I was surprised and excited to receive an email recently from a younger cousin of mine that included the following:

“I didn’t know if you could tell me a little about your job, because I’m looking into graphic design, specifically “cause marketing” and am curious about what you do and how you got your current position.”

A simple enough question, but I just found the question itself – and choice of words – so dang interesting! Our jobs page on Ad Council.org consistently ranks as one of our top pages. It’s a tough economy, and there are a lot of job seekers out there, but it seems that more and more of them are expressing a desire for the work they do to be in pursuit of a good cause.

Below was my response:

What can I tell you about my job? The Ad Council’s most basic function is to connect non-profits and government agencies who are working to address major social issues – high school dropout rates, teen dating violence, fatherhood involvement, etc… – with the nation’s top ad agencies who then volunteer their services to create comprehensive, fully integrated ad campaigns to inspire action around those issues. And then we get the media to donate ad space to run those campaigns. That’s it in a nutshell. But there is A LOT going on to make all of that happen, and to make those campaigns successful.

As far as my particular role, I manage various interactive elements of campaigns. This may be the development of a new website, a mobile app, an online contest, you name it. All in an effort to extend the reach and increase the impact of any given campaign.

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