Posted on August 24, 2004

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Design Response

Founded: 1992

Contact: Jayne Booker, Executive Director

Address:
Design Response
267-C East Campbell Avenue
Campbell, CA 95008

Phone: (408) 871-0861
Fax: (408) 871-0864
E-mail: info@designresponse.org
URL: http://designresponse.org/

Mission:
To improve the performance of nonprofit agencies and schools by transforming their environments so that they are safe, well designed, and welcoming; to leverage and multiply resources of the design and construction community to transform environments at a fraction of market value.

About the Organization:
Design Response serves nonprofit and educational organizations in the Silicon Valley in Northern California, that mainly serve women, children, and families in crisis or transition. These agencies often operate on shoestring budgets, struggling to provide client services and rarely spending time or money on facility improvements. Design Response believes that the environment has a profound effect on an agency's ability to fulfill its mission, that the way it looks sends a message about the value of the services it provides. It seeks to bridge this gap for nonprofits by combining the volunteer time and talents of interior designers, architects, space planners, artists, craftsmen, and students of interior design with donations of high-quality furniture and materials by corporations and design industry professionals. Its facility-enhancement services, offered at a modest fee for project administration, save agencies thousands of dollars and include space planning, design and plan development, functional renovation, code compliance, volunteer resource coordination, procurement of project materials, development of project budget and timeline, and project management. When an agency calls Design Response for help, the first step is an on-site assessment. This often reveals cramped workspaces, distressed furniture, bare walls, worn carpets, and drab rooms that aren't very inviting or uplifting to people seeking support. Agencies that become recipients of Design Response's services receive written contracts; an evaluation of functional requirements; development of specifications for furnishings, fixtures, and finish materials; a design-plan presentation submitted for agency approval; and project installation. The agencies can then show the design plan to funders if it's necessary to raise the money to complete the project. Typically, for every dollar an agency spends, Design Response is able to leverage an additional $3 to $10, so a $50,000 project would cost an agency only $10,000, or an $800,000 project would cost $200,000 or less.

Current Programs:
Design Response has thirteen projects in the works. Among its current clients are a homeless shelter for women and children; a regional arts agency; a senior center; a school serving children with severe emotional problems; a center providing counseling and shelter for runaway and homeless youth; a center for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people, and their allies; a residential psychiatric crisis facility; and a center offering vision-related rehabilitation, recreation, social programs for people who are blind or losing their sight.

Web Site:
Design Response's Web site provides a complete list of current and completed projects, the latter with "before" and "after" pictures; a testimonial page; and ways to get involved as a donor or a volunteer, or an applicant for services.

Funding:
Design Response is supported by individual gifts, corporate grants, some foundation grants, project administration fees, and the proceeds from an annual fundraiser.