Ethical Green Lights: Where Designers Can Do the Most Good

#017: The organizations tackling the world’s hardest problems, and those doing their best to fund it.

Last week I wrote about the companies designers should avoid because their core business is harm, from enabling mass surveillance to building the tools of war.

This week, I want to flip the lens. Instead of ethical redlines, we’re looking at green lights — the nonprofits, B-Corps, co-ops, and mission-driven startups tackling wicked problems that rarely make TechCrunch headlines, but absolutely deserve our skills and attention.

But there’s a catch, one baked deep into capitalism. The companies doing the most meaningful work often can’t pay anywhere near FAANG rates. And that means they lose design talent to companies with deeper pockets, even when those companies’ missions are morally questionable (or reprehensible).

If these “green light” organizations could pay like the big tech giants, this wouldn’t even be a conversation. Which makes this not just a hiring challenge, but a wicked problem in itself.

“Green Light” Examples

Imagine if the same design talent that obsesses over delivering the next innovation in monetizable attention-wasting software was instead working to improve food assistance applications for families in crisis. That’s what Code for America is doing — modernizing public services so they work for the people who need them most. It’s the kind of work where a streamlined form or better error message isn’t about “reducing drop-off,” it’s about whether a single mother gets food benefits this month.

In rural villages far from hospitals, Medic is building open-source health tools that allow community health workers to diagnose illnesses, track treatments, and get patients the care they need. The design problems here aren’t about delight; they’re about reliability in low-connectivity environments and making sure critical instructions are legible across languages and literacy levels.

There are organizations tackling equally urgent problems in entirely different arenas. The Trevor Project runs suicide prevention and crisis intervention services for LGBTQ+ youth, where the design of intake flows, chat interfaces, and privacy features can be literally life-saving. Human Rights Watch uses digital storytelling and data visualization to expose abuses and pressure governments into action. Charity: Water invests heavily in transparency and donor trust, showing exactly how funds are used to bring clean water to communities that need it most.

These “green light” organizations prove that amazing work is already happening — work made possible by the tireless efforts of talented individuals who often put their passion for making the world a better place above the prospect of higher pay. They operate in a market where the economic incentives overwhelmingly favor extractive, growth-at-all-costs business models, yet they still find ways to deliver impact. If these examples can flourish under those conditions, imagine how much more good could be done if they had access to the same level of funding, resources, and structural support that fuels the most profitable tech companies.

Who’s Funding the Change

Even with the best mission, money determines how much talent an organization can attract and keep. That’s where a handful of venture capital outliers are trying to shift the equation.

Elemental Impact backs climate and social equity startups, from clean transportation to community resilience projects. Zebras Unite is both a co-op and a movement, advocating for companies that are profitable and purposeful — and building funding models to support them. Kapor Capital invests in closing racial and social equity gaps, with a portfolio spanning edtech, fintech, and health equity.

Other players — Obvious Ventures, Better Ventures, Social Capital — are proving that it’s possible to deploy capital toward sustainable food systems, regenerative agriculture, housing equity, and climate resilience. But these firms are still tiny compared to the top Sand Hill Road funds, and the returns they prioritize don’t yet dominate the investment landscape.

The Money Problem We Can’t Ignore

This is the throughline: meaningful work often can’t match market-rate pay. Designers aren’t shunning social good because they don’t care — they’re shunning it because rent, childcare, and healthcare are expensive.

In our current system, the “market rate” is highest when your work helps extract value, not create shared value. That’s why the best design salaries are in ad targeting and platforms that monetize attention.

Closing that gap is itself a wicked problem. It will require new mechanisms: crowdfunded fellowships that fund designers for year-long stints in public interest roles; corporate sabbaticals where big tech sponsors employees to embed in social-good orgs; public-private talent funds to subsidize salaries for high-impact projects; and mission-driven equity structures that offer long-term wealth, not just short-term purpose.

If we want more designers working on climate resilience, public health, legal empowerment, and civic tech, we can’t just hope they’ll take a pay cut for the cause. We have to make it financially sustainable — and culturally prestigious — to spend our careers solving problems that matter.