters 18 countries
• “The fact that we don’t know what we’re doing is a real strength.” A gigantic, globe-spanning network of laboratories. An Alliance. A cat-voltron.