I’ve been thinking a lot about the term “thought leadership” and wondering whether it applies to me. Am I a thought leader? If so, what does that mean? Does it mean I’m brilliant or simply moderately intelligent? Am I a visionary, carving new paths for others to follow? Or alternatively, am I a guy with some moderately interesting ideas? When I’m not sure I understand a word or term, I look it up. LinkedIn, in its infinite wisdom, defines thought leadership as “the practice of sharing deep expertise and original ideas to shape industry conversations and build trusted brand credibility.” And given its audience, it makes sense that LinkedIn would define the term in a business context. Do I have the credibility to call myself a “thought leader,” and if so, in what areas can I reliably do so? Is this thought leadership limited to the business realm, or are there other areas where I can demonstrate the requisite level of expertise (for example, I feel like I might be the world’s best planner of baseball road trips, but I’m not sure anyone in the Greater Purpose community is interested in that skill. Are you?). It seems to me that there is also a distinction between being an expert and being a thought leader. An expert is someone who is incredibly adept at planning baseball road trips, whereas a thought leader is presumably an expert who is both willing and wanting to share that knowledge with a broader audience. It also begs the question: are all thought leaders actually experts at their craft? The short answer: we all say we are, but the truth is there are a lot of posers. I wonder if I’m truly qualified to be a thought leader in the area of social purpose and social impact. I have a great deal of expertise in the philanthropic advisory space and donor-advised funds. I have run a corporate foundation. I am definitely an expert in planned and legacy giving, having practiced in this area. I understand private and community foundations, having worked at both, and I understand charity law, even though I am not a lawyer (although perhaps this qualifies me to be press secretary in the US 😊). Looking back at my career and evaluating my experience, what qualifies me as an impact and purpose expert is truly understanding how businesses of all shapes and sizes make decisions. What makes me qualified to say this? My breadth of experience. I’ve worked part-time, full-time and as a contractor. I’ve been a senior executive in a public company, reporting directly to the CEO. I’ve been a mid-level manager and I’ve been the lowest person on the ladder. And for the last decade and a half, I’ve run small businesses, first a small consultancy and now Greater Purpose (which is far more complex than I ever thought it would be!). The second thing that makes me an expert? It’s realizing that I’m not an expert. It’s understanding that there is still so much to learn, and taking true pleasure in learning every day (I’m doing this in my personal life too, where I recently started taking piano lessons for the first time, despite playing the piano for almost 40 years!). It’s understanding that no matter how much I know, I can always up my game. Does this make me a thought leader? Does it really matter? Do I have imposter syndrome? Should I “fake it til I make it”? Whether you regard me as a thought leader or not, I can assure you of one thing: I can always learn from you . Brad Offman Founder and CEO
Kids are back in school, calendars are filling up again, and the looser pace of summer has given way to something more structured. I suspect you're recalibrating too. We certainly are, which is why this newsletter is landing a week later than planned. It's been a full year for our small team. We expanded the Greater Purpose Awards from three categories to seven, launched the Member Dashboard in July, and this morning launched the Greater Purpose Hive. Be sure to sign up for next month's Hive Chat . Our first Members' Quarterly is coming in October. And then there's the conference, which has been a real joy to curate. The full lineup is now on our website , with a few bios still to come. Thank you for your patience. Here's the part I most want to share. One of my favourite parts of this job is getting to know our speakers. On prep calls, I get to hear what people are passionate about, and every one of those conversations opens me up to a different way of knowing and thinking. Those calls often shift how I see my own work, and they're a big reason I'm so excited about this year's program. That joy of meeting new people is what we want the conference to hold for everyone in the room. The single-track format means we all hear the same ideas and can wrestle with them together. Braindates give you time to keep those conversations going one-on-one, with people who bring their own ways of knowing to the table. Some of the best thinking at last year's conference happened between sessions, and we've designed this year to make more room for it. If you've been waiting to see the lineup before registering, it's up now. I hope you'll join us at The Carlu in Toronto on October 27–28. We can't wait to see you there! Warmly, Claire
This past weekend, my son got married in San Francisco. Yes, I know I look too young to have a son getting married 😊 It was joyful and chaotic and exactly as emotional as you'd expect and yup, I cried more than once. Of course, during this time, I couldn’t escape from the trials and tribulations of running a small business. It was a lot, and I felt overwhelmed on more than one occasion. What I noticed in the middle of all of it was who showed up. Some people I counted on were there. And some people I might not have expected were the ones who actually came through — the texts, the calls, the "I've got this handled." You find out a lot about people, and about yourself, when things are genuinely hard. We’ve all heard before that but it’s genuinely true. I've spent most of my professional life treating vulnerability as something to manage. Acknowledge it minimally, and project confidence. I think a lot of leaders do. What I've learned, slowly and sometimes the hard way: the relationships that have carried me through the hardest stretches in both business and in life are the ones where I stopped performing and started being honest about what was actually going on. That's the foundation that makes these relationships last. Vulnerability isn't weakness. It's the architecture of every relationship worth having. If you're going through something hard right now, I hope you let someone in. The people who step up might surprise you. Brad
II'm impatient by nature — it's also one of our values, and I live it fully. So pausing to celebrate doesn't come easily to me. There's always the next thing, another problem to solve. But something shifted for me at our 2025 Toronto conference. Standing in the room with 350 people advancing social impact and purpose, I realized: if we don't celebrate what's working and the people leading the way, the urgency can eat us alive. That's one of the many reasons we created the Greater Purpose Awards. Because recognition does something important — and the data backs it up. When people are recognised for their work, motivation increases by 21%. Trust in leadership triples. But it's not just the numbers. Recognition fuels resilience. It restores energy when the work feels endless. It builds the belonging that sparks the collaboration where real innovation happens. We also know that 82% of consumers are more likely to trust and do business with award-winning companies. When you're recognised for doing purpose work, it changes how your stakeholders, your customers, and your talent see you. Third-party validation has weight. Here's what else matters: awards shape social norms. When we honour specific ways of leading with purpose, we're not just recognising individuals — we're signalling to the entire industry what excellence looks like, shaping the next generation of business. We're saying: this is the standard. This is what we value. Impact isn't just what we do. It's also how we do it. And the way you're doing this work — with conviction, with care, with courage — deserves to be recognized. Applications close on August 14, in just four weeks. If you were looking for an invitation to apply, this is it.
I'm confused. I'm confused because I don't seem to understand the meaning of anything anymore. In our space, terms get tossed around like baseballs at a little league game. Heck, we're not even sure what to call charities anymore. Are they charities? Registered charities? Non-profits? Not-for-profit organizations (NPOs)? Voluntary sector organizations? Or, my favourite, qualified donees? You get the picture. When we use different terms to describe the same thing, we might actually not even be speaking the same language. Using shared language creates a strong foundation for rich discussion. We face an even greater challenge in our world, where terms are often used interchangeably and sometimes mean very different things. Is community investment the same as corporate giving? How does corporate philanthropy differ from corporate citizenship? What about CSR, ESG, and NSYNC? (Wanted to see if you're paying attention). Do they all mean the same thing, or are we conflating one with the other? Does it matter, as long as the company is doing good and not causing harm? And then there's purpose, perhaps the most misunderstood word of all. Purpose-led, purpose-driven, purpose, purpose, purpose. What's the deal with purpose? We know that companies with a true social purpose have defined the very reason why they exist. A social purpose serves as a guiding light, informing business strategy and foundational decisions. But if a company doesn't have a social purpose, or is conflating purpose with other CSR-like activities, are we to dismiss them, or scoff at their intentions? The answer? Absolutely not. Movements have all kinds of members and the social purpose movement is no exception. At the top, a movement has its founders, zealots, and die-hard adherents. It also has strong believers who can serve as ambassadors or advocates. But I think that, with most movements, the majority of supporters are those who are neither die-hard nor overly zealous. They are interested, supportive, and ideologically aligned. They want to learn more. And in my view, a truly strong and sustainable movement does not require its members to abide strictly by its fundamental principles. In the purpose world, this means that its strongest adherents can serve as a beacon for those who want to learn and improve. It also means that its newer (and perhaps lesser) supporters can influence and shape the movement as it grows. Maybe that's the point. We spend so much time debating labels that we sometimes forget to bring more people into the conversation. I wonder if anyone is reading this. Do people read freeform articles anymore? Send me your World Series predictions at brad@greaterpurpose.inc . Will the Jays make it back in?
Brad noted in his opening remarks that conferences are strange and ephemeral. You pour your heart and soul into something for months, it happens, and then it's over, leaving behind a few hundred people changed in ways you can't fully account for, as well as a void. I've attended conferences over the years, but producing one is another thing entirely. The months leading up to Greater Purpose Conference West meant searching for speakers who represent genuinely diverse voices and experiences — not a box-checking exercise, but an actual attempt to put people on a stage who reflect the breadth of what purpose-driven work looks like (and we know we have more work to do here). You make calls, send emails, and you don't always know until the day of how it's going to come together. That uncertainty doesn't leave you, even when the agenda is set and you open the doors. Then you kind of disappear into it. Dashing to the bathroom between sessions. Mic check. Making sure speakers are present and ready. Grabbing half a meal standing up. I squeezed conversations in wherever I could and there were many missed connections. Producing this conference taught me something I suspect is true of most purpose-driven work: you don't always get to be fully present for the thing you're building. You catch it in glimpses. The change we're working toward rarely arrives on a visible timeline — you plant seeds in conversations, decisions, relationships, and trust they're taking root somewhere you can't yet see. As Rose Marcario said during our conversation: "you might not see the benefit of your labour, but you will be glad you laboured." Reading the messages that came in afterward — the LinkedIn posts, the survey responses, the notes from people who found the person they needed to meet — has been really gratifying. The top words from our attendee survey: Inspired and Connected. We hope you carry both forward and that we see you in Toronto in October, where the conversation will continue. P.S. The purpose economy movement is growing—and it needs your voice. If you haven't already, consider adding your name to A Call to Purpose —a commitment by Canadian business leaders to build a purpose economy. We also invite you to explore the Social Purpose Professional resource to learn steps for senior leaders to show up as social purpose amplifiers.
I'm sitting in a McDonald's drinking coffee, reflecting on the idea of business as a force for good. Is business inherently a negative force or a positive one? I can't decide, so like many tired coffee drinkers, I struggle to make a decision. I decide that it's neither. And the more that I think about it, the more I'm convinced that I'm right. Business can do harm. There are too many examples to argue otherwise. Who can forget the story of Enron and how its fraudulent practices left everyone who touched it – employees, suppliers, shareholders and customers – wondering how it could do such harm to so many. Business can also do good, as we've also seen. Think of Patagonia, a business that made a deliberate decision to become a force for good, not because it was required to, but because its leaders decided that was who they wanted to be. That choice didn't come from a board mandate or a shareholder resolution. It came from the top. And it changed everything about how that company showed up in the world. The question for me is a fundamental one. What causes a business to head in one direction or another? And what causes a business to languish somewhere in the murky middle, neither good nor bad, committing acts that both benefit and harm society. What is the force that drives the actions of a business? Businesses are, at their core, organizations. Large ones. Small ones. They come with structure — boards, C-suites, managers, line employees — and that structure grows more complex the bigger they get. But complexity isn't the point. The point is that every business, regardless of size or sector, is guided by leaders. And those leaders make decisions that determine its direction, its purpose, and how it shows up in the world. It's not the shareholders. It's often not the employees (although many businesses give their employees a stake in decision-making, often a good sign). In the case of Enron, the vast majority of shareholders and employees had no idea what was going on until it was too late. I have been in a leadership role in a large, public company and it's still my experience that most business decisions are myopic, rooted in self-interest and in the best interests of a small slice of stakeholders (generally senior executives and large shareholders). So how can this change? It starts at the top, when enlightened leaders recognize that their business exists to serve society, and that its own betterment is deeply tied into its commitment to becoming a force for good. Where I struggle, and where most purpose advocates frankly struggle, is the convincing part. How do we convince a business leader who believes that a social purpose need not be at the core of business? A leader who is comfortable making decisions that provide short-term financial gain at the expense of its employees, suppliers and community. Is this business leopard capable of changing its spots? In short, some are. But most likely, most are not. What we need is a new generation of values-based business leaders who understand that purpose drives profit, and does not undermine it. Leaders who understand that a healthy, just and robust society relies on its organizations and institutions (I'm obviously including government in this) to drive this forward. Business as a force for good isn't just a nice concept. It is the foundation of a healthy society committed to positive outcomes for all who live within it.
We've been using ChatGPT for over a year now. We built custom GPTs, invested hours training them, created workflows that made our small team more effective. When you're building a company with a big vision, that kind of leverage matters. The tool became our nth employee and was creating effortless ease throughout our days. And then I read this article by my friend Rutger Bregman in The Guardian. Rutger is a historian who has studied the major consumer boycotts of history. His piece made something clear that I couldn't ignore: our subscription fees were funding a company actively embedding itself in the Trump administration's infrastructure: funding MAGA Super PACs, lobbying against AI regulation, providing tools to ICE. At the same time, Anthropic—the company behind Claude—refused the Pentagon's demand for unrestricted access to their AI for mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. It cost them $200 million (never mind the administration's retaliatory actions that followed), and my heart swelled seeing a company live its values with such commitment. By the end of the article my next move was clear. I quit my account and brought it to the team at our Monday meeting. Looking back, I led with the wrong frame. I came in saying we need to switch to Claude instead of leading with the story of why. So there was initial hesitation. There's the sunk cost of all those custom GPTs we'd built, and not everyone loves change as much as my neurospicy brain does. But once I walked the team through what I'd read, once they understood what their subscription fees were actually funding, the decision was unanimous. Convenience didn't matter as much as living our values. Rutger compared this moment to Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on that bus. A small act of conviction that became a movement. He explicitly invites readers to do the same: try an alternative, and tell at least one person why. We’ve moved over to Claude, and while there has been a learning curve, it's validated the decision we made. In times of complexity, people are looking for an invitation to make an impact. And when you make that choice easy, people act. Over 1.2 million people have joined the boycott not because they were forced to, but because a clear purpose gave them permission and direction. That's the power of leading with purpose. Warmly, Claire, Chief Purpose Officer
I spend a lot of my time reflecting on the notion of social purpose. I've worked for organizations of all shapes and sizes in both the charitable and the business sector. In the charitable sector, purpose is intrinsic to our work. In Canada, at least, an organization's objects must be distinctly charitable in order for it to receive and maintain charitable status. A charity's mission, vision and purpose are deeply tied to fostering a better world. Advancing food security, housing the unhoused, educating the young…all are distinctly tied to making our communities stronger and our world better. But for businesses, both large and small, purpose is nuanced and more complex. If social purpose is tied to the betterment of society, then what role is a business to play? Is business merely an economic engine, or can business truly be a force for good? Let's take a business…any business. As I write, I'm sitting at my desk staring at a reusable water bottle. That bottle was manufactured, distributed and sold by a business. So why is it important for this bottle business to have a social purpose? In this case, the product itself may generate societal wins – reducing waste, stopping pollution, providing hydration – but purpose is more than that. It's about tying the company's very existence to a better world. Everything that a truly purpose-led company does must be in service of its social purpose. Let's take a real-world example. Ocean Bottle is a real water bottle company. Its social purpose is to stop ocean plastic pollution while providing sustainable livelihoods. Why does Ocean Bottle exist? Is it to sell water bottles and generate profit? While generating revenue and making money are a purpose, they are NOT a social purpose. They don't benefit the planet. And they don't, in and of themselves, make this world a better place. While revenue and profit are inextricably linked to the viability of the organization, they don't define its true reason for existing. Financial return is not Ocean Bottle's purpose. Ocean Bottle's social purpose is tied to pollution reduction, which is inextricably linked to a better planet and a better world. These objectives don't undermine its need to remain financially viable. In fact, you could strongly argue they contribute to it. After all, who doesn't want to buy from, or work for, a company with a deep social purpose? Companies with a social purpose will typically build a framework around that purpose, ensuring that they treat their employees, procure materials, and market their products in an ethical, moral and equitable manner. But each decision the company makes is in service of its social purpose, in this case of reducing waste. That these decisions also generate profits and lead to ethical behaviour is a product of how the company operates, but not why. Social purpose, like individual purpose, is complex. How can we boil down our reason for existing into a single sentence? If you've ever tried to articulate your personal purpose in life, you know it's an arduous exercise rooted in soul searching and deep self-reflection. This kind of soul-finding journey is as difficult for businesses as it is for individuals….and it should be. But once you land on your purpose, once you truly know the reason why you exist, everything else becomes clear. Purpose is the compass for our activities, our decisions and our motivations. And so my message to all of you, businesses and individuals alike. Find your purpose. When you do, you will never look back.
January has a way of pushing us toward big targets and bold declarations. However, in the Northern Hemisphere, winter is a time of minimal sunlight and the natural world is in a phase of hibernation and dormancy. So this year, instead of forcing a "new year, new you" mindset, I've decided to take my cue from nature and slow down. This slower pace created space for me to take the Inner Development Goals (IDG) training, where I learned something important: many sustainability efforts fail because they assume the core problem is a lack of information. This is known as the information-deficit model: the belief that if we just share enough facts, behaviour will change. The research is now clear, recognized by the IPCC, UNDP, and other global institutions. Our sustainability crises don't stem from ignorance. They stem from disconnection from ourselves, from one another, and from nature. I believe the same pattern shows up in all meaningful work, from social impact to social purpose. The IDG framework identifies five dimensions of inner development that enable us to navigate complexity and drive change: being (our relationship to ourselves), thinking (our cognitive skills), relating (caring for others and the world), collaborating (our social skills), and acting (enabling change). These aren't abstract concepts—they're capacities like self-awareness, perspective-taking, courage, and perseverance. The things that determine whether we can actually follow through when the work gets hard. What struck me most is how this reframes the work we do. It's not that strategy doesn't matter. It's that strategy without these inner capacities is like having a map but no compass. We might know where we want to go, but we lack the internal resources to navigate the inevitable challenges, setbacks, and complexity along the way. Before systems can truly change, something has to shift in us first. Our beliefs, values, and inner capacities are more powerful leverage points than any new framework or strategy. So when we do emerge from this winter slowdown ready to act, maybe the question isn't just what we'll do—but how we'll do it. Warmly, Claire
