About the project: Soup Ottawa is a recurring micro-grant participatory dinner event held seasonally. $10 entrance fee gets you soup and a vote; presenters showcase their projects that benefit the community; attendees spend the evening hearing about a series of project proposals and conversing with the people behind each idea; Soup Ottawa events always have a different theme that’s focused but also broad enough to spark diversity (ie. ‘water’); we all vote to grant the proceeds to the most inspiring project.
The Soup Ottawa project follows a transparent, experimental, philanthropic, grassroots model to fund small to medium-sized creative projects; fosters physical place-based community, bringing together funders and fundees around the table; is the local chapter of the international Sunday Soup network of meal-based micro-funding events, taking inspiration from similar projects around the world. Events are held every 4 months and have raised over $10,000 since February 2013 from over 1,000 participants.
Soup Ottawa is an experiment in collective civic engagement; generates independent funding and sparks dialogue about what’s happening in our community; stimulates and promotes imaginative practices that may not be eligible for formal funding; serves as a way to build a network of support that reaches beyond purely monetary assistance – at its best, it is a platform in which to discuss ongoing projects with new audiences, meet new collaborators, and share ways of working; raises awareness about the many needs and resources that help make projects happen; allows us to learn from one another and inspires us to dream.
Period active: February 2013 – June 2015 (project is still ongoing)
My role: Founder (brought the initial team together) & project lead until transitioning the role to new leadership
Skills gained: community organizing, event planning, public speaking, fundraising, media relations, managing a team of 10+ volunteers. Named as an Ottawa Entrepreneurial Rising Star for 2013 (Invest Ottawa).
Website: www.soupottawa.ca
Logo from 2013-2016 (far left); logo from 2017-present
