Partner Organizations

Design Action provides cutting-edge graphic design, website development, strategic communications and copywriting services for grassroots, activist, and social change organizations.

The Ruckus Society trains activists in creative nonviolent actions that distill complex issues into simple messages that grab media headlines.

Change the Game brings corporate PR savvy to the nonprofit sector, specializing in guerrilla marketing, polling, focus groups, and politically conscious art targeted towards activating young people of color.

Tumi’s Design provides unique design solutions that foster and promote integrity and equality. We are proud to be Oakland’s only bilingual design and printing studio dedicated to global social justice and human rights.

Overview

The Designs on Democracy Conference is moving ahead and the buzz around it is growing. The website http://www.designsondemocracy.org provides ongoing and updated information about the conference, as well as a way for participants to register. We have received support from the Compton Foundation, which will ensure that the conference goes forward, however we still need additional funds in order to ensure that diverse voices are present.

We are working to raise $15,000 in order to provide 30 scholarships (travel and accommodation) to accomplished youth organizers working in urban centers of swing-states, particularly people of color. Below you will find a summary of the conference and goals, as well as a scholarship budget.

The Political Reality

The propaganda machines of the Right have demonstrated incredible success at managing public participation in civil society, co-opting and controlling diverse cultural forms, and defining the political landscape. The Bush regime, the corporations it serves, and Neoconservative pundits have managed—using (in part) a dual strategy of endless reiteration and media saturation—to steamroll democracy, taking the country to war and rolling back decades of progressive wins on the home front.

At the same time, advocates for social, political, economic, and environmental justice have had an increasingly difficult time getting their messages heard. Due to a range of factors from shrinking budgets to issue fatigue, grassroots organizations, progressive campaigns, and movement building organizations have not been reaching the widest possible audiences with the most effective messages.

Building Our Capacity

There are a growing number of individuals and organizations specializing in design, communications, public relations, and media to support social change. These ‘movement-servicing’ organizations already play a vital and strategic role in advancing campaigns. However, we would be much more responsive to the needs of the organizations we seek to serve, effective in reaching target audiences, and influential in supporting social change if there were increased communication, skill-sharing and cooperation within our network. The Designs on Democracy conference seeks to make this possible.

Critical Constituencies

The success of this conference is dependent on the participation of diverse activists representing a wide range of skills, perspectives and approaches. In order to ensure that we are able to create the right mix of people, we seek funding for travel, food and accommodation expenses for participants who would not be able to attend the conference otherwise.

Hip-Hop Youth Culture is, arguably, the most aggressively ‘corporatized’ art form today. While the world of Wall Street advertising attempts to strip Hip-Hop Culture of its liberation politics a powerful counter current in Hip-Hop is taking it back. In this critical election cycle, young people, particularly urban youth of color, have a lot to gain, and even more to loose. Designs on Democracy is an incredible opportunity to bring young organizers, particularly youth of color, from swing-states together with message and image specialists: building their capacity to Spin hard in this election cycle.

Student and emerging designers who are concerned with social change represent the next wave in image and message making. Heavily recruited by corporate advertising firms, many young designers are not aware that a world of social change design exists and has professional potential. We would like to make sure that we have sufficient funds to allow interested young designers to attend the conference.

We have received many requests for scholarships from young native activists (including staff of RedWire Magazine), youth organizers working for justice in urban centers, student designers, and many other deserving young people. With your generous support we can ensure their participation in this important summit.

Scholarship Budget per Recipient

Per individual 30 scholarships

Travel (airfare) $300.00 $9,000

Registration fee $50.00 $1,500

Accommodations and food $150.00 $4,500

Total/scholarship $500.00 $15,000