Firebelly Design Grant

We believe in the importance of good design and we want to help worthy nonprofit organizations put their best face forward. After years of spending over a third of our time on donated design work we realized a piecemeal approach wasn't really benefiting either party. Each donated piece was different from other designers' donated pieces and the organization's materials ended up looking cobbled together without a cohesive direction or identity. We could make better use of our time if we concentrated on one organization and took the time to not only design for them, but gave them the knowledge they needed to maintain that level of design in the future.

Our solution? Every year Firebelly awards an entire year of design work to a nonprofit. A year gives us time to solidly position an organization by developing a complete brand identity which can include logo, identity materials, collateral, website and more – whatever the nonprofit needs. Throughout the year we work closely with the organization. We get them involved in the process so they get designs they love and see how a project is brought from start to finish.

This year we received nearly 30 applicants for our 5th annual Firebelly Design + Marketing Grant. Through several rounds of review (incorporating the experiences and input of past grantees and our super-generous printer) we narrowed it down to three and interviewed them all last week. And damn it if there weren't some tough choices to make.

Ultimately we decided on the Interfaith Worker Rights Center. The proactive member-based organization assists and organizes exploited workers and provides education and training as a means to prevent future abuse. They also campaign for state and national policy change and enforcement.

We're super excited about working with IWRC and are pretty sure the feeling is mutual (we could here them jumping up and down on speaker phone!) IWRC needs a complete brand overhaul including logo and identity materials, a website, programming collateral and a membership/photo identification card, so we're anxious to get to work!

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