We co-create buy-in and adoption to advance climate and regenerative goals.

For mission-driven organizations and coalitions building a more circular, regenerative and just future, constant change can make progress feel impossible. We help you turn good intentions into lasting change, through inclusive facilitation, co-design and systems insight.

Fresh green soybean plants with roots.jpg

Mission-driven work is hard. Our work is often fragmented, adoption can be slow and the right investment is limited, on top of navigating constant change.

FROM

Teams that are Stuck: Your team struggles to align on priorities

Fragmented Efforts: Your coalition partners’ efforts are fragmented and buy-in is low

Limited Impact: Your community is slow to adopt and equitable outcomes are limited.

Momentum Stalls: Your programs launch with promise, but momentum stalls

We draw on lessons from 20 years working in the mission-driven sector, to co-create the conditions that help you grow:

Aligned Vision: Internal clarity that survives external pressures and helps you invest in what matters

Stakeholder Buy-in: Partners who champion your work because they helped cultivate it

Community Adoption: Desirable programs that are designed and tested with the people they serve

Ecosystem Investment: Growing what works by building evidence and catalyzing connections

WE HOLD THE SPACE, FOCUS THE PACE

We weave inclusive facilitation, co-design, human centered design, service design with system insight grounded in living systems thinking that builds buy-in as it builds solutions.

Our approach, developed over 20 years of being embedded within and supporting mission-driven networks, creates structure and momentum when the path forward isn’t clear.

We use proven methods and have a track record of real results with our partners, including Feeding America, New Ecology, the State of Illinois and the Institute for Market Transformation.

Working Session Making sense of stakeholder data to pull out what matters most
Sharing about design in the social sector REFED Nonprofit Food Recovery Hackathon
Prototyping Making ideas tangible through low-fidelity prototypes
Public speaking Feeding America Annual Conference: Transforming the neighbor experience
Design coaching Northwestern EDI Service Design class 2019
Discovery Using design research to better understand context and needs
Digital platform development OrderAhead: A web app and service provided by the FA national office that enables people that experience food insecurity to access food and services in a dignified and discrete way.
Public speaking about foresight Feed Nourish Connect 2019: Applying foresight to the charitable food sector
Co-Design Creating opportunities for co-creation
Service prototyping Developing physical experience prototypes to envision and refine opportunities
Modeling services Using service blueprinting and other methods to defining how new or improved ideas work
Testing MVPs Creating and testing minimum viable products and services to de-risk, evaluate and refine potential service offerings
Testing operating models Using prototypes to test backend operations to co-create the optimal experience for staff

We help you build internal alignment on clear, impactful opportunities while co-designing programs that communities actually want to engage with and use. When market conditions shift or funding priorities change, you'll have the clarity and stakeholder buy-in to adapt without losing momentum.

For Mission-Driven Organizations

For Coalitions
and Networks

We help you build internal alignment around your highest-value role in complex systems and create the conditions for your diverse members to cohere and flourish. Your coalition becomes a space where competing priorities transform into reciprocal relationships that fosters resilience and belonging.

Let's talk about how we can support you

Find a time here for us to chat about your needs and ideas. It's OK if you don't know exactly what you need. We can figure that out together!

Schedule a call

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

- Buckminster Fuller

“All flourishing is mutual”

- Robin Wall Kimmerer

OUR VALUES

Reciprocity

We create conditions where everyone can contribute and receive. This strengthens the whole and builds systems that sustain us all.

Relationship

We build trust through transparency and honor our deep connections. We recognize our wellbeing is tied to each other and the planet, creating ripples of positive change

Humility

We work alongside you, learning from your expertise and staying open to what emerges. We draw wisdom from diverse sources and tend conditions, knowing outcomes can't be controlled.

Collaboration

We create the conditions for different perspectives to come together to reveal new possibilities. We're stronger when we honor what makes each person, community, and ecosystem unique.

Purpose

We connect today's priorities to your long-term vision. We act with intention while remaining open to how change unfolds.

We are a collective

Reciprocal is led by Dan Butt and is a collaboration between trusted partners he's had the privilege of working with over the years. Like any healthy ecosystem, Reciprocal is stronger because of the rich collaboration with diverse professional designers, researchers, strategists in the food, health, social and energy sectors, each with their own unique lived experiences that they bring to the work.

Dan Butt

Principal

Dan supports mission-driven organizations to envision and realize their potential for impact. As a service designer, strategist and social impact innovator, Dan works with partners to co-create actionable strategies and bring ideas to life for sustained impact.

Building on years of on-the- ground experience working closely with partners and people with lived experience, he has supported his partners to bring circularity to food waste and accessibility to healthcare. In deep collaboration with his partners, his work has led to critical mindset shifts, locally impactful solutions and nationally scaled tools. Dan employs a mix of human-centered, participatory, regenerative, systemic and foresight approaches to define strategic opportunities, co-design interventions and operationalize value for his stakeholders.

Past
Partners

Feeding America

New Ecology

Elevate

Illinois Department of Human Rights

Houston Food Bank

Foodbank Dayton

Northern IL Food Bank

Feeding Tampa Bay

NW Indiana Food Bank

Central California Food Bank

Second Harvest of Central Florida Food Bank

San Antonio Food Bank

Akron Canton Food Bank

Gleaners Food Bank

We co-create buy-in and adoption to advance climate and regenerative goals.

Mission-driven work is hard. Our work is often fragmented, adoption can be slow and the right investment is limited, on top of navigating constant change.

We draw on lessons from 20 years working in the mission-driven sector, to co-create the conditions that help you grow:

WE HOLD THE SPACE, FOCUS THE PACE

Working Session

Making sense of stakeholder data to pull out what matters most

Sharing about design in the social sector

REFED Nonprofit Food Recovery Hackathon

Prototyping

Making ideas tangible through low-fidelity prototypes

Public speaking

Feeding America Annual Conference: Transforming the neighbor experience

Design coaching

Northwestern EDI Service Design class 2019

Discovery

Using design research to better understand context and needs

Digital platform development

OrderAhead: A web app and service provided by the FA national office that enables people that experience food insecurity to access food and services in a dignified and discrete way.

Public speaking about foresight

Feed Nourish Connect 2019: Applying foresight to the charitable food sector

Co-Design

Creating opportunities for co-creation

Service prototyping

Developing physical experience prototypes to envision and refine opportunities

Modeling services

Using service blueprinting and other methods to defining how new or improved ideas work

Testing MVPs

Creating and testing minimum viable products and services to de-risk, evaluate and refine potential service offerings

Testing operating models

Using prototypes to test backend operations to co-create the optimal experience for staff