Project for Awesome is a community-driven charitable movement on YouTube, created by the Green brothers, Hank and John, most notable for their VlogBrothersYouTube channel. Formerly dubbed the Nerdfighter Power Project for Awesome, the project has taken place in December every year since 2007. The movement was started to have YouTubers create innovative videos promoting their favorite charity and upload it by a certain deadline, with the aim that their promoted charity gains more awareness, and donations from audiences. The event takes place in December each year, and lasts for 48 hours. From 2007 to 2013, the P4A began on December 17, and lasted until the 18th or 19th. From 2014, the dates of the event have changed, and been fixed as the second Friday and Saturday in December. In 2016, the P4A was December 9-11. 2017's dates were December 15-17.
In 2007, over 400 videos were posted, which promoted charities including UNICEF, Autism Speaks, and Toys for Tots. The 2007 Project was successful to the point where a large majority of videos, all having the same P4A thumbnail, on the front page were related to the cause. The Greens were able to accomplish this feat with the collaborative efforts of the community that follows their videos, Nerdfighteria, while also "sort of" hacking YouTube's algorithm. Reflecting on the event, Hank Green states, "YouTube was sort of a weird place that was fairly easy to sort of game the algorithms. And the way that the thumbnails worked and all of the different lists were important for getting views," adding, "it was sort of frowned upon to game the system, but we thought, 'What if we gamed the system for good?'" The 2007 Project was documented to be a success, one that the Greens hoped, and accomplished, to emulate over the following years, by uniting their community. In 2013, an Indiegogo Campaign ran raising $721,696 for the campaign. The total resulted in the campaign becoming the most funded Video / Web Campaign in Indiegogo history. In 2013, a final total of $869,591 was raised. As the Project for Awesome continued to grow in size, the Greens implemented a perk system on the Project's Indiegogo fundraising page. An example of a perk would be the 2014 project's, An Imperial Affliction, a prop novel read inThe Fault in Our Stars. Throughout the history of the project, the Greens would host a coinciding 48-hour livestream event. Prior to the 2014 project, John stated, "Our goal is to find a way to raise $1 million," adding, "That's what we really hope will happen." Following the 2019 campaign, Hank Green announced on Twitter that the Young Democrats of America passed a resolution honoring the work of the P4A.
