The GOOD 100: IDEO Social Impact

When a well-intentioned initiative lacks the compelling storytelling needed to get its message out there, its chances of success—or of getting funding—are significantly hampered. But when an effort is bolstered by a bold, arresting visual narrative, its potential for success is boundless. In that department, the Social Impact arm of the design firm IDEO is without equal. Take the Ripple Effect, IDEO’s Gates Foundation–funded partnership with the Acumen Fund that is working to bring clean water to 500,000 of the world’s poorest people. The project, which went first to India, and is now in East Africa, is a perfect example of how IDEO’s artful narration of an initiative is inexorably tied to the solution itself.