Thoughts on Good - Lookin' and Sellin' Great

In the last couple of days I've stumbled on a few good commentaries that back how I felt when I worked for a nonprofit (and still feel) -- that the communication, design and branding of everything from community based organizations to large nonprofits are really important. Here the commentaries are:

• Do CBOs Have an Image Problem? from blog How Matters
• Why Good Cause Needs Great Design from Stanford Social Innovation Review

CBOs, to me, are similar to small, socially conscious businesses -- they have something they're passionate about and know how to do something or address something the best (way better than large organizations in faraway locations). However, they aren't sure how to communicate this to a greater audience that doesn't necessarily have the same "know" but does have other more skilled-at-convincing options.

If I had gone a different route than being an English major who viewed technological skills as secondary, there is a program I've stumbled upon that I would absolutely love to take part in ... so if you're a killer designer already and wanna help out (and be in the very first class ever!) check it out: MFA Design for Social Innovation at the School of Visual Arts.

I've been meaning to post about how TOMS Shoes is incredibly successful at this, but haven't gotten around to it ... yet another "blog coming your way soon!" This picture, which illustrates it well, came from Fashion at Liberty's Tumblr:

Thoughts? Any small businesses or nonprofits that you think kick ass at this that I should know (and/or post) about?

Happy Monday, all!