The best work shouldn’t just go to the biggest budgets.

If you work for a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in the U.S., you’re in the right place. You’ll just need to be authorized to apply on behalf of your organization (meaning you're an employee, officer, or director) and be at least 18 years old.

Not sure if your org qualifies? Check your status at apps.irs.gov/app/eos.

The short answer‍

We’re looking for the org whose digital problem we’re genuinely the best team to solve, and where the work we do together actually makes a difference for the people or cause they serve.‍

The longer answer‍

Here’s exactly what we’re weighing:

1. How much your organization could benefit from design and digital work, including AI (50%). Tell us about the problem. What’s broken, what's missing, what's holding you back from advancing your mission. 
2. How well your project fits the kind of work we do (50%). We want to make sure we're the right one for you, and that means providing services where we feel our expertise matches your needs. Our team is talented and experienced, but there are plenty of things they don’t do, and we won’t commit to a project unless we feel our expertise can serve you. Take a look at our philosophy and our past work for some examples of what we’re capable of doing.

Yes. No cost to apply, no cost to receive the project if you’re selected. The only thing we ask is that your team has the bandwidth to work with us starting in October 2026.

You may receive a 1099 tax form reflecting the value of the services provided, so we’d recommend checking with your accountant on any tax implications for your organization.

While our projects & services are free, you may need to pay third-party expenses, such as external costs for hosting photo video assets, production, licensing, etc. in order to complete the type of project you need.

Websites, mobile apps, branding, platforms and systems, AI solutions. If it lives in the digital world, it’s worth mentioning.

If you have another idea: Apply anyway. Describe what you need or what problem you need solving, and we’ll tell you if it’s something we can take on. We’d rather hear from you than have you talk yourself out of applying.

Yes. You don’t need a fully formed project brief. Just tell us the problem you’re trying to solve — where your organization is trying to go and what's getting in the way. We may be able to help figure out the rest from there.

There are two rounds, and neither one should feel like a big lift.

After applications close, we’ll review everything and reach out to our top applicants to schedule a 60-minute call with each. We’d love to have the person who applied on the call, plus whoever handles your creative, website or tech. Think of it as a first conversation, not an interrogation. We just want to get to know your organization better and understand the problem you're trying to solve.

From there we'll narrow the list down further and schedule at least one follow-up call, somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes, with each of our finalists. This is where we dig a little deeper before making our final decision. If things move forward from here, we’ll work through the project details, a signed agreement and statement of work, and any other paperwork together at that point.

First, the winner will need to agree to our standard services agreement and a statement of work that will describe the project. Then we’ll kick things off on October 1st. From there, the process will look a little different depending on your project, but expect regular check-ins, working sessions, and rounds of review along the way.

The one constant: we need your team to actually be available to team up on this project together. We’re expecting it to take about 3 months from kick off. The more present you are, the better the work will be.

Real collaboration is what makes this work — we can’t do our best without you in it with us.

Giving back has always been part of how we operate our studio. This campaign is our way of making that concrete. 

We’ve spent over a decade building things for leading brands with big budgets, and we're proud of that work. But the skills that help a brand sell more products work just as well for organizations working to change lives and make an impact on their communities. We want to open our doors to them.

If you have a question that is not answered here, please reach out to us at oneonus@fiveanddone.com.