Pro Bono | IDEAS

Last year the San Francisco Office was excited to offer pro-bono design and documentation services to a halfway-house nonprofit residential treatment center. The plan was to solicit material donations and have a volunteer construction day to build therapy gardens for the facility. We collaborated with the organization’s directors and staff to make a survey, conduct soil… Read more »

Unfortunately, the nonprofit didn’t own the property, something our design team was unaware of. When the landlord was shown our plans, they flatly refused any improvements. They no longer wanted the halfway-house as a tenant and had no interest in the grounds being improved for residents. Thus, a couple hundred volunteer hours abruptly culminated in a complete lack of action.

As the informal project manager for this effort, I felt both disappointed and guilty for wasting my team’s time. I should have thought to ask if the organization we were working for owned the facility. Based on the confidence the program director had about the grounds, it never occurred to me that this would be an issue. A hard lesson learned.

Reflecting on this experience, I remembered a document developed by DesignConnect, a volunteer community design organization at Cornell University. Each semester, cities and towns in Upstate New York apply for student teams to study local issues and produce vision documents. Over a number of projects, DesignConnect has gained institutional experience as to what volunteer opportunities are likely to be most productive for the communities and the student teams, and has developed questions to evaluate them. Ask yourself the following three key questions before committing to a pro-bono service so you can avoid traps like the one we encountered in our experience:

Who are you working for, and what is their interest in and capacity for the project?

The “client,” whether a nonprofit organization, community advocate, city agency, or individual, should be clearly identified before dedicating time to a project. As a design firm, many of our pro-bono efforts focus on making physical interventions in the world, although sometimes we are also educators and advocates. For those projects that require physical interventions, it’s vital to have a client who will take ownership of the project and maintain or operate it after the volunteer effort is over. Some clients will request volunteer services for projects they are not particularly passionate about or dedicated to because the services are free. A simple strategy to filter out opportunistic pro-bono clients is to request a nominal fee. In addition to passion, can your client handle their part of the project? With volunteer efforts, your commitment can sometimes extend into developing the social capital behind a program, whether you’re ready for that role or not.

Who are the decision makers for the project?

This was the key question that I should have investigated for the halfway house. Sometimes your client will say they are the only decision maker. You should push them for more information. Who has to provide approvals for the project? Is it a school district, neighborhood group? Who has jurisdiction over the land in question, and who are the owners? Once you determine the decision makers, then you can better understand the scope of your commitment. Engaging all the decision makers at the beginning of the project is important to avoid being blindsided later in the process.

Who will use the project, and why do they merit volunteer work?

As landscape architects and planners, much of our effort is already in the realm of social impact design. But there are many reasons to volunteer: a particular progressive issue that we typically don’t get to work on, a human need in an unfunded situation, an interesting design challenge. There is also strategic volunteerism, where we do pro-bono work for a client or project we are interested in developing a professional relationship with. It is important to identify why you and your team are committing to this project, and who will benefit from the work.

At SWA, our volunteer work is just as valuable as our paid work, and we want to make the most impact with our dedicated time. There are opportunities in pro-bono work for deeply fulfilling work that benefits society, and I encourage everyone to participate in SWA’s commitment to the 1% program. Asking these questions should help other teams avoid pitfalls and be more effective in their volunteer efforts.

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One Response to “Social Impact Design Practice: Key Questions to Ask Before Volunteering”

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Posted by Chris Hardy
in Social Impact
on 5 March, 2014

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Designing in the public interest is often challenging–and controversial. How do you know when to do public interest work and when pro-bono efforts are going towards greater good? In our office with the recent launch of our pro-bono Social Impact Design Initiative and partnership with the 1% Program at Public Architecture, we continue to learn from our work… Read more »

Chris Hardy, a designer with our San Francisco office, gave a lecture at ASLA’s Northern California Chapter this Spring to talk about the benefits and challenges of pro-bono work. In the lecture, he mentions six ways that pro-bono work makes us better designers:

New and otherwise unavailable projects help us broaden our experience and train young and intermediate designers in on-the-ground project work;
Each project makes us better designers, particularly (and often) locally;
Younger staff can take ownership over the process in ways that might not be available yet in big office-wide projects within the firm and demonstrate leadership and project management skills;
The project is often an opportunity for mentorship and learning between staff and new contacts within the field;
Strategic volunteering–when a project is pro-bono at first but beneficial to the firm in the long-term–can bring projects that are otherwise unavailable to the firm. For example, when a community has a need for an amenity that’s very strong, but there’s no visioning documents or initial support, a landscape architect can assist with the visual and preliminary documents needed to get a project up and running to later phases;
Inter-office collaboration: with quick charrettes and idea brainstorming, you can meet people within the office and collaborate on a quick project with a tight timeframe and generate new ideas quickly.

Additionally, Chris noted that pro-bono and local projects are “often small enough to get your hands dirty” and they are also discrete–in that you can finish them–so that designers can participate in local design-build projects they can point to fairly quickly. These projects, in turn, serve as a model to help us do more work in the field in the future and act as a catalyst for creating a new market or niche area of expertise within your firm.

As he concludes in his lecture, “pro-bono work is often the beginning of a longer process, and we can learn a lot while doing it and capitalize on our experiences to share and grow.”

“As long as we’re passionate, that’s all that matters.”

Chris Hardy is a designer with SWA’s San Francisco office; he holds an MLA from Cornell University and a B.S. In Conservation Biology from Duke University. He is part of the Social Impact Design Initiative at SWA and spearheads projects focused on ecological design and collaborative community infrastructure.

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Posted by Sarah Peck
in Community, Social Impact
on 12 June, 2013

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Created by of the founders of GOOD, the Goldhirsh Foundation supports innovators through grants whose ideas can shape and change the world. This year the Goldhirsh Foundation is tackling a new approach to grant making through the “My LA2050 challenge.” This application is specific to the Los Angeles region and the opportunities for its future, but open to voting by everyone. My LA2050 will support the areas of arts & cultural vitality, education, environmental quality, health, housing, income & employment, public safety and social connectedness.

As part of our ongoing collaboration with From Lot to Spot, we submitted an application that addresses the need for urban revitalization by the greening of community spaces: we have seven days left to collect votes for the project to receive funding (deadline: April 17, 2013)!

Our goal is to create a planning and implementation tool that will assist in the realization and installation of simple landscape based interventions. The manual will lay out details on how to identify and create green space networks in low-income communities and how to implement green spaces with the utmost respect to the environment. Given the opportunity we would provide communities, city officials, friends and neighbors a tool to create much needed green spaces throughout Los Angeles.

Can you imagine a Los Angeles with a large system of parks, gardens, micro-spaces, plazitas, parklets, pedestrian walkways that lead to and from work, play and living spaces? By taking simple ideologies of space, connectivity and landscape, Los Angeles can become a beacon for urban environments around the country. We want the community to be involved in the planning and construction of green spaces which are in their neighborhoods, to make a deeper connection to their environment. These are grassroots play spaces, nature spaces and contemplative spaces. With the implementation of these green spaces, Los Angeles will reap the benefits of planting trees and vegetation that sequester carbon emissions and improve air quality; designing permeable surfaces such as low/no-mow grasses and porous paving will capture and clean stormwater; creating beautiful, clean green spaces will spur economic investment; and providing areas where adults and youth can interact with the natural environment in their neighborhoods will create ample health and wellness opportunities by combating nature deficit disorder.

These will be green spaces that will support communities to thrive, not just survive.

Please vote for this project and help us make a significant impact in Los Angeles!

Thank you!

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Posted by Martina Dolejs
in Landscape Infrastructure, Social Impact
on 11 April, 2013

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Over the past year, a group of designers from all of our offices have been slowly building up a formal library of all of our various pro-bono projects we’ve been a part of over the years. While doing projects above and beyond our client work is nothing new to SWA—our involvement with the Bayous in Houston and investing in our local schools and parks are just a few of many examples—we’re excited to formalize our efforts and officially join the 1% program with Public Architecture. The 1% program is a national movement in partnership with the AIA that promotes pro bono architectural efforts in the public interest.

Public Architecture_Home Page Screen Shot

“The 1% program of Public Architecture connects nonprofit organizations in need of design assistance with architecture and design firms willing to donate their time on a pro bono basis. Launched by Public Architecture in 2005 with the support of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, The 1% is a first-of-its-kind effort to encourage pro bono service within the architecture and design professions.” – Public Architecture

We believe that as designers, we are called to serve for the public good—to do design that benefits our communities, our environments, our global cities, and our world. At SWA, our social impact design initiative, spearheaded by Principal Cinda Gilliland and includes 36 designers from each of our seven offices.

Our Social Impact Design Initiative was born out of our curiosity and eagerness to find ways to continue to contribute design and planning skills locally and globally. As John Cary of Public Interest Design has written, we believe that everyone should have access to good design.

“The landscape architecture, planning and urban design community plays an increasingly necessary and important role in The 1% program,” says Amy Ress, The 1% Program Manager at Public Architecture. “We’re inspired by SWA’s vision and their commitment of more than 700 hours annually to improve communities in need.”

We’re excited about sharing more of our recent projects and chronicling our adventures here on this blog.

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Posted by Sarah Peck
in Community, Social Impact
on 10 April, 2013

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At first, we thought Patti Purcell thought quite differently than most elementary school principals. My SWA colleagues, John Loomis and Yoonju Kametani, and I were meeting with Patti to get her thoughts about a new outdoor classroom that we were designing for Bel Air School in Tiburon, California. “When students move on to 6th grade and up, all they really want to do is to hang with their friends, so why don’t we make this space for them to learn how to hang? Even a 5th grader needs to know how to hang properly.”

The vision from the school side was to look at the space as an outdoor student lounge where kids can hang out during the recess. But instead of beginning our designs based on our first instinct, we asked “What do the students want?” We asked Patti to have the students draw up their visions of this outdoor space and we would be back in a week to look at their plans. With that exercise in mind, we went back office and sketched our own version of the outdoor lounge space.

A week later, Patti brought the students’ sketches and gathered the teachers that would be involved in this project to look at the designs. The discussion was fruitful, as we walked the school staff through our design thinking, they ideas for a “conflict resolution mosaic path”, a place to display art work, and an area for outdoor learning. We also learned about Bel Aire’s sister school in Liberia and how the school had raised money and built a well for drinking so that students there don’t have to walk 3-5 hours each day to get water, and can use the time learning instead.

With this new awareness, we went back to our office to study the drawings from students. We were amazed by what is in these kids’ minds. The drawings reflect the world and vision they need. We created lists of the icons they drew and the words they used and created a word cloud to help us analyze their designs.

We analyzed the similar and different programs and came up with a revised drawing that included the key components.

The design is pretty much driven by the kids’ programs, and we found a home for the mosaic path, art display, and outdoor learning as well.

The final design incorporates the conflict resolution mosaic path, which resolves the grade changes at the lower hillside and provides a terrace for watching sports activities. The canopy structure uses donations to create recycled sails that can be pulled out to provide shade, making it easier for remote learning with mobile devices, and a comfortable escape from the black or white boards inside. We also created a series of new vine structures by reusing the existing fence and a solar-powered drinking fountain as a reminder of their contribution to their sister school in Liberia.

With the exposure of the project in the news, the school was able to obtain the preliminary funding to get the project going. It is estimated that phase 1 will be complete by August 2012 when students return school from summer break.

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Posted by Scott Chuang
in Social Impact
on 19 July, 2012

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My first exposure to the community of social impact design was the Public Architecture sponsored Design Access Summit. The summit gathered a group of articulate people with depth in the diverse range of assets required for success in this work. A range of the topics was explored both in short presentations and in very active… Read more »

My first take away was that social impact design calls for a much more entrepreneurial skill set than the usual architectural firm ‘waiting for client to come up with a project’ model. Working actively in this realm often requires, or provides, an opportunity, for a designer to identify an problem or issue and then go out and identify stakeholders, partners and funding sources. Or a potential client has identified a need but needs the project to be defined and articulated in order to pursue funding, whether grants or donations. As in regular practice having a good team of collaborators is an asset, but for social impact design projects a more diverse group of resources is required. A successful project is predicated on a rich social asset resource base.

A few highlights of the two days:

Perhaps due to the lack of specificity there was a lot of talk about the need for specificity. Roman Mars, creator of the 99% Invisible radio show, addressed the subject of the story suggesting the motto ‘Specificity is the soul of the narrative’ and demonstrating the same brilliantly in a piece about the Plimsoll line in the style of NPR’s ‘This American Life’ or ‘Radiolab’. In a breakout session Roman also said that in order to motivate one’s social assets you need to have a good story, specific ‘asks’, and a common (specific) language or clear goal. Stated another way Lakshmi Ramarajan from the Organizational Behavior Unit at the Harvard Business school outlined, in a session called Rethinking Service Delivery, the steps for changing external structures as 1)Framing the issue, 2)Mobilizing others, and 3)Engaging the rule makers.

The idea of pro bono itself was batted about. Brian Healy, a design principal at Perkins + Will’s Boston office, wondered, in another breakout session, if we didn’t devalue our skills by giving them away, a problem acknowledged even by John Peterson of Public Architecture regarding the internal debate at Public over the name of their new book ‘The Power of Pro Bono’. (Then the graphics designer pointed out all the ‘0’s in the title.) Ideally people want to do work that matters, is good and pays. Ideally we want to put our talents and skills to work for clients who share our values.

The question of metrics kept popping up: Would we be more successful in securing work in line with our ideals if we could better articulate/measure the difference design can make? Or maybe more clearly stated: Are metrics a valuable tool for better articulating the design’s value? Can the therapeutic value of design be better demonstrated? Measurement was seen by some as a tool for justifying an approach and facilitating collaboration. I continue to be surprised by the way the discussion of metrics with regard to design generates a response that is, by all appearances, is defensive. I still don’t understand the dichotomy between inspiration and metrics, especially in a field as practical and concrete at architecture.

Julie Eizenberg, of Koning Eizenberg Architects, in her talk in the session entitled “Overcoming Barriers: Successes and Failures”, made an elegant and inspiring case for having every project add joy and knowledge about the world to our community fund of good. She said that “philanthropists like projects that inspire”. I would extend that: philanthropists are not the only ones. The public in general doesn’t know what the design process can offer. While designers are taught to cast a wide net around a problem, as Julie pointed out, the public isn’t even expecting inspiration, thinking that smaller is better.

If we subscribe to the ethical and political activism of adding ‘joy and knowledge of the world’ to our public dialogue through design we can no longer limit our practice to benefitting only those with adequate means. The best summation, at present, of my ongoing trip through the public good or purposeful design community, is that we as designers have a valuable skill that could serve the greater good in broad, far-reaching ways, ways that most of us, practicing traditional design in the traditional delivery method, are only just beginning to grasp.

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Posted by Cinda Gilliland
in Social Impact
on 6 July, 2012

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