The mission of Capital One Pro Bono is to allow associates to build capacity and drive social change in their communities. By connecting nonprofit organizations with associates willing to share their skills and expertise, we help empower these organizations with what they need to grow their base, become more efficient, and provide a better experience to their constituents. The associate experience we built included a three-tiered approach, maximizing opportunities for designers to engage. The detailed blueprints and guidebooks outlining our program service model allowed our Community Affairs team to then scale pro bono volunteerism company-wide, expanding from three practice areas to over ten.
Define a program model and engagement framework to offer both design associates and external partners more opportunities to create an impact in our communities.
Timeframe: 10 months, September 2019 – June 2020
I led the design of our engagement framework, assisted with program strategy, coordinated and managed project engagements, and helped develop a social impact metrics framework.
Service Blueprinting
Project Management
Facilitation
Partnership Development
Visual Design
Offering pro bono design services from Capital One would help us achieve three goals. First to build partnerships, helping us greater collaboration between associates across teams. Second to share talent, providing associates opportunities to work in new spaces while practicing their skills. Lastly to elevate our design brand, where contributing work helps promote the company’s mission and demonstrates Capital One’s commitment to associates and their communities.
To maximize the number of opportunities that help empower and grow associates, partners, and communities, we offered three engagement types:
Design Office Hours – smaller workshop-style engagements conducted in collaboration with nonprofits, other teams at Capital One, and partner organizations to share design expertise, tools, and resources
Design-a-thons – one-day design-focused hackathons where associates work with organizations to think boldly, work creatively, and rapidly generate ideas and potential solutions to address a problem space
Design Residencies – an in-depth, skills-forward project requiring volunteers to dive deeply into an organization’s needs and generate meaningful insights, recommendations, and functional deliverables. Residencies provide associates the opportunity to work with key strategic non-profit partners with a national footprint in the areas of financial education, affordable housing, and economic mobility.
In 2019, we were able to deliver $235,000 in direct impact to non-profit organizations with the help of over 1500 hours of help from 100 design associates. This work provided 25 organizations with new approaches, methods, and tools needed to craft better experiences for their clients and customers.
