Stronger design,
stronger impact.

Grassroots DesignFest strives to help small, Baltimore City-based nonprofits working in a wide range of issue areas including arts and culture, education, human services, and the environment.

Tackling your biggest needs at no cost to your organization.

We know that nonprofits are busy serving their community, and that you may not have the time, budget, volunteers, or resources to dedicate to design projects.

But your logo, branding, marketing materials, and website are essential tools for communicating your mission, attracting supporters, and securing the resources you need to continue your work.

Maybe you’re looking to make your neighborhood more visible with wayfinding and signage or tune up a behavior change campaign with the support of social designers.

Through a competitive application, projects are screened for appropriate scope, level of need, and ability to execute. Each nonprofit will have key stakeholders at the event to collaborate with designers.

  • Baltimore is in critical need of events like DesignFest to give design professionals and students an opportunity to work with nonprofit community organizations. The goal is to support their efforts to drive awareness, action, and donations, and give Baltimore’s amazing creative talent real-world experience.

    — John Brothers, President of the T. Rowe Price Foundation

  • From our very first introductions, we were struck by our team’s talent, passion, and care for our cause. Working with a professional team allowed us to bring to life a logo and branding design that really captured the essence of our mission. We are looking forward to returning to expand that work to an updated website.

    — Emily Thompson, Co-founder of Pivot

  • We wanted to develop new icons and visual models to reflect our core values and strategic plan. DesignFest was an excellent way to make this happen. It was collaborative and helpful for us to express our message visually.

    — Farm Alliance Baltimore

  • Thanks so much to our design team! You took our ideas and ran with them to create several fresh, new versions of marketing collateral that we can use when recruiting community volunteers to serve students. I’m especially excited to use our new table tents with community partners!

    — Reading Partners Baltimore

  • Thank you for creating this fabulous template for our annual and programming reports! You have helped us to clarify the best ways to incorporate visual KPIs that expand on our organizational narrative.

    — Opera Baltimore

  • DesignFest was amazing for our organization and helped us with our branding and a new way to showcase and present Caroline Center. The design team was amazing and really took what our mission was and created beautiful informative branding for us!

    — Caroline Center

  • Our team was absolutely amazing and really captured the spirit of our organization in the brochure they designed for us. It was such a great experience, and words can't express how grateful we are for this! Very excited to share our project with our board - this project definitely is the direction we wanted to take our brand!

    — Chesapeake Youth Symphony Orchestra

  • The team was incredible! I can't believe how much they were able to complete in just a short amount of time. Their energy was amazing. The Persona Exercise was terrific and will help us validate where we should be. We can't wait to take action!

    — Business Volunteers of Maryland

Tips for Applying

  • Before applying, you can review the application questions here to help you feel prepared.

  • Clearly define your design challenge and explain its importance. Focus on manageable projects for the best success, such as a logo redesign, wayfinding, newsletter templates, or social media icons.

  • While larger projects like website redesigns or marketing strategies are valuable, remember that DesignFest can typically address one aspect of a larger project or develop a prototype. If you choose a bigger project, prioritize its components. For example, if you’re focusing on a brand redesign, you might outline your priorities as follows: 

    • Logo redesign

    • Style guide (fonts and colors)

    • Social media icons

  • Think through your project from start to finish. DesignFest will assist with one part, so consider who from your organization will help carry it through to completion and what additional resources or volunteers you can gather to support your efforts.

  • Don’t hesitate to reach out for support! Sign up for an office hours slot to get feedback on your ideas and refine your proposal. We’re here to help!

  • To inspire your proposal, check out past DesignFest projects.

Ready to collaborate?

Nonprofits, tell us a bit about your organizational needs.
Fill out our application form. Nonprofit registration closes January 7th.