ana karina luna
THE PROSPERITY AGENDA

THE ISSUES OF POVERTY

Here is the TPA Manifesto: "If we approach our solutions to poverty with the mindset that ‘poor people’ are incapable of making the ‘right’ decisions for themselves and others, then we miss the opportunity to achieve greater impact." The Prosperity Agenda is a non-profit out to rethink the problem of POVERTY.

FROM SCARCITY
TO PROSPERITY

"Beginning with the War on Poverty in 1964, the dominant narrative about poverty in the U.S. is that the fault lies with the individual because they lack discipline." - TPA

"Traditional ideas about what people 'need' to achieve financial stability can do more harm than good. We instead use a human-centered design approach because we believe in the resourcefulness of all." - TPA

UNDERSTANDING IS KEY

To achieve prosperity it is crucial that one finds its own ways to do so. Because prosperity is relative and not absolute, one KOI FISH swims in a grid reflecting its own shape. The grid also represents prosperity that can be scaled up by focused research and deep understanding of poverty's issues — in each individual or family.
TPA posits nobody's
bad with money.

FOCUS ON HUMANS,
NOT OLD IDEAS

TPA's moves have been quite successful in empowering people to seize their potential for prosperity, and for the ecosystem of human welfare to operate efficiently and effectively at scale. Their target audience is politicians — as well as nonprofits, businesses, financial institutions, and government agencies — so the visual communication was to be clear but also vibrant to convey their creative approach, as they're just not another ORG treading the same old paths.

INNOVATION

TPA's uniqueness is investing a great deal of time to gaining deep understanding of the issue through research — tested, results-oriented products and training based on human-centered design and principles of trauma-informed care and behavioral economics — and then follow a proven methodology to identify, test and scale successful approaches (research and scaling seems to be an issue in the field).

CREATIVITY + DESIGN

supporting
economic dignity.
Their Innovation Lab and Innovation Marketplace offer tools such as Money Mindset Cards — facilitating conversations about money — and the Money Powerup Packs — interactive event kits to strengthen social capital & connections.

IT IS AN ART

They know prosperity can't be "franchised". It is an art that involves creation and making — and can be done with pleasure and ingenuity.

That's why the Koi fits in here. As a symbol of luck, prosperity, good fortune, and perseverance in the face of adversity, it's often associated with strength of character, success, ambition, accomplishment and courage.

THE TPA APPROACH

Let go of bias
Shift mindsets
Partner for success
As the book Disciplining the Poor says, it's not about disciplining. In designing their artifacts, there was a balance to be found: organized is not lack of variation. No "one-way-only" of doing things. As Ananda Sueyoshi, a cosmic organizer I know says: "we can all learn how to make difficult things", after the initial process, it's not difficult anymore.

TEACHING TRUST
IN THE "INNER CAPITAL"

Both TPA and Ananda talk about trusting experimentation in order to get one's own power back. It's about designing a new grid, about finding an internal order. The KOI sometimes is within the grid — finding where to fit or building its new "net" — and sometimes it is out — experimenting its own shape in its own territory, changing colors, tuning to its own ways to be and make life.

♡

I had the honor to pair up with The Prosperity Agenda to work on their website redesign and total rebranding: identity, business cards, and marketing materials (word docs and email templates, PPTs, certification kits).

. . .
← Previous project
Next project →
BACK TO TOP