Riggs Partners didn’t start out with a focus on “socially conscious” companies. But in the nearly 25 years we’ve been around, we’ve found great kinship in working with purposeful companies and nonprofits whose work makes the world a better place. In 1997, we founded CreateAthon, now a national network that has provided more than $11 million in creative and marketing services to nonprofits around the country. That work made us more attuned to companies that genuinely embrace a broader perspective than old-school bottom-line profits.
It is a spirit that is catching on in surprising places. More and more companies, of every size and in widely differing industries, are finding ways to encourage growth and promote value through projects that are not economically based. These initiatives are born not of marketing but of purpose, and they are fostering participation from stakeholders, and creating stakeholders from the general public — an imperative for the powerful brands of this new decade.
