Contribute to AIGA

AIGA fundraising campaigns

Download a contribution form and give to your future today!

Each year AIGA strives to enhance the design profession by establishing programs that reach above and beyond the scope of its regular initiatives. The current programs aim to ensure the future of thoughtful, informed designers. Your contribution to AIGA will help to make these possible. Monies raised will benefit the following AIGA programs and initiatives:

History and archives

The AIGA Design Archives at the Denver Art Museum are the most comprehensive collection of contemporaneously judged selections of American design excellence in the world. More than 6,000 original artifacts represent the complete collection of communication design examples selected in AIGA's national competitions by jurors of national prominence each year since 1980. The Archives offer a study collection and a collection that can be used for exhibitions on popular and visual culture as well as demonstrating the craft and effectiveness of extraordinary American Design talent.

The Denver Art Museum was selected for the archives based on its commitment to design; it is one of the few museums in the country with a curatorial staff focusing on contemporary design. In 2006, a new iconic building by Daniel Libeskind nearly doubled the size of the museum, allowing a full floor of the museum to be dedicated to design objects. AIGA values the long-term commitment to design by the Denver Art Museum and its location, accessibility to designers, students and researcher outside the immediate vicinity of the traditional New York locus of graphic design.

Each year, the collection will increase with the addition of new annual competitions, in which juries select approximately 300 pieces in multiple categories, with independent juries selecting work for each category.

The online Design Archives launched in December 2004 with four years’ worth of selections. Through contributions the online archives now contain more than 19,000 selections from AIGA’s competitions, from 1924 to the present. All members can access these vital materials—from a student in Des Moines to a professional in San Francisco. Moreover, the archives are searchable by a wide variety of criteria.

The AdamsMorioka Archives vault has also been upgraded to providing environmental and climate control for AIGA’s institutional archives.

An illustrated history of AIGA, its activities and medalists during its first one hundred years will be published and distributed on the event of its centennial in 2014.

Scholarships

Worldstudio AIGA Scholarships allow young people from minority and economically disadvantaged backgrounds to realize their artistic dreams and give back to their communities. The scholarship program benefits individual students while helping to offer opportunities in design to a diverse younger generation who can contribute to increasing the demographic relevance of the profession.

Diversity initiatives

AIGA is developing a new online archive and traveling exhibition entitled “Design Journeys,” a collection of stories about the professional lives, contributions and portfolios of leading African American, Latino, Native American, Asian American, Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander designers.

In 2005, the AIGA Task Force on Professional Diversity developed a list of recommendations for increasing diversity within the profession. Among the stated goals were to publicize design heroes of varying backgrounds and create traveling shows of the work of diverse designers. The “Design Journeys” project seeks to achieve both—by not only celebrating the stories and work of these practitioners, but also influencing the next generation of young people from all backgrounds to consider design as a viable and rewarding career.

AIGA Legacy Fund

Contributions from the profession and the public enable AIGA to celebrate the legacy of American design and to demonstrate the value of design. Membership fees allow AIGA to continue to serve designers today; additional funding is needed for special projects. These funds have been used in three ways: preservation of AIGA’s archival material, documentation of American design history, and design education in schools.

Contribute today

Give to the future of the profession you have chosen. You may download this contribution form and email or fax it to us. Contributions to the funds are treated as temporarily restricted funds, committed at the discretion of the board, except for donations of over $10,000 that are designated as contributions to an endowment, in which case the donation is treated as permanently restricted.

Send forms to:

Jessica Casper
AIGA
164 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
212 710 3124