Nation of Makers

Welcome to Nation of Makers

Let our board member Adam Savage (MythBusters, Tested.com), tell you why Nation of Makers is so exciting!

Download Our Press Release

What is Nation of Makers?

Born of the human desire to create, innovate, and re-imagine the world around us, and fueled by the development of low-cost tools, technologies and platforms that allow for more rapid and efficient designing, prototyping and fabrication, the maker movement has enabled students and adults alike to bring their ideas to life. The maker movement starts with the community; the ecosystem of makers and all that they do and create. More and more, we are seeing makers take on challenges both locally and globally, using their knowledge and skills to improve their lives and the lives of others in their communities.

Since the recent birth of the maker movement, millions of individuals, and thousands of organizations and institutions have found ways to explore their own creative potential. Over the past year alone, groups such as The Maker City project (supported by the Kauffman Foundation) have documented how the maker movement is having an impact on communities large and small across the U.S.; more than 1,500 K-12 schools in 50 states have signed on to the Maker Promise, co-led Maker Ed and Digital Promise, and over 77 colleges and universities made public new commitments to creating more opportunities for making on their campuses and in their communities. These are just a few of the recent examples of ways countless organizations have been inspired by the hacker and makerspaces and maker events that exist all across this country.

But there is still much work to be done. The maker movement has significant implications for manufacturing, economic and workforce development, education, healthcare innovation, community revitalization, and technology advancements. To continue to grow the coalition of diverse organizations that are working to support the maker community, this new independent, non-profit organization called Nation of Makers has been formed. We commit to serving and representing the full variety of spaces, events, and institutions serving makers, including non-profit organizations, museums, libraries, science centers, educational institutions, foundations and for-profit companies.

Nation of Makers is working with leaders from the maker community in all 50 states and has received more than 300 Letters of Support from hackerspaces, makerspaces, companies, libraries, local government, and economic development agencies. These Letters of Support both strengthen the organization and share some of the amazing work already being done. We invite you to read some of these stories.

Read our Letters of Support

Mission

We support the full range of organizations that impact makers by encouraging connections, broadly sharing resources, facilitating funding opportunities, engaging in policy development, and advocating for the maker movement. We help maker organizations amplify the passion, innovation, creativity, and diversity of the maker community, to maximize both local and global impact.

Vision

The vision of Nation of Makers is to build a society where everyone has access to the tools, technologies, experiences and knowledge to make anything; to create a thriving, connected, and inclusive community of practice where collaboration fosters a culture of abundance.

Below are some examples of the initiatives that this organization could lead. These activities correspond to key needs identified by the maker community and those organizations who are currently supporting the community:

• Sharing best practices - Gathering information and best practices from the maker community about starting and sustaining makerspaces and maker events to create a centralized location and resource library where these can be openly accessible.
• Advocating for the interests of the maker community – Participating in critical policy development processes impacting the maker community at the federal, state or local level. This can also take shape as key stakeholders across different sectors (government, academia, industry) are convened with the maker community, to identify and collectively develop ways to address key needs.
• Facilitating funding and non-monetary resource opportunities - Making it easier for maker spaces and other maker organizations to secure funding by identifying existing opportunities, collaborating with funders to develop new grant opportunities, and connecting supporters who may have non-monetary resources to the organizations who need them.
• Launching a maker fellows program - Launching a program that aims to place makers with unique skills and experiences within organizations such as federal agencies, companies and research institutions to work on specific projects and inspire a culture of making within organizations.
• Broadening access and increasing diversity - Creating and implementing a strategy for broadening access to making for underrepresented groups and underserved communities.