When Cause Meets Creative: The Launch of a Movement
Purpose, Produced brings together creativity and compassion, proving that when we invest storytelling in impact, we can move hearts, shift culture, and spark change.
October 6, 2025. 4:08 P.M. The Great Minds Stage at Advertising Week, New York City.
The room was filled to capacity. I scanned the crowd and spotted familiar faces from months of virtual calls: the B.E. A S.H.E.R.O. Foundation team in the row ahead, GlamourGals founder Rachel Doyle beside me, the Crispin agency team just behind.
Those of us who had lived and breathed Purpose, Produced knew something big was about to happen. The energy was palpable: a mix of anticipation, pride, and disbelief that this moment had finally arrived. I could feel it radiating through the room, through my fingertips, as we waited for our Executive Director, Stacy Huston, and our Founder, Kevin Bacon, to take the stage and launch Purpose, Produced into the world.
Sitting there, I couldn’t help but think back to where it all started, not in a conference hall, but in a conversation about what was missing.
Inaugural Purpose, Produced Cohort at Advertising Week New York, 2025
Planting the Seed
It was 2024 when Stacy attended Advertising Week New York and met Michael Gewirtzman, Global VP of Programming. The two bonded quickly over their shared belief that creativity could — and should — be used for good. In December 2024, as the SixDegrees.org team envisioned what the following year would bring, the dream of a nonprofit Super Bowl commercial emerged. What could happen if cause-driven storytelling had access to the same creative power and reach as major brands? After seeing how CoorDown, National Down Syndrome Society, and several international partners came together to produce the viral World Down Syndrome Day “Assume That I Can” campaign earlier that year, the team was inspired to dig deeper into how to connect small, grassroots nonprofits to that same level of creativity and cultural resonance. Those sparks became the catalyst for a bigger idea — one that would unite SixDegrees.org and Advertising Week in a first-of-its-kind initiative: Purpose, Produced
Nonprofits have the stories that move hearts, but rarely the budgets to move the needle. While many companies invest up to 10% of their revenue into marketing, most nonprofits can’t even dedicate 1%. That imbalance is exactly what Purpose, Produced set out to change.
The inaugural campaign would connect six small, grassroots nonprofit organizations (selected by the SixDegrees.org team) with six world-class advertising agencies (recruited by Michael and the Advertising Week team) to create pro bono, evergreen ad campaigns that would turn heads, amplify their missions, and get creatives, companies, and everyday individuals asking “how can I make an impact?”
Finding the Six
The idea was ambitious, but its heart was simple: connection–which is already where SixDegrees.org thrives. To make it real, we needed six organizations whose missions embodied that spirit and six creative partners ready to meet them there.
By early spring 2025, our team at SixDegrees.org put out a call for nonprofit applicants. The response was overwhelming. Nearly 200 organizations applied.
From there, the work began. We read every application, explored websites, scrolled through social feeds, and got to know these changemakers through their words and work. Eventually, (and painstakingly) we narrowed the field to a Top 5, with the sixth spot determined by a People’s Choice vote.
Our inaugural Purpose, Produced nonprofits: GlamourGals Foundation, Find Your Anchor, The Pulse of Perseverance Project (P3), DarkSky International, B.E. A S.H.E.R.O. Foundation, and the People’s Choice winner, Trauma Intervention Programs, Inc. (TIP).
And on the creative side, the powerhouse agencies: Rain the Growth Agency, Crispin, Versus, Bray & Co., Duncan Channon, and The Variable.
On a Zoom call, our nonprofits were surprised by our founder, Kevin Bacon, with the news that their campaigns had been chosen. To say that was a SixDegrees.org highlight would be an understatement.
(Watch the surprise video here.)With our six pairings in place, Purpose, Produced officially had a heartbeat. The real work — and the magic — was about to begin.
Summer 2025 — The Work Begins
Summer arrived, and with it, the hum of creativity. The six partnerships were off and running — ideas forming, stories unfolding, and a movement beginning to take shape.
Our Program Coordinator, Megan Hudson, took on the task of pairing the nonprofit and agencies. Looking back, it’s as if Megan knew these pairs were kismet. The pairings are:
GlamourGals x Rain the Growth Agency
TIP x The Variable
P3 x Versus
DarkSky x Bray & Co.
B.E. A S.H.E.R.O. Foundation x Duncan Channon
We had kickoff calls with every pairing, each one filling us with more excitement than the last. There were lots of questions, some of which we didn’t have answers to. As we liked to say during this process, we were building the plane as we were flying it. And that’s real, isn’t it? A heavy lift like Purpose, Produced requires transparency. While many things weren’t “easy” about this process, one particular thing was: the joy.
The check-in calls throughout the summer always put smiles on everyone’s faces. Watching assets be dropped into the shared folders from each nonprofit and agency painted a picture of what was going on behind the scenes and left us on the edge of our seats. We created content like our agency and nonprofit spotlight posts to introduce the world to these 12 entities–each party deserved its moment to shine.
All the while, SixDegrees.org was working with the incredible team at RKD Group to tell the overarching Purpose, Produced story. The RKD team saw our vision for assets for Advertising Week, our website, and more and executed it with care.
To be quite candid: time flew.
By the time summer ended, the air was thick with momentum. The stories were written, the relationships were real, and the movement we’d imagined was ready to meet the world.
Advertising Week 2025
October 6, 2025. 4:10 P.M. The Great Minds Stage at Advertising Week, New York City.
The lights dimmed, and the hum of conversation softened into silence. Months of collaboration, creation, and connection had led to this: the launch of Purpose, Produced into the world.
Our intro video began to play, the bassline humming through the room like a heartbeat. And just like that, we were off. My heart was racing. My eyes filled with tears. Looking back, I realize I was holding my breath; hands clasped tight in pure anticipation for the next 40 minutes…and beyond.
When Stacy and Kevin stepped onto the stage alongside Tulaine Montgomery, CEO of New Profit, the room seemed to exhale. Three leaders from different corners of the purpose economy — philanthropy, creativity, and social impact — united by one shared belief: that storytelling has the power to move the world.
Together, they spoke about what happens when industries that rarely intersect — entertainment, advertising, and the nonprofit sector — decide to collaborate. Stacy reflected on the origins of Purpose, Produced and how this campaign was built on connection. She emphasized how meaningful this work had been, not only for the nonprofits but for the agencies themselves. She shared how many agency employees were eager to participate. So many, in fact, that some teams had to turn volunteers away.
“Employees at the ad agencies wanted to be part of this. And there's a reason for that,” she said. “We’re in a really heavy time, and it can feel really dark. Giving your employees an opportunity to give back and do purpose-driven work — it's speaking to a need.”
Tulaine offered a powerful reminder that transformation requires investment — not just in ideas, but in the people and stories behind them. And Kevin reminded the audience that this is what SixDegrees has always been about: bridging worlds to create ripples of good.
Tulaine’s questions were thoughtful, timely, and built the perfect harmony of education and emotion.
Moderator, Tulaine Montgomery with SixDegrees.org Executive Director, Stacy Huston and Founder, Kevin Bacon on the Great Minds Stage at Advertising Week New York, 2025
The session was over in what felt like a split second. RKD’s beautifully crafted closing video began to play, and sneak peeks from the six campaigns filled the screen: GlamourGals’ teens dancing beside senior women flashing bright smiles and freshly painted nails; DarkSky’s breathtaking night skies dripping in stars and Northern Lights; P3’s cinematic behind-the-scenes footage, narrated by Dr. Max Madhere; Find Your Anchor’s founder, Ali Borowsky, reflecting on transformation; TIP’s red vest hanging in a quiet closet; and B.E. A S.H.E.R.O.’s bold Girlhood poster filling the frame.
And then the applause.
Beautiful. Overwhelming.
The kind that doesn’t just fill a room, but stays with you long after you’ve left it.
The applause slowly faded, but the energy didn’t. It carried us down the escalators to a smaller stage, where the next chapter of Purpose, Produced began to unfold, one story at a time.
After the Great Minds session wrapped, Advertising Week hosted a follow-up showcase featuring RKD Group as SixDegrees.org’s storyteller and each of the six Purpose, Produced pairings. One by one, the agency and nonprofit teams took the stage to share a glimpse into their process. How the collaboration started, what surprised them most, and what their campaigns were beginning to look like.
Each pairing offered a tease that hinted at something bigger, something transformative still in progress. Something as big as Bray & Co. + DarkSky’s first of it’s kind, nighttime-friendly car launch announcement.
It was less about polished campaigns and more about shared humanity; the spark of creativity meeting the purpose of mission-driven work. Watching them speak, you could feel the pride, the exhaustion, the wonder of it all.
If the Great Minds Stage was the launch, this was the echo. A reminder that Purpose, Produced wasn’t ending here. It was just beginning to make its way into the world.
As the lights dimmed and the crowd dispersed, one truth lingered: purpose doesn’t end when the stage lights go out. It lives in every story still being told, every connection still being made. Purpose, Produced is only beginning, and we can’t wait to see where it goes next.
If you’re a creative who finds yourself asking “How can I be a part of something like this?” we have the answer. Join our network of creatives by texting MISSION to 33777.
