What separates a well-designed social impact project from one that simply has good intentions?
Brandon, an industrial designer by profession, is also Executive Director of the Australian Design Council, and has spent the past 30 years advocating for the value of good design to improve social, economic, cultural and environmental quality of life. Many people picture consumer products when thinking about good design, from cars and furniture to phones and houses, but it is equally important in social programs. “Bad design costs dearly, whether you’re developing a new medical device or a program to address homelessness,” Brandon says. “Get the design wrong, and the price of failure can run into the hundreds of millions.” In 2012, Good Design Australia, which traces its origins to the Industrial Design Council of Australia established by the Australian Government in 1958, introduced a dedicated Social Impact Award category to its flagship Australian Good Design Awards.
Assessment criteria of submissions included:
Identifying a clear problem with an innovative solution through design and partnership
Building a strong coalition of partners
Prioritising children and young people's participation in all stages
Maintaining a learning culture and sharing insights openly
Planning for sustainability
Working with disadvantaged and marginalised children
“These organisations and their collaborators are committed to moving away from band-aid solutions, and instead embedding young people in leading, planning and designing solutions, and deepening long-term partnerships,” she said.
Smiling Mind is committed to driving lasting change
In a departure from traditional funding approaches, the Foundation now invests in projects over several years, empowering organisations to rebuild systems with young people leading the way. The call-out asked for ideas that could improve and disrupt systems, and the response was overwhelming — more than 140 expressions of interest, with seven organisations invited to apply and four ultimately funded across multi-year terms.
Good Design Grants
| NAME | PROJECT TITLE | FUNDING PURPOSE | GRANT AMOUNT | TERM (YEARS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alannah & Madeline Foundation | Necessary Trouble | Enabling the youth-focused ecosystem to collaboratively design and act toward a future where children and young people experience safety, belonging, joy, learning, and healing, anchored in hope, kindness, and justice. | $1,170,000 | 5 years |
| Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS) | Imagining and Co-creating Safer Sector Responses with Children and Young People | Co-create, pilot and scale an integrated, evidence-informed model supporting the Child and Family Welfare and Youth sectors to create safer, more responsive systems with and for children and young people. | $1,170,000 | 5 years |
| The Foyer Foundation | First Nations-led Youth Foyers | Unlocking thriving futures for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 16-24 who experience homelessness by co-designing, implementing and scaling 10+ First Nations Youth Foyers. | $1,170,000 | 5 years |
| Kids Under Cover | Homelessness Prevention Incubator | Scoping project to support systems change that prevents long-term harm by redirecting young people away from the trajectory into chronic adult homelessness — creating sustainable, preventative pathways before crisis occurs. | $1,170,000 | 5 years |
Submitting your grant reports
All grant partners are required to submit a Final Report confirming that the funds granted were used for the intended purpose. Multi-year grants require annual Progress Reports. The organisations, members of their respective collaborations and the Foundation meet together twice a year to capture learnings and create a shared learning network.
“This is not consultation at the margins. It is how systems can learn and improve — young people shape what is built, tested and shared, supported by a rigorous process that connects lived experience with evidence and service expertise.”
Good design, Brandon argues, is ultimately about outcomes: getting the problem definition right, building the right coalition, and staying close to the people a program is meant to serve. When those conditions are met, the price of failure falls and the value created — social, economic, cultural and environmental — compounds over time.