I started a microgrant program called Helium Grants, providing small no-strings-attached grants to people on the internet. It's a lot of fun!
I wish I could fund more projects, but I'm not that rich. So, here are some other microgrant programs I learned about that also fund good ideas:
http://5x5night.com/
5x5 Night takes place once a month. The community votes on the ideas that will be presented at the event. The selected creators explain a $5,000 step that will move the idea forward, and will meet people who can help.
https://www.mechaelephant.com//microgrant
A monthly $100 grant to create CC0, CC-BY, CC-BY-SA or GPL (compatible) art, code, hardware designs, etc.
https://aigrant.org/
$2,500 for your open source AI project.
http://www.awesomefoundation.org/
The Awesome Foundation is a global community advancing the interest of awesome in the universe, $1000 at a time. Each fully autonomous chapter supports awesome projects through micro-grants, usually given out monthly.
http://www.youshouldapply.org/
A collection of community microgrant opportunities (<$1,000, $1-$10,000, and $10,000+) for the Cincinnati, Ohio, USA region.
http://indie-fund.com/
Indie Fund aims to support the growth of games as a medium by helping indie developers get financially independent and stay financially independent.
https://thejeshgn.com/projects/nagarathna-memorial-grant/
Up to INR 80,000 (~ $1,100) to people. No questions asked.
https://www.opportunityfund.org/
Opportunity Fund is California's leading microfinance provider. Opportunity Fund believes that everyone should have the chance to build a dignified life, regardless of their economic background. Our role is to help working families realize their dreams and move beyond worrying about how to live day to day.
http://projectcover.org/
Cover is a non-profit that gifts small ($500) grants to driven people. Their mission is to extend access to knowledge, networks, and opportunities to those who are working hard to achieve great things.
https://prototypefund.de
The prototype fund is a collaboration between the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. You can get up to 30.000€ for your open source project. This grant is only available for people living in Germany.
https://unchartedjournalism.org/
Up to $5,000 for your experimental journalism project.
http://unitary.fund/
Get $2,000 for your open source quantum computing project.
Open a pull request or issue and add it here! The list is sorted alphabetically. I'll add more programs as I hear about them.
If you don't use GitHub, tweet your suggestion @nayafia or drop me a line and I'll add it to this list.
This list, humble as it may be, is available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 License, meaning you are free to use it for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without any attribution back to me (public domain). If you do use it, I'd love to hear about it! (Find me here: @nayafia) But you are in no way required to do so.