Thursday, March 01, 2007

Designing Philanthropy

I have long been a fan of good design. Being the daughter of an architect no doubt shaped this interest early, as did having the chance to organize and maintain his firm's materials library as a summer job. I recently reached out to a couple of influential design programs and firms to see if I could interest them in developing a curriculum that would focus on "designing social change." How can we use rapid prototyping, design methodologies, user feedback, ethnographic studies, and other practices in developing philanthropic approaches to social challenges. So far, no takers (call me if you are a design firm/school and are interested).

I was gratified to find Design21: The Social Design Network - where these same kinds of possibilities are being tried. The wiki on Design and Social Action is another resource connecting design and social action.

I read about Design21 in GOOD Magazine, which I am happy to say is living up to its name.

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