A lifetime of purpose (and the story isn’t over yet!)

By: Carol Cone

I never set out to build a movement. In 1983, I simply believed something that most of the business world hadn't yet accepted: that companies could do well and do good, and that the most powerful tool for making that happen was connecting a company and a brand to a cause that people genuinely cared about.

More than four decades later, I'm deeply humbled to be receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from Engage for Good at the 2026 Halo Awards. It's a moment that has given me reason to pause, look back, and feel immense gratitude for the colleagues, clients, and community who helped build this field alongside me.

It all started with a blank page

When I founded Cone, Inc. in 1983, there was no playbook. Cause marketing, as a discipline, did not exist. I was writing it in real time, working to prove to skeptical executives that aligning a brand's identity with a social cause wasn't charity, it was strategy. It was trust-building. It was a way to make business matter to people in ways beyond a transaction.

PRWeek would later call me "arguably the most powerful and visible figure in the world of Cause Branding." But what I remember from those early years is not recognition. It's the persistence required to bring a new idea into a world that wasn't ready for it.

Making the case with data

One thing I learned early: inspiration alone doesn't change institutions. You need evidence. So in 1993, we produced the first consumer cause marketing study in the United States, the Cone/Roper Report, proving for the first time that consumers would reward companies that supported causes they cared about. That data became the backbone of an entire sector.

An article in the September 1999 edition of Management Review.

Over the years, we continued to lead with research, now more than 32 studies: the Cone/Alloy Millennial Report, the Cone Nonprofit Power Brands, Purpose Under Pressure, and others. Each study pushed the field forward, giving practitioners the language, insights, and data  to make the case internally to CFOs, CEOs, and boards who needed numbers, not just conviction.

More recently, our team at Carol Cone ON PURPOSE has conducted research on the issues most important to Americans, providing companies with a pulse check during an especially turbulent decade. We also conducted the first research specific to purpose in B2B enterprises, the B2B Purpose Paradox, finding that a subset of employees, which we called Believers, were hidden champions for purpose performance.

The work I’m most proud of

I've had the privilege of helping channel more than $5 billion to social causes through partnerships and programs I'm immensely proud of. The American Heart Association's Go Red for Women helped reframe women's heart disease as a national priority. The Avon Breast Cancer Crusade became one of the most iconic cause programs ever created, spreading to 50 countries around the world. PNC Grow Up Great proved that a bank could transform early childhood education (and build lasting community loyalty in the process). Microsoft YouthSpark opened pathways to opportunity for millions of young people around the world. And my most special achievement: creating My Special Aflac Duck, a social robot giving children comfort during an average 1,000 days of cancer treatments, while elevating Aflac as a caring innovator. 

Each of these initiatives had something in common: they weren't add-ons or PR moves. They were built into the fabric of organizational values and culture, how they  operated, communicated, and measured success. That integration—purpose as strategy, not a bolt-on—is what I've always fought for.

Building a field, not just a career

In 1999, I negotiated the sale of Cone, Inc. to Omnicom, —a recognition that purpose strategy had earned its seat at the table of global business. I went on to chair Edelman's Business + Social Purpose practice, and in 2015, I launched Carol Cone ON PURPOSE, returning to my entrepreneurial roots with the freedom to work directly with the organizations and professionals doing the most meaningful work.

Around the same time, I founded the Purpose Collaborative as the world's first network of independent firms dedicated to advancing CSR, purpose, and sustainability. What started as a conversation among peers has grown into a global community of 40+ expert firms. Together, we're advocates for a world where purpose is the expectation, not the exception.

In 2018, I took the leap into podcasting and uncovered the hidden journalist inside me. To date, I’ve hosted more than 225 conversations with visionaries from Paul Polman and Alan Murray to leaders at Patagonia, Interface, Bombas, JUST Capital, Campbells, Nike, ESPN, Rothy’s, Save the Children, and many more. These conversations have taught me a tremendous amount about what it takes to be a purpose-led leader today, while giving back to the practitioners doing the real work of advancing this field daily.

What this moment means to me

Receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award is a strange and wonderful thing. It invites you to take stock; to see the arc of your own work in a way that the daily urgency of doing that work rarely allows. What I see when I look back is a field that grew from a fringe idea to a global imperative. I see research that moved skeptics. Programs that changed lives. A generation of practitioners—many of whom I've been lucky enough to mentor—who are carrying this work into a more complex and more consequential world than the one I started in.

I also see unfinished work. The pressure on ESG, the rollback of corporate commitments, the cynicism that purpose-washing has bred…these are real challenges. But I've never been more convinced that when companies lead with authentic, measurable purpose, they build something that outlasts trends and political headwinds. They build trust and reputation. And reputation is the most durable business asset there is.

To the Engage for Good community—my longtime home and inspiration—thank you. This award belongs to every person who took a chance on purpose before it was popular.

The best work is still ahead.