Autodesk Launches Charitible Foundation to Support Design-Driven Social Changes

The philanthropic arm of Autodesk now has a website and a URL. Launched last week, the Autodesk Foundation will "focus investment exclusively on the people and organizations using design for impact," according to its mission statement. Through the Foundation, the company plans to promote what it calls "Design-Led Revolution."

The Foundation is headed by Lynelle Cameron, also Autodesk's senior director of Sustainability. Before becoming a sustainability advocate in the private sector, Cameron worked in the trenches at Mountain Institute, the World Wildlife Fund, the National Outdoor Leadership School, and the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance. John Cary, the curator of Impact Design Program, serves as the other shepherd of the Foundation. A board of directors comprising long-time Autodesk veterans --- among them, Amar Hanspal, senior VP, IPG Product Group; Andrew Anagnost senior VP, Industry Strategy & Marketing; and Chris Bradshaw, chief marketing officer and senior VP, Reputation, Consumer & Education, and Media & Entertainment -- rounds out the Foundation's management.

Cameron said she's looking for organizations in the nonprofit sector that "focus specifically on using design and engineering to tackle some of the most epic challenges." She described design projects driven by the desire for social impact as "a movement." So if you happen to be involved in a nonprofit cause celeb that uses design, the Foundation is potentially a source for funding and support. Climate change, health, poverty, education -- anything is fair game.

So far the Foundation has doled out support in the form of financing, software, and technical assistance to D-Rev, a design firm that believes in serving the population earning less than $4 a day; Kickstart International, which develops manual irrigation pumps for use in Africa; Mass Design Group, which aims to improve healthcare in Malawi; and Auburn University Rural Studio, a group designing affordable housing for Hale County, Alabama.

In each project, design takes on the burden of solving a prevalent social problem. In D-Rev's case, the company works with India’s Jaipur Foot Clinic, which provides free limbs and crutches to the disabled, to develop and design the ReMotion prosthetic knees with input from users. The Auburn University's 20K House project sets out to create homes that cost roughly $12,000 for material and $8,000 for contract labor.

D-Rev's chief technology officer Randy Schwemmin said, "We don't have any partners as well-aligned as they are [Autodesk]. We get financial support, which is generous, but the exciting part of partnering with Autodesk is, we also get software licenses and get to apply state-of-the-art CAD/CAM and product lifecycle management to our processes. We're also excited to use some of Autodesk's prototyping space."

So far, D-Rev has delivered more than 5,100 knees, at a retail cost of $80 per knee.

Cameron explained, "The funding that we can offer is relatively small, but the value we provide goes beyond funding." Partners get to work with some of Autodesk talents and use the company's production and prototyping facilities, like the Autodesk Pier 9 Workshop.

For more, listen to the recorded podcast with Cameron and Schwemmin below: