Design for America Information

DESIGN FOR AMERICA (DFA), founded in 2008, is a pioneering social impact nonprofit training the next generation of social innovators. DFA is a network of college students, young professionals, alumni, educators, and partner organizations using DFA's award-winning curriculum to explore and address community challenges. DFA’s program of courageous change-making provides the structure and psychological safety people need to explore the problems they want to solve and the futures they want to create. Participants develop lifelong skills: sustained curiosity; systems thinking; comfort with ambiguity; collaborative problem-solving; real-world prototyping; and communications. Mission-aligned partners gain access to a robust student network of innovators, potential employees, and youth market voices while activating broader goals around employee and community engagement. After more than a decade of stable growth, DFA is poised to scale as it continues to expand its network of 90+ student-led studios at colleges/universities across the US, and increasingly abroad, while also expanding and diversifying its portfolio of project partnerships, sponsorships, and philanthropic support.