Being a nonprofit in a digital world and using tech for good

Our annual Adobe MAX event is all about how creativity can change the world. We're committed to enabling creativity and empowering creators, customers, partners and our community to drive impact to create a better world. We believe everyone should have access to tools, inspiration and support to tell their story and share it with the world.

Last year at Adobe MAX, we announced Adobe Express for Nonprofits, which provides the premium version of Adobe Express for free to nonprofits worldwide to help changemakers around the world quickly and easily make standout content.

As a result of that and other initiatives, Adobe provided more than $63 million in complimentary or discounted product access to more than 68,000 organizations worldwide in FY 2022.

But it doesn’t stop with product - we’re committed to addressing the growing global mental health crisis by investing in the systems, policies and organizations supporting young people and showing the positive impact of creativity.

For nonprofit organizations, access to creative tools and technology is critical to tell stories to enact change and give voice to marginalized communities. This year at Adobe MAX, more than 50 nonprofits leaders from around the world participated in our first ever Nonprofits at MAX event. It was a day of connection, sharing stories, and learning how leveraging technology can help their organizations inspire action, and advance their missions.

Find out how technology and Adobe Creative Cloud is used within organzations like Limbitless Solutions, Human Rights Watch, Outright International and Creative Reaction Lab.

Letting kids custom design their own prosthetic limbs in Creative Cloud

Limbitless co-founder and executive director Albert Manero shared how Adobe tools are used to scale their impact in designing bionic arms for children and adults. Limbitless’ researchers and engineers use Adobe Express, InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator to design their own print and digital work, research posters and creative infographics. The social media and advocacy teams use Adobe Express to create stunning imagery, videos, logos and more.

As for AI, Limbitless is applying the technology across its creative workflows to enhance and adapt content for different marketing channels. Teams can now create multiple flat lays for a single prosthetic with nothing more than a photo of the arm and the right prompts entered into Adobe Firefly. The team uses generative AI to speed up conceptualization of new bionic arm themes. Even more, kids can customize with their own interchangeable 3D designs, and color palettes in order to express themselves, so that, every prosthetic can adapt to the child’s expression through the day, and throughout the entire time that they wear it.

Democratizing storytelling for everyone with Outright International

Outright International discussed how its marketing team uses Adobe Premiere Pro and Frame.io for story editing. Illustrator and InDesign are used to design creative assets across all digital publishing platforms (newsletters, appeals, website, social media). Photoshop and Lightroom are used to edit photos and illustrations. With Adobe’s support and tools, Outright is advancing its mission-critical work to strengthen the capacity of the global LGBTIQ human rights movement, document and amplify human rights violations against LGBTIQ people, and advocate for inclusion and equality. (Outright is also an Adobe partner within the Equity and Advancement Initiative, working with Adobe and a cohort of nonprofits to advance social and racial justice worldwide.)

Human Rights Watch keeps content streamlined – and safe

Human Rights Watch’s Ifé Fatunase, Multimedia Director, shared how HRW uses Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro for complex visual analysis of video and photographs and the creation of explanatory graphics. HRW also uses InDesign in the publication stage of its work.

Frame.io helps HRW review potentially sensitive material in a safe and secure manner. Adobe’s tools play a part in helping HRW to shine a light on critical issues, expose human rights abuses, and advocate for a world where everyone can lead lives of dignity. (HRW is also an EAI nonprofit partner). That means HRW can spend more time on storytelling, as other parts of the process can be automated like subtitles and transcriptions, now taking minutes.

Creative Reaction Lab drives equitable & inclusive creativity

Creative Reaction Lab’s Tepra Wells, Development & Communications Coordinator CRXLAB team uses Adobe tools, including Adobe Illustrator, Express, Photoshop, InDesign, and Spark to bring their creativity to life as they design interventions addressing racial and health inequities. Adobe apps also help democratize the creative process and open up leadership opportunities to more people in the Black and Latino/a/x/e community, working with diverse youth on civic engagement and advancing racial justice.

NAMI shows creative expression as a positive pathway to impact mental health

Adobe is joining together with the National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI) to develop new research that provides greater insight into the role creative expressions plays in supporting positive mental health outcomes. Through this partnership, the Adobe Foundation will help people of all ages and backgrounds — but especially young adults — tap into their creativity and tell their stories. The work will team up to support NAMI’s Person-First storytelling initiative, using video and photography to magnify important stories and information.

Amanda Lipp joined us at MAX to speak about the power of listening and empathy, and the seemingly small gesture that was a larger message to open up the doors to creative healing. “During my hospitalization I was given a box of crayons by a thoughtful psychiatric nurse. This small gesture changed everything for me. Drawing became a central part of my healing and expression.”

She began to share her story and to explore how we take our hardships and translate it to be impactful to help other people and improve the systems when it comes to suicide prevention.

To Lipp, the crayons are a metaphor for thinking deeper about mental health.

Lipp stressed the power of a creative community for those feeling alone in their journeys. “We may look like we have our act together, but can be in crisis. We never really know what people are going through - we may appear a certain way but have layers underneath that are hiding what's actually going on,” she said.

Using Adobe Creative Cloud, she used filmmaking to create digital ads – when users searched for key terms, like:

• "I'm feeling hopeless"
• "I'm feeling depressed"
• "I'm hearing voices"

An ad would pop up for the users to click on to learn more and they’d get instantly connected to support and the mental health care system. Lipp applied the notion of trauma-informed care (recognizing the presence of trauma and the role it plays in someone’s life) to filmmaking, with the goal of not re-traumatizing.

Our on-going commitment to technology to transform

Adobe is committed to bringing transformational technologies to market, innovating around the responsible use of technology for the good of society, and enabling our customers, partners, creators and community to drive impact that creates a better world for all.

Using Adobe’s broad resources and unique strengths to take meaningful action across our purpose-led programs and initiatives, we can make a long-term impact for the company, our industry and society. Check out our CSR Report for more info.

Nonprofits can register on TechSoup for access to free and discounted Adobe tools – including Creative Cloud, Acrobat and Express.