Elisabeth Montgomery and Melody Miller launched the foundation after making a documentary film called ruth weiss: The Beat Goddess in 2019. At the time, ruth, born in 1928, endured a long path to recognition as an original poet-artist. When she passed away on July 31, 2020, they committed to launching the 501 (c) 3 foundation that same year.
The ruth weiss Foundation is a poetry grant-making nonprofit. Annual awards are given to poets worldwide who create highly original poems.
We talk about the process of setting up the foundation:
- Setting up the non-profit poetry arts foundation using legal zoom to save time and energy
- Keeping the foundation board small and building the grant process and board Grant Committee in year one
- Expanding from outreach and social media in year one to hiring a PR firm for targeted print media exposure and opportunities for upgraded story-telling,
- The foundation works with the documentary film to deepen the connection to the legacy values of the Beat Generation poets – tolerance, compassion, and authenticity.