Tips for Contacting Organizations

1. When contacting organizations or companies, you should be up front about the fact that you are also working on a research project and make certain that they are willing to provide support in return for your volunteer time
2. Be clear about both what you will realistically contribute to the organization, as well as the commitment you will expect from the organization.
3. Consider framing your volunteer proposal around making the organization you are contacting more competitive (can you volunteer in a way that is useful to the organization but also indirectly feeds into your project?)
4. You could, for instance, use your skills as designers to produce ethnographic research that acts as evidence of the efficacy of the organization
5. Consider conducting ethnographic research with the communities being served and providing this data to the organization
6. Or, you could help communicate the message of the organization better to donors and the public (a good precedent here is Art Center's "Design Matters" program)