history
rootid was founded in 2011 and is a fully remote, US-based, brand, communications agency committed to being a part of co-designing and implementing community-centered, communications capacity-building within the nonprofit sector.
Our processes are aligned with Liberatory Design, and our structures are grounded in our values of anti-racism, equitable access to opportunities and resources, partnership through listening and building trust, community-led breakthroughs, fearless curiosity, reimagination, health and healing.
Where it [rootid] Started…
Long story, made short: It [rootid] all started by our founders meeting through volunteer work….
In 2008, Val had just moved to the Bay Area, and wanted to start establishing a new community for herself/themselves.
Having volunteered internationally with Habitat for Humanity, Val looked up the local office to do some volunteer work.
Meanwhile, Andrew was working at Habitat for Humanity as a fundraising and marketing manager. He needed to build some capacity on his team so started looking for creative minds who could help with graphic design and photography. Enter Val…..
Soon after, Val and Jason began doing some digital marketing work through a small agency they created before rootid. After doing a few side projects together, the three of us banded together to create rootid. (Est. 2011)
Intentional Growth Through Teaching
Over the last decade, rootid has grown slowly and thoughtfully by training up young developers and designers from interns into full-time positions.
We have had other colleagues come and go along the way, each contributing towards our vision, growth and continued sustainability.
Our team as of August, 2021 consisted of 3 people in addition to our co-founders. Soy who came in as a contract designer in 2015 and is now rootid’s Design Director, Meg who joined rootid in 2016 as a development intern and is now a Backend Developer, and Mabel who joined rootid in 2019 as a user experience intern and is now rootid’s User Experience and Service Designer.
In late 2021, we added additional teammates including Sia (Director of Community Engagement and Fundraising), Marcus (Director of Projects) and Bob (Sr. Front-end Web Developer). In January 2022, Grace joined us as a Designer, and in April 2022, Anjali became our Director of People and Operations.
We continue to deeply appreciate the support and partnership from our nonprofit community members.
Their background is in art and education, but their love has always revolved around graphic design and helping nonprofits do cool stuff. She’s a constant connector of people and ideas. So, if you see them at an event, she’s bound to have someone that you should meet.
He started working with nonprofits when his mother, who ran several nonprofits throughout her career, “hired” him to lick and stamp envelopes of fundraising appeals. Somehow it stuck.