Case Study
Greater Good Studio
Communications
How Women Unite! Got Connected
Executive Director Liz Jansen found a posting for a Communications Coordinator position on Greater Good Studios’ (GGS) website and reached out to their Director of Operations to learn more about how WU! could be of service. After a series of interviews, GGS asked WU! to join their team on a contract basis.
Photo courtesy of Greater Good Studio
Who They Serve
The GGS team evaluates each potential client rigorously to ensure their missions are aligned. Their clients include The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Easterseals, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Big Shoulders Fund, and many others. Through their human-centered design work, GGS has directly and indirectly impacted youth in urban and rural settings, individuals seeking healthcare around the world, seniors, people with disabilities, and more. GGS pushes past barriers to make sure those with lived experience are centered in the work, and they build agency by transitioning ownership to project participants.
Mission Alignment
Like WU!, GGS believes that social change is about re-balancing power structures to make things equitable for all. For GGS, the role of design is not only in shifting power imbalances, but in tangibly creating more power for those with less. For WU!, the power of women and the role we play in making our world a more just, compassionate place is integral to our values. Through design, community voices, and empowerment, our two organizations work together to make lasting change.
Photo courtesy of Greater Good Studio
About Greater Good Studio
Greater Good Studio is a strategic design firm focused on advancing equity. They do this by creating human-centered programs, tools, and experiences, and by teaching design to changemakers in organizations and communities. They believe in the capacity of all people to create solutions that improve society and envision a world where there is opportunity to do so regardless of race, gender, income, age, or zip code.
GGS partners with clients on a mission to create a more just and equitable society. The tools, programs, and experiences they design serve to multiply the capacity of their users, amplifying their ability to positively impact the world around them.
Photo courtesy of Greater Good Studio
The Organization’s Need
Designers by trade and passion, the GGS team’s commitment to human-centered, equitable design is evident in all the work they do. With such intense focus on designing powerful, meaningful solutions for their clients, they had little time to focus on some of the communications components of their projects. That’s where WU! came in. Through the partnership between GGS and WU!, GGS could focus their attention on leading and facilitating design projects, while WU! took care of writing and editing content that went hand in hand with the design work. Through this collaborative process, GGS was able to tell their stories effectively, and WU! had the added benefit of learning about human-centered design.
“Women Unite! is an amazing group. They have been able to handle challenging assignments with grace and flexibility, jumping in at critical moments throughout our projects and providing writing, editing, and project management support. Plus, their work fuels other amazing organizations!”
—Sara Cantor Aye, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Greater Good Studio
Photo courtesy of Greater Good Studio
Women Unite!’s Impact
WU! worked closely with GGS on a few different projects, including writing case studies for past projects, creating newsletter content, attending design sessions and capturing the passionate conversations that yielded frameworks and solutions, helping to design and develop surveys, and writing and editing final reports with recommendations for clients. WU!’s impact was primarily in freeing up the GGS designers to focus on what they do best: design human-centered, innovative solutions that can change communities. GGS lays the foundation; WU! helps build on it.