For the past six years, MICA’s Grassroots DesignFest has brought together professional and student designers to provide visual design services to Baltimore nonprofits at no cost. Sponsored by the T. Rowe Price Foundation, the event was born through the realization that many small organizations serving the local community don’t have resources to dedicate to this creative task — and that everything from logos to marketing materials to websites are critical components of a nonprofit’s ability to communicate its mission and attract much needed volunteer and financial support.

This past spring, Grassroots DesignFest 2023 was held in two formats, including an event spread across a ten-day period over Zoom and a daylong event at MICA’s Brown Center in late March. DesignFest attracted over 125 volunteer designers, including professionals representing nineteen local design firms, as well as 26 undergraduate and graduate student designers from MICA, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, and more. Among the twenty-seven nonprofits who took part were the "Stop Oppressive Seizures" Fund, Baltimore Racial Justice Action, Ballet After Dark, and Reading Partners Baltimore.