Applying the power of design to the worlds toughest poverty-related challenges

An Introduction from IDEO.orgs Founders

IDEO generously provided seed funding to establish and set up IDEO.org over the past 18 months. Now, as a separate entity and 501c3 (public charity), we rely on fees for service and philanthropic donations to cover our costs. We ask the non-profit partners we work with to pay the direct costs for our work with them. And we raise money from individuals (like you!) to cover our indirect costs, which includes the fellowship program and our storytelling and knowledge sharing efforts. By raising philanthropic capital, we are able to select the projects we undertake based on their potential for impact, rather than based on the organization's ability to pay.

IDEO.org is well-positioned to bring IDEO's human-centered design practices to the toughest social challenges--across health, financial inclusion, gender equity agriculture, water and sanitation, and community development--that perpetuate the cycle of poverty for far too many.  We work across sectors on a range of projects, from partnering with NGOs to improve their programs to helping social enterprises develop new solutions for meeting the needs of low income communities, in order to successfully confront the diversity, magnitude, and urgency of the challenges facing the world today.    After 18 months of work (hard work!), we're inspired by the launch and early momentum of IDEO.org.  Notable progress includes:

• Building an amazing initial network of champions in our Board of Directors, Advisory Board, and other IDEO.org friends
• Recruiting eight rock-star fellows who serve as our inaugural class of Innovators in Residence
• Launching design work on three bold projects with Winrock International, Rockefeller Foundation, and TED  

Now we need your help.  By contributing to this campaign, youll help us sustain our momentum and build the solid financial foundation that will enable us to continue to spread social innovation for the rest of 2011 and into early 2012.  Specifically, this campaign will support:

• The stipends of our initial class of fellows, who will be our main vehicle for applying design thinking to tangible poverty-related challenges
• The launch and development of our website, which will enable us to spread human-centered design and design thinking throughout the world
• The laptops, software, cameras, and other tools that allow us to do the great work you'll start seeing from us 
• A two-week jam packed orientation program that allows our fellows to get up-to-speed and ready to jump into a wild year with us
• Weekly design reviews with IDEO.org, IDEO, and other friends to ensure that we're doing the best work we can

We're really excited about the opportunity to bring together the worlds of design and the social sector. The two have so much to learn from each other and by bringing the tools of design thinking to poverty-related challenges, we believe we can have real impact on communities around the world.

With your help we will design an end to poverty.

Warmly,

Jocelyn and Patrice, IDEO.org Co-Leads

We believe that successful innovation starts with what matters to people. We consider how people live their lives, what they care about, what they need, how they prioritize, and what motivates their behavior. This is the foundation of human-centered design, and it can be applied to any context or challenge.

IDEO.org is a non-profit organization aimed at spreading human-centered design through the social sector and improving the lives of people in low-income communities around the world. Think of us as an innovation hub leveraging design expertise, training future innovators for the social sector, and harnessing social media and storytelling tools to share our ideas and approaches as widely as possible.

As we kick things off at IDEO.org, we're looking for your support. We're raising $100K to help us get started on our first set of projects. We're working to design water services in South Asia and East Africa, develop tools for TEDx organizers in informal settlements, and create strategies for parent engagement for early childhood development in the U.S. 

Our Impact

IDEO.org's impact takes place in three ways: by creating innovative solutions with nonprofits and social enterprises, by fostering a community of future leaders with expertise in design thinking, and by sharing design methods and approaches throughout the social sector.

 Our projects are poverty related
 Our clients are non-profits, social enterprises, or foundations
 Our approach, opportunities and results are open + shareable
 Our projects yield measurable impact



Here are some of the projects IDEO's social innovation domain has tackled which have led to the creation of IDEO.org:

Ripple Effect: Access to Safe Drinking Water, India & Kenya Acumen, IDEO and diverse organizations in India and Kenya set out to improve access to safe drinking water.		Human Centered Design Tookit A free innovation guide and online community created by IDEO for social enterprises and NGOs worldwide.
Neighbors for Nations: Donor Engagement, Minneapolis, MN A campaign developed by IDEO for the American Refugee Committee to engage the Somali diaspora living in Minnesota. Pictures From the Field		Ghanasan: In-home Sanitation, Kumasi, Ghana Unilever, Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP), and IDEO collaborated to develop new products and services for in-home sanitation in Kumasi, Ghana.

Other ways you can help us

Spread the word! Forward this page to your friends, family, post it on Facebook, Tweet it. Send it to anyone who believes in alleviating poverty through design! 


To find our more about IDEO.org

www.ideo.org