Doner Designs is a Chicago-area father-son charitable enterprise founded by Steve Doner and his son Richard, an electrical engineer. The pair began modifying and building instruments in 2008 and formally launched Doner Designs in 2012. Rather than operating as a commercial brand, they build approximately one to two custom guitars or basses per year and donate them to major national charities — including the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and the United Services Organizations — which auction the instruments at fundraising galas.

Doner Designs instruments are known for elaborate thematic concepts and high-end components. Their charity builds feature vivid themed designs — military-branch instruments (Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines), a NASA guitar signed by Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell, and the Time Machine Bass inspired by Back to the Future, which took roughly 300 hours to complete and features a working flux capacitor display. Their builds typically use Warmoth bodies and necks, Nordstrand pickups, Audere preamps, Babicz bridges, and Hipshot tuners. The custom JazzMan pickup, developed in collaboration with Nordstrand, houses two different split-coil J pickups in a single Music Man cover to blend Jazz Bass and Music Man tones. Professional bassist Billy Sheehan has test-played the Time Machine Bass, and bassist Andy Irvine has acquired one of their personal instruments.

Their personal (non-charity) builds favor natural wood aesthetics with tung oil and paste wax finishes, exotic tonewoods like solid koa and flame maple, and unconventional electronics — including basses with three pickups, quad-coil configurations, and dozens of switchable coil combinations. The tagline "Warming Hearts with Cool Guitars" reflects the philanthropic mission at the core of the operation.