These branding wizards revolutionized nonprofit design—and now they’re starting their own agency

While working as a creative director at the nonprofit Charity: Water, Tyler Riewer kept getting variations on the same question from other nonprofits: How had the organization built a wildly successful brand?

When it launched in 2006, the nonprofit immediately looked different from traditional nonprofits. It was modern, optimistic, and radically transparent. It told personal stories that people wanted to share. It experimented with new ideas like peer-to-peer fundraising. To date, it’s raised more than $1 billion for clean water projects around the world.

The creative team freely offered advice, but they always wanted to be able to do more. That’s why Riewer and three other former Charity: Water coworkers are now launching an agency of their own.

The agency is called Mutiny—a name that’s tongue in cheek but also represents what its founders genuinely feel, says Anthony Marinos, who previously led business development and partnerships at Charity: Water.