Recognizing the marketing challenges facing grassroots nonprofits and a craving for purpose-driven work among advertising professionals, SixDegrees.org set out to build a creative accelerator giving small organizations access to the same creative talent and expertise as the world’s largest brands. Through this groundbreaking collaboration with Advertising Week, we paired six nonprofits with six of the industry’s leading agencies for development of complete 360° campaigns at no cost.
Purpose, Produced was designed with four primary goals in mind:
Overall, this industry-shifting initiative illustrates what’s possible when cause meets creative.
A celebrity-founded nonprofit uniquely positioned at the intersection of social impact and storytelling, SixDegrees.org has worked with fellow grassroots organizations since 2007, routinely observing a common struggle. With small teams, limited expertise, and constant scrutiny from funders viewing marketing as nonessential, nonprofit leaders consistently push marketing to the back burner and struggle to fundraise as a result.
SixDegrees.org has also spent decades partnering with companies to enhance corporate social responsibility programs. We’ve witnessed service opportunities strengthen morale and job satisfaction and envisioned how these effects would compound if the opportunities existed for employees to leverage their unique passions and skillsets for impact. With a big vision, we reached out to colleagues at Advertising Week who immediately said “yes, and,” and Purpose, Produced was born.
Advertising Week recruited six of the industry’s best agencies, and SixDegrees.org put out an open call for grassroots nonprofits with annual budgets under $3 million, based in the United States, and focused in one of our core pillars: youth empowerment, justice and equality, sustainable environments, and emergent issues. After reviewing nearly 200 applications, we selected six to receive complete creative campaigns, all pro bono. Our founder, Kevin Bacon, surprised the chosen organizations on a video call; the reactions were priceless! We intentionally reviewed each agency’s portfolio and matched them with a nonprofit based on need and expertise. When the pairs met, many of them expressed that their partnership felt meant to be.
From initial conversations with Advertising Week to agency and nonprofit pairing, only about six weeks went by. Over the next several months, the pairs worked together to develop concepts and bring assets to life.
At Advertising Week New York in October 2025, SixDegrees.org CEO Stacy Huston and Founder Kevin Bacon took the stage to discuss the importance of marketing for nonprofits, the benefits of corporate social responsibility and employee engagement, and how Purpose, Produced came to be. Our partners at RKD Group supported development of this session and created a cohesive brand identity for Purpose, Produced. At the end of the session, attendees got a first look at the final campaigns, which debuted between October 2025 and January 2026. Media partners Kepler, Talon, and Lamar Outdoor donated digital and out-of-home placement to reach national audiences.
The inaugural round of Purpose, Produced was not without its challenges. Because SixDegrees.org is a nonprofit, there were areas of the advertising industry with which we were unfamiliar. We were grateful to lean on our partners at Advertising Week to help us navigate new territory. The timeline to bring Purpose, Produced to life also presented a challenge, and everyone involved moved quickly. We overcame this challenge by ensuring clear, consistent communication. Each agency and nonprofit had one primary contact who relayed information to their teams, and this ensured wires were not crossed.
Overall, SixDegrees.org is deeply proud of what we were able to accomplish alongside our partners at Advertising Week and the participating agencies and nonprofit who made Purpose, Produced possible!
SixDegrees.org set out to transform what pro bono creative work can look like, and the results confirm our model works. By pairing grassroots nonprofits with the strategic expertise and creative talent of leading advertising agencies, Purpose, Produced unlocked resources these organizations could never access independently, generating 360 million+ impressions and $3.7M+ in donated media value across campaigns.
Every nonprofit saw measurable gains in volunteers, donations, partnerships, and community engagement. Campaigns drove 700+ direct requests for support from individuals who were previously unfamiliar with the organization, prompted U.S. Congressional action on environmental policy, fueled 800% organizational growth, and expanded youth-led programming to 170 communities nationwide.
For agency partners, Purpose, Produced delivered on its promise of meaningful corporate social responsibility and employee engagement, giving teams a unique opportunity to apply their expertise toward work that matters. Many agency partners had to restrict the number of employees that could work on Purpose, Produced because the interest and desire to make a difference was overwhelming. Collectively, SixDegrees.org’s partnership with Advertising Week and the nonprofit and agency partnerships modeled a healthier, more equitable approach to corporate giving that is grounded in deep collaboration, mutual respect, and shared ownership of outcomes.
Overall, these results illustrate that Purpose, Produced is about more than individual campaigns. This initiative is proof that when the advertising industry commits to social good, the impact is transformational for not just the nonprofits served, but for the agencies, the communities, and the broader creative industry itself.
