Phillips Murrah Paying it Forward campaign benefits Open Design Collective in February

Since December of 2020, Phillips Murrah has partnered with Oklahoma NPR radio station KGOU to sponsor broadcast announcements each month that shine a light on a selected non-profit organization. Our aim is to amplify each beneficiary organizations’ needs and goals, and to help increase awareness, drive volunteer quality and quantity, assist in fundraising support, and improve capacity to deliver service to the community. In December 2022, Phillips Murrah expanded the reach of our Paying it Forward partnership to include NPR’s other OKC radio station, KOSU.

Our Paying it Forward beneficiary in February 2023 is Open Design Collective. #PIFOKC

Phillips Murrah is proud to support Open Design Collective, a 501 (c)3 non-profit organization that brings together underrepresented communities and the design and city planning resources necessary to promote social and spatial change. Their mission is to support the needs of Black and marginalized communities through planning, design, and architecture.

Projects include:

• NE OKC Storytelling Project: Preserving and protecting the oral histories of NE OKC residents through digitizing and mapping stories. Learn more
• Deep Deuce Drive-in: A Placemaking project where Open Design Collective brought NE OKC residents back to the Deep Deuce community; a once thriving, historically Black community that is now gentrified. Learn more
• Brockway Center and Lyon’s Luster Mansion: A cultural preservation and community engagement effort to save and repurpose these two cultural assets in NE OKC. Learn more 
• South of 8th: A Community Vision: A master site plan and visioning effort to help support the future development of a marginalized community that has faced social and spatial harm in NE OKC. Learn more 
• Reviving the Jewel Theater: Open Design Collective is working with local and national partners to save the Jewel Theater; the only historic Black theater still standing in the state of Oklahoma.

Meet the team!

Open Collective Leadership Team (From left): Errin McKnight (Community Designer), Deborah Richards (CDO: Chief Design Officer), Vanessa Morrison (CEO).

Visit Open Design Collective on social media:

Previous Beneficiaries

January 2023:  Urban League of Greater Oklahoma City
December 2022: City Rescue Mission
November 2022: Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma
October 2022: Palomar, Oklahoma City’s Justice Center
September 2022: Oklahoma Single Parent Scholarship Program
August 2022: Oklahoma City Public Schools Foundation
July 2022: Goodwill Industries of Central Oklahoma
June 2022: Pivot Oklahoma – A Turning Point for Youth
May 2022: The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
April 2022: The Nature Conservancy Oklahoma
March 2022: Suited For Success
February 2022: Children’s Hospital Foundation
January 2022: Positive Tomorrows
December 2021: Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma
November 2021: Infant Crisis Services
October 2021: Oklahoma Indian Legal Services, Inc.
September 2021: OKC Beautiful
August 2021: Bethesda, Inc.
July 2021: Oklahoma Humane Society
June 2021: Arts Council Oklahoma City
May 2021: Partners in Public Health
April 2021: CASA of Oklahoma County
March 2021: The Homeless Alliance
February 2021: Mental Health Association Oklahoma
January 2021: Positive Tomorrows
December 2020: Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma