10 years of impact, built on decades of purpose-driven leadership

More than forty years ago, Carol Cone saw a new path for business: companies and brands could align with social and environmental issues to create both business and societal value. In 1983, she founded Cone, Inc., the world’s first social impact firm, helping pioneer and legitimize purpose as a business‑critical strategy. The core belief then remains our north star today: doing good and doing well are accelerators for one another.

By 2015, it was clear the field was changing again. Purpose was emerging as the next great driver of business strategy, and a new kind of consultancy was needed: flat, senior‑led, and deeply hands‑on. With that vision, Carol Cone ON PURPOSE was born, with a mission to help organizations authentically define and activate their purpose to drive growth, trust, and lasting business and societal impact. Now, we're celebrating 10 years of impact in our Purpose Proven report—explore it here.

What our first decade makes clear

Our Purpose Proven report celebrates the first decade of Carol Cone ON PURPOSE and the many organizations that dared to go deeper with us. It tells a story of purpose moving from the margins of CSR and cause marketing into the core of business strategy, culture, and innovation. Together with our clients and partners, we have:

• Defined corporate purpose as a compass for culture and strategy.

• Built signature social and environmental programs that inspire action and impact.

• Engaged employees as powerful agents of growth and change.

• Repositioned nonprofits and strengthened fundraising.

• Advanced corporate foundations as engines of authentic commitment.

• Forged public‑private partnerships that deliver lasting impact.

Beyond client work, we have also invested in advancing the field itself: adding five new studies to the 30‑plus conducted over Carol’s career, hosting more than 225 episodes of the Purpose 360 Podcast, and creating the Purpose Collaborative, the world’s first global network of purpose experts. This “Hollywood model” lets us assemble bespoke, senior teams with deep subject‑matter expertise for every engagement.

The past decade has been one of disruption and challenge, yet it has reinforced a simple truth: organizations that authentically live their purpose are stronger, more innovative, and more trusted.

Bringing purpose to life: from purpose statements to lived strategies

A key theme in our work over the decade is moving from stated purpose to activated purpose. We have seen how a clear, credible purpose can guide transformation, align vast global enterprises, and spark new forms of impact.

For Kerry Group, the world’s leading taste and nutrition company, rapid growth through more than 100 acquisitions created a need for a unifying north star. Through more than 200 interviews and 10 workshops, we helped distill Kerry’s complexity into a simple, resonant purpose: “Inspiring Food - Nourishing Life,” which now connects colleagues across 50‑plus countries and aligns business priorities for long‑term growth.

Chesapeake Employers Insurance Company, with roots going back more than a century, faced a pivotal transformation as a private nonprofit. Working closely with leadership and employees, we helped define a new purpose—“Elevating the Promise of Work and the Potential of People”—and supported a robust internal launch, including an anthem video and targeted trainings to embed new values and behaviors. The result is a refreshed culture and mindset that positions Chesapeake for continued adaptation and growth.

Across industries, these stories share a pattern: purpose is the operating system for culture, strategy, and innovation.

Signature programs and partnerships that scale impact

The report also highlights signature programs and partnerships that demonstrate what happens when purpose is activated with creativity and discipline.

With LG, we helped move “Life’s Good” from slogan to social impact platform by identifying a bold, unexpected focus: sustainable happiness for youth amid record‑high stress and suicide rates. Through Experience Happiness, a science‑based initiative promoting evidence‑backed “happiness skills,” LG saw a 16% lift in positive consumer perception and a 22% increase in consumers who saw the company as making a positive societal impact.

During the COVID‑19 pandemic, Quest Diagnostics processed more than 30 million tests and saw firsthand the deep disparities affecting underserved communities. Together, we launched Quest for Health Equity, a $100 million‑plus initiative focused on reducing health gaps, including a partnership with Choose Healthy Life that brought testing and later vaccinations to hard‑hit cities through trusted Black churches. The effort enabled thousands of tests, more than 30,000 vaccinations, and helped secure a $9.9 million federal grant for Choose Healthy Life to expand its work.

We also see the power of long‑term collaborations. BuildBetter with Whirlpool, launched in 2021, supports climate‑resilient, energy‑efficient homes. The program has delivered 260 homes that reduce families’ operating costs and emissions, building on Whirlpool Corporation’s 25‑year relationship with Habitat for Humanity. Altogether, the Whirlpool x Habitat for Humanity partnership has included more than $150 million in contributions and 250,000 appliances donated across 45 countries.

Our work to align Whirlpool Corporation with The Washing Machine Project created a landmark relationship to distribute 150,000 Divya manual washing machines over five years, reclaiming time for women and girls who currently spend up to 20 hours a week hand‑washing clothes.

These programs illustrate how purpose can both differentiate brands and deliver tangible outcomes for people and planet.

Elevating nonprofits, foundations, and movements

Purpose does not belong to corporations alone. A significant part of our first decade has focused on nonprofits and foundations that needed sharper positioning, strategy, and storytelling to match the scale of their ambitions.

Action Against Hunger came to us to elevate its visibility and issue leadership. Together, we refined its narrative, created compelling communications for donors, media, and influencers, and developed an issue leadership plan that helped secure billions of media impressions, new corporate supporters, and recognition from awards such as the Anthem Award and Fast Company’s Most Innovative list.

With the Biogen Foundation, we helped evolve its strategy in step with the company’s “New Biogen Way,” shifting from a narrow focus on STEM education to a mission centered on advancing better health in the community. Through interviews, benchmarking, and portfolio analysis, we co‑created a strategy focused on access to healthcare, social determinants of health, and building a robust healthcare workforce, and supported new policies, procedures, and measurement. In just two years, the Foundation pioneered or helped conceive nine new initiatives serving more than 75,000 patients annually.

We also helped Keep America Beautiful transform the long‑running Great American Cleanup into the Greatest American Cleanup, positioning it as a national movement ahead of America’s 250th birthday. In 2024 alone, the initiative engaged 300,000 volunteers who removed more than 10 million pounds of litter and improved nearly 800,000 acres of parks, playgrounds, and trails, while attracting major sponsors such as The Scotts Miracle‑Gro Company and The J.M. Smucker Company.

These examples show how clear purpose, when combined with disciplined execution, can unlock new resources, partners, and influence for organizations driving change on the ground.

What we've learned about purpose, people, and what comes next

At the heart of our decade of work is a growing body of research that documents one of the most consequential shifts in modern business: purpose has moved from discretionary marketing tactic to mission‑critical organizational imperative. Across studies like The B2B Purpose Paradox, Purpose Under Pressure, and our Corporate Social Action Tracker, several insights stand out.

First, employees have become both the engine and the accountability check for purpose. Our research with The Harris Poll showed that 68% of employees believe their employer has a responsibility to make a positive impact on society and the environment, while only about half believe their company cares about more than profit. We developed Employee Purpose iQ (EPiQ) to help organizations measure how purpose is experienced internally, across dimensions of credibility, talent, and activation, and to provide a roadmap for improvement.

Second, expectations for corporate engagement on social issues have grown, not receded, even amid political polarization. In our 2024 Post‑Election Social Impact Outlook, 46% of Americans said they wanted companies to play a larger role in addressing social issues under the incoming Trump administration, rising above 50% among younger Americans and communities of color. By 2025, that number had increased to 51%, with health and wellbeing, especially mental health, emerging as the top priority across party lines. The nuance is clear: the mandate is not to speak on everything, but to lead authentically on issues most connected to employees, communities, and the core business.

Third, measurement and accountability have moved to the center of the purpose conversation. Early in the decade, most organizations had not embedded KPIs for purpose into strategy, leaving purpose aspirational. Today, tools like EPiQ and more robust ESG disclosure are helping leaders treat purpose as a managed asset, with clear goals, governance, and continuous improvement.

Finally, generative AI has emerged as purpose’s most powerful and demanding new partner. Our Purpose × AI guide emphasizes a central insight: AI does not introduce new values into an organization; it amplifies the ones already present. For purpose‑driven organizations, this represents an opportunity to use purpose as the “human alignment layer” for AI decisions, from use cases to guardrails and transparency; for others, it introduces real risk.

Taken together, these lessons point toward a next decade where the organizations best positioned for value are those that have articulated their purpose, embedded it, measured it, and now use it to guide transformational choices, including AI.

An invitation to our next decade

As we reflect on ten years of Carol Cone ON PURPOSE, we feel deep gratitude for the clients, partners, Purpose Collaborative members, and colleagues who have joined us in this work. Our team is as committed as ever to supporting nonprofits, communities, and the next generation of purpose‑driven talent, while continuing to help organizations translate authentic purpose into stronger performance and greater impact.

We invite you to explore our Purpose Proven report, dig into the case studies and research, and consider where your organization is on its own purpose journey. The work ahead is demanding, but it is also full of possibility, and we are honored to be a partner to those ready to go deeper.