Design for America

Design for America
Name	Design for America
Formation	2009
Headquarters	Chicago, Illinois
Founder	Bryan Boyer
Type	Nonprofit
Focus	Social innovation, design thinking

Design for America is a network of student-led studios that applies human-centered design to social challenges across the United States. Founded in 2009, the organization connects students at universities, alumni, professional partners, and community stakeholders to prototype solutions addressing healthcare, sustainability, accessibility, and civic engagement. Its activities intersect with initiatives at universities, foundations, and innovation labs, and it collaborates with public agencies, corporations, and nonprofit organizations.

History

Design for America originated in 2009 when founder Bryan Boyer and colleagues at the University of Chicago and Massachusetts Institute of Technology sought to adapt methods from IDEO, Stanford d.school, Tactical Media, and the Hasso Plattner Institute to campus communities. Early chapters grew alongside networks such as Ashoka, Net Impact, Enactus, and VolunteerMatch, while receiving mentorship from practitioners from Frog Design, Continuum, Smart Design, and the MIT Media Lab. The network expanded through partnerships with student groups at institutions including Northwestern University, University of Michigan, University of California, Berkeley, Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, Princeton University, Duke University, Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Washington, University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Southern California, Stanford University, Rutgers University, Purdue University, Indiana University Bloomington, Ohio State University, Arizona State University, Vanderbilt University, and Emory University. Funding and pilot projects in the early 2010s engaged organizations including the Kresge Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Mission and Model

Design for America describes its mission as training student designers to address social problems via human-centered approaches derived from practitioners at IDEO, Frog Design, and the Stanford d.school. The network emphasizes studio-based learning modeled on collaborative studios at ArtCenter College of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, and Parsons School of Design, combined with project cycles similar to corporate innovation programs at Google X, Microsoft Research, and IBM Research. Its pedagogical influences cite curricula from Harvard Kennedy School, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, and Yale School of Management, while aligning with entrepreneurship programs exemplified by MIT Venture Mentoring Service and incubators like Y Combinator. The model seeks campus-to-community translation, engaging partners such as United Way, Teach For America, City of Chicago, Los Angeles County, and New York City agencies.

Programs and Projects

Chapters run semester-long studios, hackathons, and summer fellowships that produce prototypes in areas linked to partners such as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization, Doctors Without Borders, American Red Cross, and Habitat for Humanity. Projects have addressed accessibility with partners like National Federation of the Blind and American Foundation for the Blind, public health with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services initiatives, and environmental resilience alongside Environmental Protection Agency and The Nature Conservancy. Signature events mirror formats used by SXSW, South by Southwest EDU, and PopTech, while challenge prizes echo programs run by the XPRIZE Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and Gates Foundation. Student teams have presented work at venues including TEDx, IDEAS Festival, CHI Conference, Interaction Design Association (IxDA) Conference, and South by Southwest (SXSW).

Organizational Structure

Design for America operates as a nonprofit network with a central staff coordinating national strategy, chapter support, and partner relations, similar in structure to organizations like Teach For America, Habitat for Humanity International, AmeriCorps, and Junior Achievement USA. Governance includes a board with members drawn from academia, philanthropy, and industry—profiles comparable to trustees at University of Chicago, Harvard University, Northwestern University, The Brookings Institution, and The Aspen Institute. Local chapters maintain student leadership teams modeled on councils at Student Government Association organizations at many campuses, while alumni advisory boards mirror structures at Alumni Associations of major universities.

Partnerships and Funding

Funding streams combine foundation grants, corporate sponsorships, and university support, with historical backers similar to Ford Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Knight Foundation, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Corporate partners have included design firms like IDEO, Frog Design, technology firms such as Google, Microsoft, Apple Inc., IBM, and consulting firms like McKinsey & Company and Deloitte. Academic partnerships mirror collaborations with centers at MIT Media Lab, Harvard Innovation Labs, Stanford d.school, Berkeley I School, and Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Grants and challenge funding have come through mechanisms used by National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and regional economic development agencies.

Impact and Recognition

Impact assessments cite student skill development, prototypes adopted by community partners, and alumni who moved to roles at organizations including IDEO, Frog Design, Google, Microsoft Research, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United Nations Development Programme, World Bank, and McKinsey & Company. Recognition has included presentations at TED, awards from Society for Experiential Education, and features in publications like Fast Company, The New York Times, Wired, The Atlantic, and The Wall Street Journal. Comparable networks with similar recognition trajectories include Ashoka U, Net Impact, Enactus, and Engineers Without Borders USA.

Category:Non-profit organizations based in the United States