Design in Action

Social impact organizations worldwide are tackling some of society’s most challenging problems. We’ve had the opportunity to work with leaders taking on issues including food security, housing and homelessness, sexual violence, and the opioid epidemic in their non-profit, government and for-profit organizations. With limited resources, they must understand complex challenges, innovate on their approaches and interventions, all the while running their existing day-to-day programs.

Our mission is to support leaders and their organizations to bring about positive change in the world.  We have seen how adopting design practices can help create that change. In our Designing for Social Systems program we develop and teach design practices that integrate methods from human-centered design, systems thinking, and strategic planning, grounded in a commitment to equity and anti-racism. These case studies highlight meaningful work and hard-fought impact by some of our program participants, and how design played a role.