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Upcoming Conferences

Cumulus Conference
May 24, 2012
Cumulus, a Helsinki-based association of more than 140 universities and colleges of art, design and media, sponsors conferences for creative professionals and leaders in education and media. Its next conference, Helsinki 2012 - World Design Capital 2012, will be held in Helsinki - Espoo, Finland, in May 2012.

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Academic Programs

The Rural Studio
Auburn University program co-founded by the late Samuel Mockbee that engages students and a select pool of graduates from outside the university in the practice of community-based architecture in Alabama.

Austin Center for Design
Austin Center for Design exists to transform society through design and design education. This transformation occurs through the development of design knowledge directed towards all forms of social and humanitarian problems. The Center offers an innovative curriculum that repositions creative design education in the context of designing for the public sector.

Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability
Academic course hosted by the Stanford Institute of Design involving graduate students from all seven schools at Stanford University. Multidisciplinary student teams work to create innovations that lie at the intersection of business, technology and human values. The class is project-based, and all projects are done in close partnership with a variety of local and international organizations.

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Competitions

INDEX Design Challenge : Design for Education
The INDEX: Design Challenge asks design and business students, as well as cross-disciplinary student teams, to develop design solutions for better education and education environments in developing regions. The challenge centers around three sub-themes: Improved Education Facilities; Sanitation and Hygiene; and Gender Parity in Education. As well, the contest features an open challenge. Participants from all design disciplines are invited to enter the challenge.

Re:Vision
Initiative to create the prototype for an innovative, sustainable urban community. At the heart of the process is a series of contests generating visionary ideas for what can and should be done in the design of urban space.

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Fellowships & Prizes

The Secretary's Innovation Award for the Empowerment of Women and Girls
The Secretary’s Innovation Award for the Empowerment of Women and Girls seeks to find and bring to scale the most pioneering approaches to the political, economic and social empowerment of women and girls around the globe. Founded on the premise that the major economic, security, governance and environmental challenges of our time cannot be solved without the full participation of women at all levels of society, this award supports the Department of State’s commitment to the advancement of women globally.

PopTech Social Innovation Fellows
The PopTech Social Innovation Fellows program is designed to equip world-changing innovators with the tools, insights, visibility and social network that can help them scale their impacts to new heights. Each year, PopTech selects 10-20 high potential change agents from around the world who are working on highly disruptive innovations in areas like healthcare, energy, development, climate, education, and civic engagement, among many others.

The Do Something Awards
Since 1996, DoSomething.org has honored the nation's best world-changers, ages 25 and under, that are making the world a better place. Nominees and winners represent the pivotal "do-ers" in their field, cause, or issue.

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Organizations

All Day Buffet
An "incubator for social innovation" that hosts cross-disciplinary programs, often around meals. Its 2009 Feast Conference will take place in New York City on October 1.

The Graphic Alliance
A network for graphic designers, website developers and other professionals who are pursuing social change. "We are committed to helping build a new social order based on direct democracy, communal economics, human rights and ecological sensibility. We believe that design and technology are important aspects of the struggle for freedom, peace and social justice. We stand united in our opposition to concentrated power, discrimination and oppression in its many forms. We promote social ownership and democratic control over information, ideas, technology and the means of communication."

Ashoka
Named for a leader who unified the Indian subcontinent in the 3rd century B.C., Ashoka is a pioneer in the field of social entrepreneurship. Operates in 60 countries through a fellowship program that has supported more than 2,000 participants.

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Programs & Initiatives

Impact! Design for Social Change
To remain competitive, corporations are looking for innovation and impact in the area of social change as it relates to their businesses. The non-profit world is seeking new ways to support their constituencies through design strategy. This six-week summer intensive will introduce participants to the growing field of design for social advocacy.

Charlottesville Design Marathon
The Design Marathon is an annual event held at the Charlottesville Community Design Center (CCDC) involving teams of area designers who each provide 12 hours of pro-bono design services to ten deserving area non-profit organizations. Each creative team includes a student pursuing a design-related degree.

Project M
An intensive summer program founded in 2003 by designer John Bielenberg to persuade young graphic designers, writers, photographers and other creative people that their work can have a positive and significant impact on the world.

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Publications & Websites

Taproot Foundation's Pro Bon Action Tank
A variety of best practices and tools to help you realize and maximize the true business value and social impact from your pro-bono efforts.

Unbeige
Channel of the website Media Bistro devoted to news about design.

Stanford Social Innovation Review
"Strategies, tools and ideas for nonprofits, foundations and socially responsible businesses"

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Social Networks

Open Architecture Network
An online, open-source community founded by Architecture for Humanity. Offers a place where designers can share ideas and projects and host or participate in competitions

BOP Source
"Social network that closes the digital divide, bringing together the 4 billion people at the base of the economic pyramid (the 'BOP') with the companies and NGOs that want to hire them and design products and services for them."

Design 21
UNESCO and the Japan-based company Felissimo are behind this network, which connects designers, businesses and nonprofits for the greater good and hosts competitions to create socially minded products and graphics.

More Social Networks >>