Now in its fourth year, the AWS Imagine Grant provides vital resources to nonprofit organizations looking to deploy cloud technology to achieve their mission goals. New this year, the program offers two distinct award categories for nonprofits to receive support based on their organizational goals and stage of their technology adoption journey. The award categories are as follows:
- Momentum to Modernize: As nonprofit organizations seek to transform and enhance their core mission operations with technology, they need funding for foundational technology projects, such as migrating servers to the cloud and modernizing new and existing applications. Nonprofit organizations with specific workloads and outcomes that meet the program criteria are welcome to apply. Projects may include but are not limited to: application migration and optimization, net-new application development, data warehouse projects, infrastructure expansion, and more. Winners of the Momentum to Modernize award receive up to $30,000 in unrestricted funding, up to $10,000 in AWS Promotional Credits, and project implementation support.
- Go Further, Faster: The Go Further, Faster award will provide support for highly innovative projects that leverage the cloud. These projects will have the potential to produce scaled, repeatable solutions and may impact an entire industry or field. They will be force multipliers for organizations and will include the application of and/or seek integrations with advanced cloud services, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), high performance computing, Internet of Things (IoT), and more. Winners of the Go Further, Faster award receive up to $150,000 in unrestricted funding, up to $100,000 in AWS Promotional Credits, and engagement with AWS technical specialists.
“AWS is committed to helping nonprofits advance their mission by giving them access to the same innovative technology tools used every day by the world’s leading corporations and startups,” said Dave Levy, Vice President of U.S. Government, Nonprofits, and Healthcare at AWS. “We’re excited to offer the Imagine Grant to support nonprofits in their digital transformation journeys, recognizing that these fundamental projects in the cloud are critical to nonprofits’ long-term success.”
Since the launch of the Imagine Grant program in 2018, AWS has awarded over $2.5 million in cash, AWS Promotional Credit, and AWS training support to 26 nonprofit organizations. Each year, the Imagine Grant program seeks to fund nonprofit organizations who demonstrate a mission-critical application of technology that will result in magnitudes of impact for their beneficiaries and core mission operations. Proposals are judged on several factors including the innovative and unique nature of the project, impact on mission-critical goals, and clearly defined outcomes and milestones. Previous winners are currently using AWS services to tackle critical challenges such as finding a cure for Type 1 Diabetes by leveraging the power of data, tackling conservation issues at scale with machine learning, helping the military and Veteran community access resources faster and more reliably, and more.
“The Thomson Reuters Foundation is committed to helping to shape a prosperous world where no one is left behind, using the combined power of journalism and the law. With support from the Imagine Grant, we are developing an innovative digital platform for members of our global pro bono service TrustLaw to better access free legal support,” said Carolina Henriquez-Schmitz, Director of TrustLaw, Thomson Reuters Foundation, 2020-2021 Imagine Grant Winner. “Thanks to the resources provided by AWS, this platform will unleash the power of pro bono to drive social change by galvanizing TrustLaw’s global community and creating opportunities for knowledge-sharing, innovation, and collaboration.”
For more information on the AWS Imagine Grant, visit https://aws.amazon.com/government-education/nonprofits/aws-imagine-grant-program/.
