D&AD Impact

The D&AD Impact Programme is a 12-month package of mentorship, training and support that’s designed to support project owners with the ideation, launch and early growth of their work. It’s available to anyone shortlisted in the Future Impact category.

A Future Impact cohort typically includes individuals, organisations and teams working on prototypes, MVPs, projects in testing or those that have recently launched. Through the programme we aim to to enable a cohort of creative thinkers, known as D&AD Impacters, to develop their projects within 12 months.

The D&AD Impact Programme has given us a shrewd understanding of business structures and how to make our idea pay... We could never have imagined at the beginning of the programme, all the different books and projects we are now working on. It has introduced us to amazing contacts within the industry who have been generous with their time and amazingly enthusiastic. Thank you so much D&AD!!!
— Georgina Potier & Jake Abrams, Get Better Books, 2021–2022 Cohort

Anyone shortlisted in the Future Impact category will receive place on the D&AD Impact Programme and the opportunity to apply for a development grant from the £25,000 D&AD Impact Fund. The Impact Programme includes:

—12-month package of mentorship, training and support that’s designed to support project owners with the ideation, launch and early growth of their work
—A space on a live D&AD Masterclasses of your choice
—Access to D&AD’s on-demand courses for a year
—The opportunity to ask the Impact Council for project support in the year following your win
—The opportunity to present your work live to the D&AD Impact Council during a summer showcase to demonstrate your progress
—Free entry into the D&AD Awards Impact category, valid for 3 years

Regardless of whether you would like to participate in the programme, your work will appear in the D&AD Annual, online and freely accessible to the global creative community. In 2024 this reached an audience of over 200,000 people, three quarters of which are outside the UK. Winners receive a Future Impact Pencil, a symbol of creative excellence, and a tree planted in recognition of their award.

The D&AD Impact Fund is a source of financial support for our awarded entrants. Anyone shortlisted in the Future Impact category is invited to apply for a development grant from the fund. Worth £25,000, applications will need to show how the money will be used toward the development of their awarded project. The funds must be spent within 12 months of being received.
D&AD does not claim any ownership of, or expect any financial return from, projects that receive funding.

The Fund will be allocated by the D&AD Impact Council at their discretion and based on the information provided in applications. In 2024, the full £25,000 of the D&AD Impact Fund was awarded to the project ViWipe:

• £25,000 to ViWipe; the world's first non-invasive, low-cost, paper-based HPV self-test empowering young women to prevent cervical cancer. ViWipe aims to save lives and reshape the future of cervical health. It utilises menstrual blood and dried blood spot technology for a women-centric, fast, and accurate HPV DNA test; as simple as using toilet paper.

Future Impact is for designs and initiatives that are on their way to being launched into the world. Prototypes, MVPs and work undergoing testing are all appropriate here. New product or service lines are also eligible under the same conditions.

We do not accept ideas without proof of concept and campaign communications are not be eligible.

Commercially released work will only be accepted in exceptional cases, where the work has not made a tangible impact yet and would benefit from the support of the D&AD Impact Programme. Work that has been commercially released and can demonstrate effectiveness should be entered into Impact.

For more details around the eligibility, please see page 9 in the Entry Kit.

• $15,000 to Beirut's RiverLESS Forest (2019); A series of initiatives to address the deterioration of the polluted Beirut River.
• $3,800 to More Moms (2019); this project combines qualitative insights, quantitative data and customer experience design to improve the user experience of moms in advertising.
• £9,700 to Baby BSL: Where is the Bird? (2020); a new form of immersive publishing that empowers the parents of deaf and hearing children to use British Sign Language in the home.
• £3,300 to Breathe (2020); a smart chest-binding garment that allows the wearer to customise the tightness of the garment on-the-go.
• £12,000 to Get Better Books (2021); this series of interactive books is designed to help paediatric patients understand their journey through treatment and stages of recovery.
• £15,000 to Resting Reef (2023); an innovative memorial and eco-burial service that allows people to transform their remains into reef structures.
• £10,000 to Lungy Health (2023); initially released as a wellness app, Lungy’s technology will be developed into a platform for patients with breathing problems.