New York City has an incredible community of nonprofit organizations working to do good throughout the city. And though these organizations can create change and improve the community on their own, partnering with other organizations and professionals makes their successes greater, their dreams bigger. desigNYC is a group that works to do that, “a platform that connects civic-minded designers with extraordinary non-profits serving the public good.”
desigNYC was created in 2009 when a group of professional designers came together with the common goal of creating social change within the city. They asked themselves how they could use their skills and resources to provide solutions to local issues. Their ultimate plan was to use a “collaborative design process” to “build community and increase social capital.”
To achieve this goal, they created desigNYC. In 2010 they went from being a purely volunteer collective to being a “sustainable enterprise.” These days, desigNYC is more successful than ever, partnering with nonprofit organizations and other institutions, providing pro bono designs to improve the city, and strengthening the NYC community.
One of desigNYC’s farthest reaching projects partnered them with the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), which houses over half a million people within the city’s five boroughs. On the desigNYC “About” page, a video explains the logic behind the project. The video features NYCHA board member Margarita Lopez, who worked closely with designers from the Rooster Design Group to create a sustainable living guide for NYCHA residents, “The Power is in Your Hands.”
NYCHA had previously created a sustainability guide, but had come to realize that it needed a newer, simpler design. desigNYC partnered NYCHA with The Rooster Design Group, and from there the two were able to create a powerful, appealing, and informative guide to distribute to NYCHA residents all over the city.
Through a multitude of projects like this, desigNYC is pushing the social change movement slowly but surely forward. After just three years, they are already a well known and successful nonprofit in the nation’s largest city. Imagine what a few more years will bring.