Skoll Foundation

IDEO.org will launch in the fall to spread human-centered design through the social sector and improving the lives of people in low-income communities across the globe. IDEO.org will work directly with non-profits, social enterprises, and foundations on projects using the human-centered design process across a wide range of focus areas related to poverty alleviation, including health, financial services, gender equity, water and sanitation, and agriculture.

They are also announcing that IDEO.org will have an 11-month fellowship program that will bring together leaders from design, business, and the social sector with senior IDEO designers to learn about and help spread human-centered design through the social sector. You can find out more about it at http://www.ideo.com/careers/ideo-org-resident.

The need for IDEO.org’s new model has emerged over the past 10 years as IDEO has expanded its work in the social sector. Examples of projects include Ripple Effect, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and done in partnership with Acumen Fund. Ripple Effect improves access to safe drinking water for more than 500,000 of the world’s poorest and underserved people. In a current project, IDEO is working with Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP)Human-Centered Design Toolkit, a free innovation guide for social enterprises and NGOs, also demonstrates the positive effect human-centered design can have in low-income communities. Human-centered design is based in the needs of people. It’s a process of prototyping and learning with the goal of delivering more effective solutions. to design household sanitation solutions for urban families in Ghana. Finally, the

Drawing on what IDEO has learned through its work in the social sector, IDEO.org will seek to have impact in three ways:

1. By partnering with organizations on design projects focused on poverty alleviation;
2. By spreading human-centered design through storytelling, platforms, and new networks; and
3. By fostering future leaders through a fellowship program that will bring together residents from IDEO and people from the design, business, and social sectors.

A general set of criteria will help determine which projects IDEO.org takes on: The place or people benefiting from the project is a low-income community or group; the partner organization is a non-profit, foundation, or social enterprise; and the result of the challenge is tangible – a product, service, business, or systems design – that will directly benefit the community or people for which it was designed.

For more information contact info@ideo.org

Tags: IDEO