Design

Community Need

  • In the competition for visibility, support, and funds, well-designed programs, products, and collateral can set nonprofits apart. Key areas of nonprofit need for design expertise include the design of informational, event-based, and fundraising collateral, programs and campaigns, as well as branding guidance and implementation.
  • Over 45% of nonprofits report that increasing their visibility in the community is one of their top priorities for the next two years, according to a 2009 Taproot survey of 238 nonprofits.

Trends

  • Over the next few years, individual designers and design firms are expected to norm around AIGA’s 5% pro bono service challenge.
  • Increasingly, designers are not only engaging in pro bono service around visual design but are also using design thinking to enhance program and product design. 
  • Long practiced in the design profession, pro bono service is becoming increasingly transparent and widespread amongst design professionals.

Leaders

  • AIGA – In June 2010, AIGA launched its Pro Bono Design Program which challenges all designers, design firms, and in-house design programs to devote at least 5% of their billable hours to pro bono service.
  • Aspen Design Summit – As a partnership of AIGA and the Winterhouse Institute, this is an interdisciplinary, global workshop of designers, NGO decision makers, corporate leaders, and experts who come together to design projects – that will later be executed – to solve global challenge.
  • Change Observer – This leading international design blog focuses on how design work can drive social change. It began as a collaboration between Winterhouse Institute partners William Drenttel and Jessica Helfand, Pentagram’s Michael Bierut, and eight contributing writers. Change Observer ensures that designers all over the world are able to learn from one another.
  • CreateAthon – At this annual, 24-hour, work-around-the-clock creative blitz, advertising agencies provide services for local nonprofits in their area that have little or no portion of their budget dedicated to marketing. Since the program expanded to a national effort in 2002, 73 agencies have joined the network delivering 2,248 projects valued at over $10 million to over 1,000 nonprofits.
  • Creative for a Cause – This site is a collaborative resource for educators of Visual Communications whose aim is instructing their students on the importance of adopting a social and ethical approach to their work.
  • DesigNYC – DesigNYC works to improve New York City by connecting nonprofits, community groups and city agencies serving the public good with passionate, professional pro bono designers.
  • frog design – Frog design is quietly changing the way top design agencies are lending their expertise to drive social innovation. Supported by senior leadership, each frog office identifies one major pro bono project per year.
  • Pentagram – For decades, partners and their teams from Pentagram’s New York office have worked pro bono to enhance the design programs of cultural institutions and nonprofits all over the city. Today, many partners contribute 25% of their billable hours to pro bono service projects.

Case Studies

Build the Movement

Here are five things you can do to help build the pro bono ethic in the design profession.

  1. Do more pro bono and share your story with your network through social media (LinkedIn profile, twitter, portfolio, etc.).
  2. Volunteer to coordinate and promote pro bono design for your local AIGA chapter.
  3. Speak to students at a local design school about pro bono service and its role in your career.
  4. Ask your employer to create a formal pro bono program and budget.
  5. Provide us with feedback, suggestions and tips to keep this page fresh and relevant. Email us at professions@taprootfoundation.org.