Talk with us

About Buena. Do buena. Be buena.

We exist to make sure
good causes
get more attention
than the
Kardashians.

Call us crazy, but don’t orgs that save lives deserve better?

Campaigns

All campaigns

The world spreads your story for free. We concept, produce and ship the whole thing, then engineer the coverage that carries it. No paid placements required.

  • 1B+ media impressions
  • 11 Cannes Lions
  • $13M raised for causes

Branding

All branding

A mission people recognize in a second, and keep recognizing for years. Naming, identity, voice and guidelines, built to outlast a trend and work everywhere you show up.

  • 30+ brands built
  • 2 weeks sprint to identity
  • 100% made in-house

Websites

All websites

Visitors become believers. Strategy, design and build, launched in weeks, not quarters, with a CMS your team can actually edit.

  • 3 weeks to launch
  • 3 plans to pick from
  • 100% yours to edit

Apps

All apps

Your community stays yours. Gitterdone for projects, Yarn for community: profiles, feeds, polls and notifications, with no platform taking a cut of your people.

  • 8 apps and tools
  • 5 app case studies

Everything a good cause needs.

And loud enough to grab attention.

  • 11Cannes Lions#13 most awarded independent agency
  • 10CliosTwo silvers and a bronze for Legal-Ade
  • 8One Show PencilsBest PR Campaign of the Year
  • 3D&AD Pencils
  • 2WebbysBest Cause Campaign of the Year
  • 1ADC Gold Cube
  • 1.2MNorth KoreansGiven access to the outside world
  • 22KLivesSaved and healed by organ donation
  • 5.8MDays of educationGiven to people in prison

Who we are

An ad agency that hates ads.

Founded in Portland in 2016, Buena makes good causes impossible to ignore. Big ideas, not big budgets.

Doug Burnett spent years making ads for the biggest brands on Earth. Sugar water. Fast food. Sneakers. Then one question got too loud to ignore: what if all that talent worked for the people saving lives? So he walked out of the corner office and started Buena.

How we work

One team, all the way through.

  1. 01

    Concept

    One big idea, sharpened until a stranger says “oh my god” in a single sentence. Not your mom. A stranger.

  2. 02

    Produce

    We design, build and ship the whole thing ourselves. The people who have the idea stay on to make it.

  3. 03

    Amplify

    We engineer the earned media, so the world spreads it for free. No paid placements required.

Questions, answered

The short answers.

What is Buena?
Buena is a creative studio for good causes, founded by Doug Burnett in Portland, Oregon. From big ideas and branding to websites, apps and AI tools, we give good causes everything they need to grow, built by one team, so it all works together.
Who founded Buena?
Doug Burnett founded Buena in Portland, Oregon, in 2016. Before Buena, he spent years making work for global brands at Leo Burnett, and the One Show named him one of the Top 25 art directors in the world.
Is Buena an ad agency or a software studio?
Both, and that’s the point. One studio does everything a good cause needs, so the campaign, the brand, the website and the app all work together.
Who does Buena work with?
Impact startups, B Corps, purpose-driven brands, nonprofits, foundations and corporate impact teams, in any country.
Where is the team?
Buena started in Portland, Oregon. Today the team works remotely across the Americas, with good causes everywhere, in English.
How much does it cost?
It depends on what your cause needs. Tell us about it and we’ll give you an honest range on the first call.
Can a creative studio really build software?
Yes. The same studio behind award-winning campaigns builds apps and platforms, for clients like Sphere and for ourselves.
All the questionsTell us about your cause