Alan Mintz and Joe Hoke, our founders, had distinctly different personalities and views of the world. But they shared a few core beliefs. One was in the responsibility of companies like ours to use the power of strategic marketing communications to affect positive social change, to influence attitudes and behavior in the service of the public good.

Both these men were driven by a spirit of altruism. But they were also successful entrepreneurs, who understood that the rewards of social responsibility were both spiritual and material.

After developing dozens of successful social issue programs over a period of thirty years, we still believe this duality of reward is the ultimate in benign self-interest - a synthesis of motivations rather than a contradiction.

Behavioral psychologists will tell you that people work for money when that's the only type of work available. But given the chance, they will always choose to work where the psychic benefits are at least as significant as the financial. The same goes for organizations. Although hard to measure, we know instinctively that the feeling of doing good works makes people better workers, which then reflects on everything they do during the day.

Another thing we've learned is that the tenets of effective strategic marketing communications are universal. Whether you are selling yogurt or jet engines or yearly breast exams, the same principles and best practices apply.