Gitterdone opened its beta, and the sign-ups filled up
Buena’s project manager turns the work week into a game you can win. Five months and 774 commits after the first line of code, the beta opened, and filled.
News
Wins, launches and the occasional victory lap. The receipts behind making good causes great.
All stories
No stories match all of those.
The new Buena makes apps too.
Gitterdone, Corazón, Plata, Ojo, Yarn and Fuego: the studio that makes campaigns for good causes spent 2026 shipping software of its own.
Santiago Narváez Onriza, a Lápiz de Acero nominee, joins Buena from Bogotá
Buena went looking for a young designer at Colombia’s Universidad Nacional and found Santiago, whose interactive magazine was nominated at the 2025 Lápiz de Acero.
Five years on, Sphere’s new site makes the case against oil in your 401(k)
Buena built Sphere’s first website in 2021. On June 16, 2026 the newest one went live: sharper, calmer and built to move retirement money out of fossil fuels.
Three weeks to launch: Buena opens a website channel with three ready-made plans
Starter, Growth and Elite: three website packages with a set scope, brand design included, and launch dates in weeks, not quarters.
Sheconomy reaches 6.5 million people in its first month
Card selfies, creators and a 14-week challenge: Invest for Better’s campaign for women’s money reached 6.5 million people in four weeks.
Buena adds three builders as the studio grows from three people to ten
A developer, a UX/UI director and a web designer join Buena in three months, as a studio of three becomes a team of ten that builds its own products.
Fran Sanchez, the web designer behind the Buena Design System, joins the team
Francisco “Fran” Sanchez started building the Buena Design System in Framer in December. Now the web designer and developer joins the team.
Brayan Marcano joins Buena to lead development, as the studio starts building its own software
Developer Brayan Marcano joins Buena to lead development across web and mobile, and starts on the studio’s first app of its own.
Doug BurnettSantiago Narváez Onriza, a Lápiz de Acero nominee, joins Buena from Bogotá“AI has completely transformed the way we work as an agency and let us make an even bigger impact for the causes we support.”
Lucas Inzirillo joins Buena from Argentina, and within weeks leads its product design
Product designer Lucas Inzirillo joins Buena from Argentina. By February he is its UX/UI director and the keeper of the Buena design system.
Sheconomy launches with 74 partner groups and a 100-day challenge for women’s money
We asked an AI to make women economically equal 100 years ago and rewrite history. Today Invest for Better turns its headlines into a 100-day challenge.
Bianca Oliveira, who redesigned an app for 250,000 field users, joins Buena
Product designer Bianca Oliveira joins Buena from São Paulo, with four products at Namu behind her. She designs in Figma and builds with Claude Code.
New Day becomes Causeway: a new name, brand and site for money that fights
Buena renamed and rebranded an impact-investing platform in eight weeks. Causeway went live with a waitlist and one promise: make your money fight for your causes.
New client: New Day hires Buena to name and build a platform for money that fights
People give to the causes they love, then invest against them. Newday Impact is building a platform to fix that, and asked Buena for its name, brand, site and app.
Retire Big Oil: 500 actors and 280,000 letters to the SAG pension in five weeks
Five weeks after launch, 500+ actors have signed and supporters have sent 280,000 letters asking the SAG-Producers Pension Plan to drop Big Oil.
Nightjar launches: the AI camera that warns rangers before a poacher strikes
RESOLVE’s anti-poaching camera, TrailGuard AI, gets its own company. We wrote Nightjar’s story, shaped its look and built nightjar.tech.
Jane Fonda, Mark Ruffalo and 200+ actors tell their pension to retire Big Oil
Hollywood confesses on camera: their union pension holds $100M+ in fossil fuels. Today 200+ actors asked the trustees to get it out.
Camila Collazos joins Buena to run the projects, from Medellín
Camila Collazos, a project manager with about a hundred projects behind her, joins Buena from Medellín to turn big ideas into plans with dates on them.
An $8,094 hoodie: Unlock gear puts the price of prison education on the shirt
Every lock on Unlock gear funds a month of education in prison, so each piece costs as many dollars as it has locks. More than 60 public figures wore it.
Unlock Day: 5.8 million 🔓 emojis for education in prison, 53 million people reached
Unlock Day was meant to last a day. It ran a week: 81,410 people, 5,814,415 unlock emojis and 53 million people reached for prison education, with $0 spent on media.
Doug BurnettFive years on, Sphere’s new site makes the case against oil in your 401(k)“Such an important cause. Really proud to be a part of it and to see your vision Alex coming to life. Can’t believe it’s been 3 years!”
Unlock Day: every 🔓 posted today pays for a day of school in prison
Post a 🔓 with #UnlockDay and #Edovo, and donors fund a day of education for someone in prison. Buena and Edovo launch the first National Unlock Day.
New client: Invest for Better asks Buena to make the women’s money gap impossible to scroll past
Women will control trillions in US wealth by 2030, and still defer the decisions. Invest for Better wants millions of women to step into their financial power, and asked us how.
New client: Prison Professors brings Buena a hopeful mission with a dated look
Michael Santos served 26 years in federal prison, then built a nonprofit to help others prepare for life after it. It asked us for a brand as hopeful as that mission.
Edovo’s new brand: “A mind is a terrible thing to jail”
Edovo puts free education on prison tablets for nearly a million people. Buena gave it a new brand, language and website built on one idea: everyone makes ripples.
RESOLVE, solving stuck problems since 1977, steps into the divide with a new brand
The nonprofit that helped invent environmental conflict resolution gets a new narrative, identity and site from Buena, built on one idea: the divide.
United Seats of America: a Democrat and a Republican share home-plate seats
Free seats behind home plate at Cardinals and Royals games, on one condition: sit next to someone from the other party. Thousands of Missourians signed up.
Two Few: a streaming service with two shows and a search engine with two answers
Twoflix, Twoogle and 2ber rebuilt everyday products with only two choices, to show Missouri what a two-party ballot feels like. For independent Jared Young.
New client: Edovo asks Buena to rebrand education behind bars
Edovo puts free courses on prison tablets for about a million people, with a startup’s brand. It asked us for the whole stack: strategy, design, language and a website.
10,696 signatures: Jared Young’s new Better Party makes Missouri’s ballot
Missouri certified a brand-new party for an independent Senate run. That week, Jared Young hired Buena to build the brand that would carry it to November.
Fairbridge Park becomes Fairbridge: a new name and brand for an impact VC
A New York venture fund backing founders who solve health, wealth and planet problems for billions. We gave it a shorter name, a four-word mission and a ribbon.
Don Cheadle, Patton Oswalt and 50+ stars marched on Wall Street without leaving home
Upload a selfie and AI puts you in a march down Wall Street. 55 organizations and 50+ celebrities joined the Virtual March to Retire Big Oil.
Doug BurnettBuena adds three builders as the studio grows from three people to ten“I run a Cannes-winning ad agency with a swat team focused on one goal: making good causes famous.”
Young Voices hires Buena to rebrand the talent agency for young freethinkers
Young Voices places writers under 35 in the world’s biggest outlets. We gave it a new voice, “Think free,” and a site built around a searchable talent database.
New client: Fairbridge Park, a venture fund for the underserved billions, hires Buena
A New York pre-seed fund backs founders solving health, wealth and planet problems for billions. Its thesis is sharp; its story isn’t. It asked us to fix that.
Peace Force debuts at PeaceCon 2023, and the first shirts sell out
Peace finally has a recruiting office. The Peace Force, built by Buena with the Alliance for Peacebuilding, launched at PeaceCon in Washington, and the shirts flew out the door.
New client: RESOLVE, solving stuck problems since 1977, asks Buena for one story
The nonprofit that helped create environmental conflict resolution runs more than 15 programs, from tigers to clinics. It asked us for a brand that ties them together.
New Friendsgiving: 300 strangers share a free meal in Santa Monica
Thanksgiving is for family. Friendsgiving is for friends. We built a coalition with DoorDash to start a holiday for strangers, and 300 people showed up.
New client: the Alliance for Peacebuilding asks Buena to rebrand peace
Three years of research found Americans see peace as passive and out of reach. The Alliance for Peacebuilding asked us to change that. The work became the Peace Force.
New client: DoorDash signs on to feed a holiday for strangers
America came out of lockdown lonelier than ever. We asked DoorDash to bring the one thing that gets strangers talking: a free meal.
Keep the Box Empty: 15 dictators, one Olympic photo op, and a way to send them away
With HRF and the Lantos Foundation, we asked the IOC to leave 15 dictators’ Olympic box seats empty, and built a site that let anyone send them somewhere else.
Flush: the toilet paper that let you pick which old-growth forest to cut
For eight days, Flush sold toilet paper by the forest it came from. On Earth Day, Cloud Paper revealed the brand was fake and the clear-cutting was real.
New client: Cloud Paper wants the world talking about trees and toilet paper
Cloud Paper makes tree-free toilet paper from bamboo. For Earth Day, it asked us for one idea that gets millions of people asking where their roll comes from.
New client: Sphere wants to get fossil fuels out of your 401(k)
Most 401(k)s quietly fund oil and gas. Sphere set out to build a fossil-free fund that could sit inside any of them, and asked Buena to make people care.
Doug BurnettBrayan Marcano joins Buena to lead development, as the studio starts building its own software“I run a Cannes-winning ad agency with a swat team focused on one goal: making good causes famous.”
Flash Drives for Freedom wins Best Cause Campaign at the Webbys
Voted the Best Cause-Related Campaign in the People’s Voice category of the 24th annual Webby Awards, out of nearly 13,000 entries.
New client: Ground News asks Buena to pull people out of the algorithm
Ground News shows how every side covers the same story. With the 2020 election coming and no media budget, it asked Buena for a launch idea big enough to spread for free.
Buena fights tyranny by co-creating COVIDCon
A virtual conference on how dictators sparked, and are exploiting, the pandemic. Over 6,000 people tuned in.
New client: the Norwegian Refugee Council and Buena team up while the world shelters in place
The world was told to stay home. Refugees couldn’t. The Norwegian Refugee Council asked Buena to make people look beyond their own shelter, and fund one for refugees.
Cancel Corona: donate what you’re not spending to fight the pandemic
Your commute, your meals out, your happy hours, calculated, and donated to the fight against coronavirus.
Legal-Ade wins Best PR Idea of 2019 at the One Show
The One Show’s highest honor in Public Relations, plus two Golds, a Silver and a Bronze, the most awarded PR idea of the year.
New client: Lydian Dental wants the world to see the smiles it delivers
A mobile dental startup gave 1% of its revenue to good causes, and almost nobody knew. Lydian Dental asked Buena to make its giving as visible as its smiles.
Legal-Ade wins two Silvers and a Bronze at the 2018 Clios
Recognized in Public Relations, Integrated Campaign and Social Media, at the first show it was ever entered in.
The Kim Jong-un regime reacts to our campaign (seriously)
North Korea’s dictatorship denounced Flash Drives for Freedom by name, in the newspaper its own officials read every day.
Flash Drives for Freedom hits the front page of the internet
A photo of our DEF CON exhibit became Reddit’s top trending post, voted up by more than 65,000 people.
Flash Drives for Freedom helps HRF win part of a $1.4 million grant
Encryption startup Mainframe chose Flash Drives for Freedom as one of seven causes for its Proof of Heart fund.
Etelle HigonnetNew Day becomes Causeway: a new name, brand and site for money that fights“Newday is turning finance into a force for accountability.”
Country Time Legal-Ade reaches 1 billion free media impressions
99% earned, zero paid media, and more than 225 broadcast segments on national and local TV.
Peace Sofas merges sofas to bring Europeans together
People with opposing views had their own sofas cut in half and joined into one, then sat down to talk.
Country Time Legal-Ade pays kids’ lemonade stand legal fees
When the police shut down kids’ lemonade stands, Country Time pays the fines.
Buena ranked #15 globally in PR at the 2018 One Show
Flash Drives for Freedom put a two-year-old studio among the top PR agencies in the world.
Buena founder Doug Burnett judges and speaks at the One Show
A juror for the Young Ones, Doug also presented the student winners, with one piece of advice.
New client: Buena joins Leo Burnett to give Country Time a reason to be talked about
Country Time, the lemonade of so many childhoods, had been quietly forgotten. With Leo Burnett, we started looking for a reason to talk about lemonade again.
New client: a European network for dialogue asks Buena to get people talking again
Extremism and fake news were pulling European communities apart. A peace network co-funded by the EU asked us to get people with opposing views back on speaking terms.
Your Name Saves finishes award season with 24 medals
Cannes, the Clios, the One Show, the ANDYs and LIA, among the most awarded campaigns in the world this year.
Flash Drives for Freedom featured on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
No partnership, no pitch. Just a campaign interesting enough for a whole segment. Viewed over 16 million times.
Cannes ranks Buena #13 independent agency in the world
Five Cannes Lions for Your Name Saves, just 16 months after the studio was founded.
Your Name Saves praised by the White House
At an organ donation summit hosted by the Obama administration, health officials singled out the campaign.
Chelsea HandlerRetire Big Oil: 500 actors and 280,000 letters to the SAG pension in five weeks“I joke about almost everything, but our pension investing in fossil fuels isn’t funny.”
Your Name Saves launches
Type your name and watch it become the names of the eight lives one donor can save.
New client: the Human Rights Foundation asks Buena to help crack North Korea’s information wall
North Koreans can’t see the outside world, and USB drives were a way in. The Human Rights Foundation asked us to get more of them over the border.
Mark HamillJane Fonda, Mark Ruffalo and 200+ actors tell their pension to retire Big Oil“It’s 2025. Investing our union’s pension in fossil fuels is like betting on Blockbuster in a Netflix world.”
Doug BurnettCamila Collazos joins Buena to run the projects, from Medellín“So excited to have you join the team! We’re gonna make some really big waves together in the world…”
Halim FlowersAn $8,094 hoodie: Unlock gear puts the price of prison education on the shirt“Education was my lifeline in prison — it gave me purpose, direction, and the ability to rewrite my story.”
Brian HillUnlock Day: 5.8 million 🔓 emojis for education in prison, 53 million people reached“The outpouring of support this week shows there’s a significant desire to ensure we unlock that same transformative opportunity for the half without it.”
Halim FlowersUnlock Day: every 🔓 posted today pays for a day of school in prison“Education was my lifeline in prison — it gave me purpose, direction, and the ability to rewrite my story.”
Brian HillEdovo’s new brand: “A mind is a terrible thing to jail”“I just had this realization that if I don’t jump in, I don’t think anyone will.”
Dave LoewRESOLVE, solving stuck problems since 1977, steps into the divide with a new brand“Advertising has given me the opportunity to work with a range of products, from beer, banks and bacon to running shoes and software. It’s also been nice to sell a little hope.”
Jared Young for MissouriUnited Seats of America: a Democrat and a Republican share home-plate seats“We did an experiment to see if baseball could help people with different political views focus on what they have in common rather than what makes them different.”
Jared Young10,696 signatures: Jared Young’s new Better Party makes Missouri’s ballot“The challenge is just making sure every voter knows who Jared Young is and what I stand for.”
Doug BurnettDon Cheadle, Patton Oswalt and 50+ stars marched on Wall Street without leaving home“We see this as a whole new way to build a movement. While you can never replace the importance of protesting in person, virtual marching means anyone can participate regardless of geography, financial state, or physical ability.”
Charles HaussPeace Force debuts at PeaceCon 2023, and the first shirts sell out“Instead of asking young people to enlist in the armed forces, we are asking them join the Peace Force instead.”
Garry KasparovKeep the Box Empty: 15 dictators, one Olympic photo op, and a way to send them away“Dictators and despots who disregard democratic norms and human rights do not deserve an equal platform with democratically-elected leaders at the Olympic Games.”