Why even small companies should have an impact strategy, and how to get started on one.

In a world of consistently evolving crises and countless valuable causes, there is no shortage of opportunities to make a meaningful impact. So how do you decide where to donate limited time and money? As a small but mighty purposeful growth consultancy, we found ourselves asking just that.?

TwentyFirstCenturyBrand was founded with the ambition to work with the leaders of the world’s most innovative companies to build the most influential brands of our time and ultimately challenge those leaders to create a positive cultural legacy. We work with our clients to develop a brand strategy that will give them clarity on how, and critically when, to use their platform for good.?

But internally, we found ourselves looking for that clarity that would guide our philanthropic efforts. Over the four years since our founding, we’ve donated to numerous global causes as they emerged, from the wars in Syria and Ukraine to Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate, in addition to efforts closer to our business, like our partnership with Brixton Finishing School and our 1% Pledge to commit 1% of employee time and profits to philanthropy. While every cause we’ve contributed to has been worthy, we became aware that we needed to be more focused and intentional about how we use our resources, without a negative—or better yet, with a positive—impact on our business.?

We set off on a journey to codify a clear impact strategy, rooted in our existing areas of giving, our business, and our company values.? Along the way, we learned from our approach to create a process that we hope inspired other companies to amplify their impact.

1. Assemble a task force

Before you even get started, decide who should be involved. For us, this was a cross-functional transatlantic effort so the designing of a committee was really important. We found it helpful to use a management framework like the RACI, a responsibility assignment matrix, to clearly delineate the engagement levels of different stakeholders. When developing the strategy, we worked iteratively with our leadership team, bringing them in on key decisions and final approvals.?

As a note, we revisited the committee structure once we had our strategy and roadmap, formally electing a committee leader to keep things on track and matching members to specific roles that suit their skills and interests.?

2. Decide on a model

We explored various models to determine which would best fit our company, as well as enable us to maximize our impact. We narrowed it down to two options:?

1. A cause-oriented model which focuses and prioritizes one cause (e.g. inclusion, climate change, socioeconomic equity) and acts as a filter for the types of social impact we invest in. In this model, the company aligns on one core focus and concentrates almost exclusively on this effort.?
2. An offset model which evaluates the different clients against the types of products and services they make, and then assesses the harm and impacts on people and the planet. Based on this quantitative (or potentially qualitative) model, the company would invest in organizations (via talent, funds, etc) to offset any harm. For example, if we worked with a client that creates products at huge cost to the environment, then we would take a percentage of that profit and invest it in a climate fund that would a) advance our climate goals b) offset the impact we have had on the environment.

Due to our evolving roster of clients, we decided that the offset model would be too difficult to implement. In contrast, a cause-oriented model would allow us to target our efforts to act with consistency for years to come and create a long term compounding impact.?

3. Choose a focused cause

As a purpose-led company, we have consistently and instinctively invested in various causes since our inception. Because of this, we knew we wanted to codify our existing focus, rather than reinvent a new direction. We started by auditing all of our initiatives to see where we had the most existing equity.?

Using inclusion as the broader umbrella for our impact strategy emerged as an obvious choice, given our value of Diversity in Harmony and the equity we’ve built in our inclusion thesis over the last two years: hosting workshops with clients to inclusion projects, publishing books and white-papers, and embedding inclusion into our product offering.?

But inclusion as a whole was too big and broad a challenge for our team to tackle. Knowing that focus would enable us to maximize our impact, we layered in two more filters to give us guidance: a sharper segmentation (Young People & Education) and a connection to our business (the Marketing & Advertising Industry).

A critical part of inclusion advocacy in the corporate world is about addressing the equity gap that prevents our industry and clients from creating inclusive environments: unequal access to resources and opportunities that disproportionately affect minority communities, ultimately reducing the talent pool for corporations to hire from. We believe in addressing the biggest issues—poverty, racism, discrimination—through investment in young people and expanding their possibilities in education. This focus felt natural as we had existing partnerships with College Track in the US and Brixton Finishing School in the UK, both of which are fantastic organizations that equip students confronting systemic barriers with the resources they need to thrive in their careers.?

4. Articulate a commitment

Armed with a clear understanding of where we would focus our time and energy, we worked to define a clear, single sentence articulation of the strategy that would serve as the north star for any future impact conversations and decisions. As a group of strategists writing this, we debated each word and phrase, making sure they could hold all the meaning we intended and set clear boundaries.

We landed on the following commitment statement: Champion inclusivity in the marketing & advertising industry—from the inside out and the outside in.?

We loved the idea of “inside out and outside in”, because it articulated how we could leverage our employees within our walls and our partners within the industry, while also creating pathways for diverse talent to enter the industry and thrive within it.

5. Define actionable guidelines

As a smaller organization with limited resources, we know that we can’t be everywhere at the same time and do everything. This means that ultimately we’ll have to decide which initiatives to support and which ones to sit out on. In order to aid this kind of decision making, it was essential to create clear guidelines that could travel around the organization and serve as an actionable rubric. To avoid feeling too restrictive, we framed these guidelines as standards of giving, not restrictions. We structured our rubric with three key areas to assess an initiative: fit with the newly established Impact Commitment, a geographical focus, and more tactical resourcing questions.

6. Set measurable goals

A strategy without clearly defined targets and performance indicators is incomplete. The first step is to figure out what resources are available to you. For TwentyFirstCenturyBrand, we set goals that maximized our biggest asset: our employees. Alongside our 1% Pledge, we set the goal of 100% employee engagement (every employee doing at least one thing to drive the Impact Committee). We also identified a goal of how many young people we aim to impact directly through initiatives like mentoring and an internship program, and indirectly through thought-pieces, resources, and masterclasses.

7. Put it into action!

Like any strategy, an impact commitment is just words on a page until you go out in the world and bring it to life. For our first year, we identified priority initiatives to fully commit to: our first internship program with our partners at College Track and Brixton Finishing School; identifying opportunities for employees to volunteer; sharing our journey to maximize our impact and amplifying our book A Colourful View From The Top , a collection of twenty-one extraordinary stories of excellence in business by leaders of colour who have made it to the top of their game, the book’s mission is to inspire young people to dream bigger than they ever thought possible.??

If you're considering, developing, or evolving how you approach impact, we hope this has inspired you to solidify an impact strategy. If you already have one, we'd love to hear what you've learned along your journey. By sharing our learnings and inspiring each other, we can create an exponential impact. If you want more information about our impact strategy, or have learnings to share, please get in touch or comment below.

Over the next year, we’ll be holding ourselves accountable to our commitment, sharing our learnings along the way. Stay tuned for more.