Journey, a global design and innovation studio pioneering multidimensional experiences (MDX), has shared details of a project for the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, one of the world’s leading philanthropic organisations, which has committed nearly $4 billion to more than 3,000 grantee partners across 130 countries over the past 30 years.
SNF works across health, education, arts and culture, social welfare, sports, sustainability, and civic life to support people and organisations making meaningful change.
The challenge for foundations is to make this impact visible, accessible, and engaging beyond just reports and grant databases.
SNF Nostos is the annual public festival at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens. To mark its 30th anniversary, the foundation aimed to create a digital experience that would engage families, students, employees, partners, and visitors with diverse accessibility needs.
The goal was to showcase the scope of SNF’s global initiatives while highlighting the achievements and stories of its grantee partners.
Journey's immersive experiences for SNF Nostos 2026 brought the work of the foundation to lifeImage courtesy of Journey
The main challenge was to present thousands of grants from multiple countries and sectors in a way that was clear, human, and emotionally impactful, without reducing their significance to mere numbers.
Showcasing SNF's global influence
For SNF Nostos 2026, Journey developed the festival’s inaugural immersive and interactive experience. Mapping the SNF Journey made over 5,700 grants accessible, showcasing SNF’s global influence and tangible effects.
A series of interconnected digital and physical touchpoints encouraged visitors to explore the foundation’s history, data, grantee stories, staff perspectives, and future goals.
Using film, sound, interaction, and active participation, this experience took audiences from initial curiosity and discovery to thoughtful reflection, vividly illustrating the legacy of philanthropy through the stories of the people and communities involved.
The visitor journey started with interactive totems that introduced visitors and guided them through the space, combining wayfinding, event info, and grantee films to spark curiosity and orientation.
Interactive totems served as an introduction to the immersive experience created for SNF Nostos 2026Image courtesy of Journey
Motion capture interaction revealed data and human stories, inviting exploration of SNF’s diverse work. A printed graphic explained SNF’s mission and global reach, providing context before digital experiences.
The timeline showed SNF’s history as a living archive, designed to match the rhythm of SNF’s Book Castle collection, with a warm, textured wall of objects, imagery, quotes, and film highlighting key moments from the foundation’s history.
As visitors explored the collection, they saw the momentum of three decades of philanthropy. By highlighting personal stories, the archive showed SNF’s collaborative, evolving work, helping visitors grasp its scope before diving deeper into grantmaking inside the exhibition.
The main feature was a live visualisation of SNF’s grantmaking process. The immersive film provided a broad view of 30 years of giving, turning detailed data into a cinematic summary of worldwide impact.
Interactive mapping
The global map enabled visitors to explore SNF’s grants via interactive screens, visualising grantees and their work worldwide. It moved from global data to individual stories, a key technical feature translating 5,700 data points into a dynamic, real-time globe visualisation.
A global map showed SNF’s grants via interactive screens, visualising grantees and their work worldwideImage courtesy of Journey
For foundations managing large portfolios, this visualisation helps audiences understand projects and the links between places, sectors, communities, and long-term goals.
Leave Your Mark encouraged visitors to envision the types of grants they would like to see implemented worldwide. Their responses were collected and displayed as a participatory data visualisation on an immersive digital canvas.
This transformation shifted visitors from passive observers to active contributors, linking SNF’s history of philanthropy with the audience’s own hopes for future influence.
This interactive layer fostered a more open and mutual relationship between the foundation and its audiences, inviting visitors to see themselves as part of the discussion. It turned impact communication into a shared act of reflection, rather than a simple one-way presentation.
Leave Your Mark was a participatory visualisation, encouraging visitors to envision the types of grants they would like to see implemented Image courtesy of Journey
The experience concluded with SNF Voices, featuring the voices of grantee partners and SNF staff. This closing moment emphasised that behind every grant are people, communities, and stories of change.
The experience extended beyond the physical setup via a digital app. Visitors could explore grantee case studies and the global visualisation after the event, with new grants updating as they were announced.
This approach kept the engagement alive, transforming the app into a lasting platform for SNF’s impact narrative. It enabled the foundation’s work to evolve over time, fostering ongoing learning, stakeholder involvement, and public connection.
A human journey
Journey designed an engaging public experience that reimagined the Stavros Niarchos Foundation’s global grantmaking as a multifaceted, human-focused journey.
The experience extended beyond the physical setup at SNF Nostos with a digital app, featuring case studies and the global visualisationImage courtesy of Journey
By integrating data, interactive elements, participation, and cinematic storytelling, the installation enabled visitors to grasp the scope of SNF grantees’ efforts while also connecting them to the personal stories behind each project.
This approach illustrated 30 years of philanthropy, demonstrating how countless initiatives worldwide are united by a common commitment to humanity, knowledge, and positive change.
Earlier this year, Journey collaborated with Edge NYC at Hudson Yards in New York City, alongside Moment Factory and SoftLab, to shape a new vision for the observation deck attraction, creating a complete visitor experience from ascent to exit.
