Tis The Season

As the holidays approach and charitable gift giving is (hopefully despite our economic woes) more on people's minds I find it's good to review the annual chart created by the Christian Science Monitor: The 50 Largest US Charities Ranked By Total Income (PDF). Of particular interest are the grades they've received from different watchdog organizations (#4 Goodwill only gets a C+ from AIP); percentages of total assets spent on programs (#9 American Cancer Society is near the bottom with 70.8%); and salary & benefits of highest ranking official (#45 Museum of Modern Art pays $928,818 for their top dog).

Download it HERE.

Free Science Art

If you are doing any science related design you need to add the incredible IAN Symbol Libraries to your digital toolbox right now. This massive FREE collection of vector illustrations, which are specifically designed for "enhancing science communication skills", are provided in a variety of formats from The Integration and Application Network of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. In addition to the existing royalty-free library, they also offer a free symbol creation service for anything they're missing and have a library of free hi-res photos available as well. Submissions to the libraries are also encouraged. Find out more or start downloading HERE.

Thanks Mari!

The State of Green Business

The folks at the environmental business news site GreenBiz.com have created State of Green Business 2008 a free downloadable report on what US companies have done in recent years to reduce their environmental impact. To that end they have tracked progress with a 20 point index including items like: Building Energy Efficiency, Employee Commuting, E-Waste, Paper Use and Recycling, and Toxic Emissions. Get your copy HERE.

Design Power Defined

Julie Thompson created the Design Power site as part of her graduate thesis project at Ohio University. It gives a working definition of socially responsible design and uses three case studies (including one on ALR!) to discuss the key components of working from an ethical perspective: client choice, environmental practices, and community education. Read her entire report HERE.

Heal Your Home

Co-op America, has created a great primer for making healthy environmental choices in your home. The section called "Heal Your Home" is broken down into Kitchen, Bedroom, Bathroom, Exterior, and Overall Health Homes and includes a glossary and additional related articles. You can browse the articles online HERE or download the entire thing as a PDF.

Creative for A Cause

Creative for A Cause is an incredible new online resource for socially minded design folks created by Heidi Cies. Made as part of her graduate thesis in advertising/design at Syracuse University, Heidi has put together two dozen detailed case studies of how socially conscious design is being taught in schools across the US. The site also has comprehensive lists of publications, websites, sources of funding, schools, and "role models" all pertaining to working in the fields of marketing, advertising, and design from an ethical stand point. The searchable site is a fantastic work in progress that should prove invaluable to anyone interested in working/teaching differently. Check it out HERE.

Groundswell

It's always great to discover another resource for socially minded artists online and the Groundswell Collective's Groundswell Blog is a welcome addition. With a wide range of articles on subjects that will be familiar to ALR reader you should definitely add them to your regular reading list. Check 'em out HERE.

Free Guide to Information Design

My friend John at Social Design Notes has created an excellent free resource: Visualizing Information for Advocacy: An Introduction to Information Design. The downloadable PDF booklet contains tips and examples to help advocacy groups better communicate their messages with graphic design. Get the PDF HERE.

Why Bad Ads Happen To Good Causes

Why Bad Ads Happen To Good Causes, the classic work on how to best utilize print advertising for social causes (with plenty of examples of the good and the bad) is now a free downloadable PDF from communications consulting firm A Goodman. This is an invaluable resource for designers and clients alike!

Also available is Why Bad Presentations Happen To Good Causes.

Tap Water Quality Database

While we're on the subject of water...
Find out how clean your tap water actually is (in the U.S.) on the Environmental Working Group's National Tap Water Quality Database.

Planting Peace

Planting Peace is a handy new resource from the folks at the Organic Consumers Association. It collects news stories about the intersection of the anti-war, environmental, and organic activist communities in an attempt to forge a better alliance between the groups.

Eyes of a Stranger

“Upwards of 90% of the images of the majority world that are seen in the western media are produced by white photographers from the USA or Europe. This results in a one dimensional view often driven by a negative news agenda or the need to raise money.” -Dave Clark, Senior Lecturer in Photography, Bolton Institute, UK

With that in mind Kijiji Vision was formed to help indigenous photographers share their own vision of the world they live in. The organization, which offers its support services free of charge, also runs the commercial stock photography library MajorityWorld.com as a means of distribution.

via Boing Boing, thanks Meagan!

WiserEarth

WiserEarth is a new community-driven resource on non-profits & NGOs. It functions both as a directory of and forum for international organizations working on social and environmental issues. The site was created by the Natural Capital Institute, which is also working on a business oriented companion called WiserBusiness.

Make up or Die!?

Just because the FCC does not regulate the ingredients used in cosmetics doesn't mean you have to suffer for it.

Skin Deep: The Cosmetic Safety Database has information and online safety assessments for over 22,500 products. Created by the Environmental Working Group, this site is a great resource for discovering what harmful ingredients may be in your favorite cosmetics. Each product is given a score card with easy to undertand explanation of ingredients. You might be surprised to learn that many products with the words 'natural' or 'organic' in their name contain toxic chemicals.

You can also find out which cosmetic companies have joined the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a coalition of public health, educational, religious, labor, womens, environmental and consumer groups working to protect the health of consumers and workers by requiring the health and beauty industry to phase out the use of dangerous chemicals and replace them with safer alternatives.

With the help of The Cosmetic Safety Database, you can clean out your bathroom cabinets and find alternatives to products that contain killer chemicals like, DBP and DEHP which are found in anything from nail polish to deodorant and not included on packaging labels but are linked to birth defects.

(Thanks, Mim!)

Design Can Change!

Vancouver design studio SmashLAB has created a new resource for graphic designers concerned with global warming: Design Can Change. The site, which is still in it's early stages, is meant to be a comprehensive source of information and inspiration on sustainability for environmentally minded designers, and it is already chock full of data (though rather difficult to navigate). There's even a pledge you can sign and plans for a community directory. While I wish that it wasn't just about environmental issues, but rather the entire scope of socially conscious design, it's definitely a nice introduction for folks who are just becoming aware of graphic designers' power to affect positive change in the world.