BOSTON — Sappi North America today announced the world-class designers selected to receive 2022 Ideas that Matter grants for their support of social causes ranging from child literacy, immigration and maternity care to rainforest preservation, anti-poverty programs and resources for women of color.

The Sappi Ideas that Matter program turned to the expertise of leaders in print design, packaging design and social impact to select projects and organizations to receive this year’s funding. Judges considered creativity, implementation, intended impact and overall design effectiveness in their selections. This year, the program tracked how projects align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which Sappi has embraced globally as part of their sustainability initiatives.

The winning projects address a wide range of SDG categories, such as access to quality education, ending poverty, encouraging good health and well-being, reducing inequalities, fostering gender equality, building sustainable communities and supporting climate action.

“The UN SDGs have helped Sappi develop a strong sustainability framework and accompanying targets for 2025 within our business,” said Patti Groh, Communications Director, Sappi North America. “We’re using these goals to establish focused, measurable targets that not only deliver on our overall business strategy, but also work hand-in-hand with the problems that Ideas that Matter projects have addressed for more than 20 years.”

For over two decades, Ideas that Matter grants have provided funding and resources for designers working with nonprofits to make social and environmental impact, to encourage reforms in justice, education and health care and to address diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across communities and around the world. Sappi has made global contributions totaling nearly $14 million through the work of more than 500 projects toward addressing these causes.

The winners, and their non-profit beneficiaries, are:

• Esther Pearl Watson + Mark Todd, Art Center College of Design; Pasadena, CA – Reading Partners
• Grace Han + Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP); New York, NY – The Door
• MASS Design Group; Boston, MA – Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
• Natacha Poggio; Design Global Change/University of Houston-Downtown, Houston, TX – La Poderosa Media Project
• Sara Barr; Lockhart, TX – Done for DiDi, Inc.
• Rija Khan Designs; Urbana, IL – Trauma & Resilience Initiative, Inc.

Ideas that Matter proposals were evaluated this year by an independent panel of judges, selected annually, who are recognized for their commitment to design for social impact.

The judging panel for 2022 included Andrew Gibbs, Founder, Editor-in-Chief and CEO of the Dieline and Partner and Co-Chief Creative officer of PRINTmag.com; Bryony Gomez-Palacio, Co-Founder of UnderConsideration; Dian Holton, Senior Deputy Art Director at AARP; Gage Mitchell, Principal and Creative Director of Modern Species, and Libby Cole, Principal of The Work Department. 

Ideas that Matter has also received international recognition for its contributions to uplift innovative and creative ideas to drive positive, community-centric impact. The initiative was selected as a winner in the category of Excellence In Community Service in the 2022 Communitas Awards. Communitas was designed to recognize organizations, companies and individuals for their outstanding engagements to bring about change to social and environmental issues affecting communities across the globe.

For more information about Sappi's 2022 Ideas that Matter North American grant recipients please visit our website or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.