Model & Strategy

IDEO.org believes that by understanding and working alongside those in the greatest need, we can design solutions that create prosperity. Born in 2011 out of the global design and innovation firm IDEO, IDEO.org is a non-profit that applies human-centered design to bring innovative solutions to some of the world’s toughest challenges. IDEO.org partners with non-profit organizations, social enterprises and foundations to directly address the needs of communities in sectors like health, water and sanitation, financial inclusion, agriculture and gender equity.

By sharing, teaching, and empowering those working in the social sector to practice human-centered design, IDEO.org is elevating design as a tool to fight global poverty-related challenges. Through their projects and by promoting and supporting the work of others, IDEO.org is dedicated to spreading the practice and promise of human-centered design to create the biggest impact.

At a Glance
Founded: 2011
Co-Founder & CEO: Jocelyn Wyatt
Co-Founder & Advisor: Patrice Martin
Social Justice
Location of work: International, Africa
IDEO.org
San Francisco, CA
Designing a path out of poverty
Group gathered looking at a design
Jocelyn Wyatt and Patrice Martin
Meet Jocelyn Wyatt

Jocelyn is the Co-Lead + Executive Director of IDEO.org.  Jocelyn’s work focuses on identifying non-profit and social enterprises with whom to partner and designing innovative solutions related to water and sanitation, agriculture, energy, health, financial services, and early childhood education. Jocelyn specializes in building social enterprises and advising businesses in the developing world, where she uses the market to effect social change. Jocelyn oversees IDEO.org’s strategy, partnership development, fundraising, and operations and works to spread IDEO.org’s learnings through the social sector. Prior to joining IDEO in 2007, Jocelyn worked in Kenya as an Acumen fellow with an agro-pharmaceutical company involved in the production of malaria treatments. She served as VisionSpring’s interim country director in India, where she helped increase the distribution of low-cost reading glasses to the urban and rural poor.

In 2017 Patrice Martin transitioned from IDEO’s Creative Director into an advisory role. She serves on the board of Juma Ventures and is an advisor to the Walmart Leadership Program Collective.

IMPACT

Since 2011, IDEO.org has 47 solutions living in-market today (fully-fledged products, services, and programs with potential to scale) across 38 countries in sectors as varied as water and sanitation, financial opportunity, agriculture, early childhood education, and reproductive health. The products directly reach over six million people through their solutions. They have a 30% in-market success rate for solutions in the three-year period of 2016-18.

In the last year, IDEO.org ramped-down our Amplify Program, a six-year partnership program between IDEO.org, OpenIDEO, and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). It has now reached 1.8 million people through Amplify-incubated products and services and generated 4.5 million person-years of income, with 70% of program grantees reporting positive beneficiary outcomes.

At last count, IDEO.org’s Design Kit, an online educational platform that educates a global community of creative problem solvers in the methods and mindsets of design, has reached 1,171,001 users in 2019, demonstrating an increase of 13.16% since 2018.