Capital Project Development for Non-profits
This article is originally from Properties Magazine, published July 2025.
By Dave Robar, AIA, Director and Senior Associate, Vocon
Across the country, non-profits are rethinking how they secure, shape, and scale their physical environments. Capital campaigns are no longer confined to large institutions – they are surfacing across a diverse range of missions: education, healthcare, community and workforce development, and the arts.
For interior architects and designers, this shift represents a meaningful opportunity. It is not just about refreshing finishes or updating layouts. It is about helping mission-driven organizations plan strategically, spend wisely, and build spaces that evolve with purpose.
Non-profits often emphasize human-centered design, adaptive reuse, and cost-effective innovation – areas where interior designers truly excel.
Non-Profit Capital Projects are unique in many ways. Unlike traditional commercial clients, non-profits navigate multiple stakeholders (e.g., boards, funders, staff, and community voices), unpredictable funding cycles (e.g., grants, donor pledges, and in-kind support), and mission-centric priorities, which often push aesthetics behind usability, accessibility, and inclusivity. As such, designers need to speak the language of flexibility, phasing, and impact – not just square footage.
Interior architecture plays a strategic role in shaping the user experience, and in non-profit environments specifically, design creates a visible expression of mission. Yet these spaces are too often considered an afterthought or addressed reactively.
By contrast, when interior professionals are engaged early, test fits and conceptual layouts support site selection and fundraising. Further, material choices reflect community identity and sensory needs, and phased buildouts allow funding to align with programming, not the other way around.
Case Highlight: Ownership as a Catalyst for Flexible Growth
After a comprehensive property search, a non-profit client serving developmentally-delayed young people elected to purchase rather than lease—a decision driven by long-term financial modeling. This choice unlocked key design and development advantages, enabling not just equity, but agency—the ability to adapt, grow, and refine the space over time.
An extended due diligence process allowed the team to assess building adaptability, compliance, and student needs and a phased implementation strategy supported evolving programming and budget cycles.
Interior architecture played a central planning role, with early layouts and sensory-responsive concepts helping secure stakeholder buy-in and funding, all the while keeping an eye on selectively reusing valuable existing infrastructure.
The team opted for a thoughtful, targeted interior renovation that will enhance dignity, functionality, and flexibility within the property’s existing footprint. Property ownership enabled not just equity, but agency that promotes growth-minded agility that allows improvement of the space over time. Whether within an owned or leased environment and limited capital scope, interior design can function as a powerful lever for mission delivery. It’s not about square footage – it’s about creating spaces that work harder, feel better, and communicate care.
Case Highlight: Designing for Exposure, Access, and Opportunity
A nationally recognized non-profit client focuses on helping young people gain the knowledge and skills to own their economic success. By designing for exposure, access, and opportunity, the designers have created a dynamic, interactive space that will expose students to a wide range of career paths. The resulting space also adapts to career fairs, workshops, student showcases, and more.
Utilizing flexibility as a core principle, moveable partitions, multi-use furnishings, and embedded tech infrastructure, the space will be allowed to shift seamlessly from presentation mode to mentoring sessions.
Graphic branding installations and contributions from local business partners will make the space feel connected to real-world industries. By designing for confidence and belonging, a youth-friendly, accessible, and empowering layout will encourage exploration without intimidation. Further, the organization will use before-and-after design visualizations and phased renovation plans to engage funders, where specific asks can prove compelling and fundable.
Interior architects and designers can do more than create places to house programs – they inspire, connect, and activate. By designing for exposure and access, a space will become a living platform for career discovery and economic agency.
Whether owning or leasing, fully renovating or carefully phasing, these clients achieved meaningful spatial transformation by putting mission at the center of their capital strategy. In all cases, the design professional is not a neutral entity. They are active participants in delivering outcomes, driving engagement, and extending the reach of the organization’s mission.
A Final Thought: Designing for Impact, Not Just Completion
In non-profit work, “done” usually doesn’t mean “finished.” The most impactful projects are those that allow room to adapt—projects where the space supports mission not just on day one, but over time.
For interior designers and architects, this means shifting from service provider to strategic partner. Helping non-profits build is not about doing more with less. Rather, doing more with intention, and creating spaces that work harder, feel better, and communicate care are creating flexible yet meaningful spaces.
