Every few years the Design Trust solicits project proposals from government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and community groups through a citywide RFP. An outside jury of experts reviews the final proposals and select the project(s) for the Design Trust to take on. 

Together with our project partner, we determine the scope of the project, the type of expertise needed, the budget and schedule. 

After we've determined the project scope and type of expertise needed on the project team, we issue an open Call for Fellows. Fellows are selected through a competitive process and awarded stipends to support their work. 

For each project we invite a group of stakeholders and private- and public-sector professionals to serve on the project's Advisory Committee. These advisors provide valuable guidance throughout the course of the project, acting as a sounding board and providing critical feedback. 

The Fellows lead the research for the project, and the nature of that research depends on the project–it could be analyzing zoning and land use, researching public policy, conducting a traffic analysis, or researching the history of an entire neighborhoods. 

For many of our projects, we engage directly with the stakeholders most affected by the topic we are working on and solicit their input and feedback in workshops, small group sessions, or out on the street. 

The process of synthesizing the team's research, designs, anaylsis can take several months depending on the scope and scale of the project. The Design Trust staff plays a leading role in the process to arrive at the final set of recommendations. 

Once we've got our findings and recommendations close to finalized, we often then test these ideas on our peers, our project partner, and on the streets, in the form of temporary, pilot installations. 

The final deliverables are tailored to meet the goals of the project and the intended audience. Some projects end with public exhibits, others with publications, and some with online platforms. 

Each project usually ends with some kind of public event to celebrate and distribute our findings to the stakeholders, policy makers and decision makers best situated to implement our recommendations. 

Our work doesn't end with the release of the project's findings–we continue to promote the project and inform the public through public panels, tours, exhibitions, conference presentations, etc. 

The Design Trust is not an advocacy organization, but we do advocate for our projects. We also often serve as advisors to our project partners as they begin working to implement our recommendations, guidelines or designs.