Every year, Project for Awesome joins Indiegogo to raise funds to ‘make the world a better place’. While it seems like a daunting feat, year after year they galvanize millions of people around the world and raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for dozens of charities. Participants can not only donate to charities but get cool perks from the Project For Awesome team in exchange for their contribution. Individuals can also suggest other charities they’d like to raise funds for and vote on the ones they like best!  

Project for Awesome started back in 2007 when John & Hank Green finished their first year of their video project, Brotherhood 2.0 and realized they could rally all their followers (“Nerdfighters”) to raise awareness for various charities. They joined the ranks of other online video creators to, once a year, take over the online video community in the interest of good. In their first year, over 400 videos were posted for Project For Awesome that promoted charities like Toys for Tots, UNICEF and Autism Speaks. They successfully took over YouTube while simultaneously activating a community of people to donate to multiple charities. Hank Green recalls, “it was sort of frowned upon to game the system [YouTube], but we thought, ‘What if we gamed the system for good?’

John and Hank would go on to use Indiegogo to activate their community, extend their global reach and offer fun perks in exchange for donations. This year, Project for Awesome was December 15th to December 17th. During Project for Awesome, thousands of people posted videos about and advocating for charities that decrease the overall level of ‘world suck’. The donations are split between two organizations chosen by John & Hank — Save the Children and Last Mile Health— along with other charities chosen by the online video community. The grants will start be sent out starting in January through June. You can see the full list of organizations here and contribute to the campaign for cool perks here.