Visionary: Project Wonder Collective

For 10 years, here at Wonderment HQ we’ve been supporting and celebrating creators and organizers in local communities around the globe. While each creator and collective has a unique story of their own, we’ve come to see a pattern to the ways they bring people together around inspiring work.

It begins with actual wonderment–looking around with fresh eyes at the people and places around you, and imagining what you could create that could make your community more beautiful, more comfortable, more supportive. 

As ideas for community building take shape and get shared, a collective starts to gather–a band of diverse but complementary creators, who work together to develop and expand the idea in ways while keeping the work rooted in the direct community. 

As one idea and action leads to another, we see communities working together in entirely new ways, innovating the ways they work, play, and serve in ways that truly benefit all.

Project Wonder is our way to share this new way of working with all of you in the wide world. While most of us have had a glimpse of this pattern in small ways in our own communities, we think it’s time for wonderers from around the globe to officially meet each other, to share their work, and spread the joy of small, creative community building in a big way.

It all starts with an idea. Here at Wonderment HQ, we watch as these emergent ideas show up as Project Pages on the Wonderment. Project Pages are works in progress, documenting the story in real time as an initial spark grows into a full-fledged community action. When we see a good idea, backed by a creator with the spark to make it happen, we start with a small Project Wonder grant of up to $500–enough to get the idea off the ground and gather supporters. 

Many projects find deeper community support and collaboration–a Collective begins to emerge. We’ve built tools in the Wonderment platform to support and incubate these emerging organizations so that additional, expanded action becomes possible, including through additional Wonderment grants, community fundraising support, and sharing your stories within the Wonderment creative community and the wide world.

Are you a creative community builder? Join Project Wonder through the link below, and get started with your first project.