Design Like Mad
Have you ever wanted to collaborate with other local designer to do something bigger for your community? Design Like Mad might have a solution for you. Design Like Mad is a nonprofit organization that puts together events for creatives to get together for 12 hours to work collaboratively on projects for local non-profits. Their first event was in Madison, WI, and after a few more successful events in other cities, they have decided to keep expanding and giving design communities all over the country an opportunity to have an event in their city. They are currently crowd-source funding with Kickstarter and looking for their next city.
"Design Like Mad was founded in 2013 in Madison, Wis. by entrepreneur and professional UX designer Abby Larner. Larner saw an opportunity to support community nonprofits while also giving young talent the advantage of real-world experience. Teams of designers and developers spend the day tackling nonprofits' most challenging and pressing design needs.
"Our first event was a huge success," Larner said. "We had 80 designers and developers working on projects for 21 nonprofits, and the outcome was astonishing."
Since then, Larner said Design Like Mad has experienced an influx of interest from other cities in hosting the event. In 2014 they expanded to Portland, Oregon, and in 2015 they have added Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and San Diego, California to the list.
"Design Like Mad has always been an grassroots organization dependent on its participants, which is why Kickstarter seemed like the perfect channel to raise money to support interested organizers in hosting the event in 2 more US cities in 2015," Larner said.
The Design Like Mad Kickstarter is unique in the sense that it puts the power in the donors’ hands. Each pledge of $25 or more gives donors the opportunity to vote for Design Like Mad's next cities. The Design Like Mad team will host this unique opportunity in the two cities that garner the most votes."
