Over the past 20 years, our Ideas That Matter programme has provided grants to designers and their nonprofit collaborators to empower great ideas that drive impactful change. It has served as a centrepiece among Sappi’s initiatives, providing nearly $15 million in funding and supporting over 500 exceptional projects that have made a tangible difference in the lives of individuals and communities.
Here are some of our past projects that have transformed lives.
EducationSuperHighway: ensuring educational opportunities for all
Closing the digital divide for those in need, Studio Usher’s EducationSuperHighway project advocated for wider broadband in schools across the United States. By engaging with government agencies and policymakers, the organization worked to ensure that 40 million children gained reliable internet access, providing them with the tools to succeed academically. Their mission garnered widespread support, including $9 million in grant funding from prominent philanthropists like Mark Zuckerberg and The Gates Foundation.
EducationSuperHighway
Studio Usher
Closing the digital divide by providing
Internet access to those in need.
Real Food Farm: improving access to sustainable, healthy food
In response to the nutritional challenges faced by Baltimore’s Clifton Hill neighbourhood, Mike Weikert and the team at Maryland Institute College of Art’s Centre for Design Practice launched a pop-up market that brought produce from a local farm directly to the community. The initiative aligned with partner Real Food Farm’s mission to address food insecurity in urban areas, while MICA’s thoughtfully designed branding increased Real Food Farm’s visibility and fostered meaningful connections between the farm and the people it serves.
Real Food Farm
Mike Weikert
Maryland Institute College of Art’s Center for Design Practice
Sustainable food system by improving
neighborhood access to healthy food.
The Inneract Project: educating kids about careers in design
Dedicated to using design as a force for positive change in communities nationwide, the Inneract Project empowered inner-city youth by introducing them to careers in design. Along with project founder and senior designer Maurice Woods, Kit Hinrichs of Studio Hinrichs developed a public awareness campaign that brought these opportunities to life through bus shelter and transit advertising across the San Francisco Bay Area. The campaign tripled web traffic to Inneract’s training programmess, connecting young people with pathways to pursue creative education and careers.
Project Dose
Linda Pulik
Bao Design Lab
Providing children with the dosage they need to
stay protected from life-threatening diseases.
Project Dose: addressing global health challenges through design solutions
Project Dose was created by Linda Pulik and the team at Bao Design Lab to solve a critical issue in the developing world: the improper dosing of medicine for children. In many communities, the high cost of medications led mothers to crush pills and administer unmeasured, often incorrect doses to their children - risking ineffective treatment or adverse effects. Successfully tested across diverse cultures and languages, Project Dose developed a solution that allows mothers to give their children the correct dosage and help them stay protected from life-threatening diseases.
A Generation of Change
Kit Hinrichs, Studio Hinrichs and
Maurice Woods, Founder, Inneract Project
Educating kids on the opportunities
for careers in design.
The Design Revolution Roadshow: using creativity as a tool for social change
Created by Emily Pilloton and Project H to inspire the next generation of designers and innovators and demonstrate how design can improve lives and communities, The Design Revolution Roadshow showcased real-world design projects that address pressing global challenges. Through hands-on workshops and a comprehensive print and digital toolkit, the travelling exhibition encouraged students from 35 high schools and colleges across the country to embrace creative problem-solving as a way to make meaningful impact on the world.
Changing the World by Design
Emily Pilloton
Project H
A traveling exhibition empowering the next generation of
designers and the power of design to shape a better world.