April 3, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
For many nonprofit organizations the word “architecture” conjures up images of futuristic buildings and gleaming, lacquered interiors.
A new book, The Power of Pro Bono, seeks to dispel charities’ misconceptions about design and show that it can be an important tool to help them advance their missions.
“There is a mentality in the nonprofit sector that we need to look needy, that we need to not be flashy,” says John Cary, editor of the new book and former executive director of Public Architecture, a design charity in San Francisco that encourages architecture firms across the country to pledge 1 percent of their working hours to volunteer projects.
But good design, he says, can improve services to clients and employee morale and help an organization present a professional image. As an example, he points to Homeless Prenatal Program, a social-service group in San Francisco and one of the examples profiled in the book. After the organization decided that it needed to move, a local architect volunteered to visit and help the group evaluate potential new offices, a process that took two years.
One of the biggest problems the charity had with its old space was a very small waiting room.
“People who come to us for services are often extremely stressed out, and there would be lots of fights,” Martha Ryan, the organization’s executive director wrote in the book. “In our new home, we designed a very open and welcoming double-height reception area.”
Mr. Cary says that in its early years, Public Architecture and the architects the group mobilized struggled to understand that for nonprofits, architecture is a means to an end.
“The sell isn’t design,” he says. “The sell is how design can impact education, health, housing, the environment, andall these other issues that are top priorities.”
