Moving towards a stakeholder economy
The term “stakeholder economy” flirts with corporate jargon, but bear with us: in its simplest definition, a stakeholder is just a person with an interest or concern in something. In terms of being alive on this planet today, we are all stakeholders. We all hold a stake. A big one.
So, a stakeholder economy is a system (like capitalism) where companies create value for all people, and for the planet. Balancing profit and purpose. That’s one of our core values.
We’ve put several years of effort into building a company infrastructure that serves all stakeholders. On the surface, this might take the form of a pretty nice benefits package — four day workweek, sick! — but it runs much deeper than that. It’s thinking about profit in an entirely different way. What is “profit”? How does it run through the company, where does it end up? How does it become the fuel in our tank (or in our case, the cold brew in our tap)? How does it translate into bags of trash removed from the river, community relationships bolstered, causes given a leg up, suffering lessened? In other words, it’s not just our take-home pay and benefits or the brand system we deliver to a client; it’s our impact. It’s how we exist in the world and how we show up every day.
How we get there
Moving towards a true stakeholder economy requires all companies pulling their weight, no matter how big or small their bottom line is. It means changing the rules (we don’t have to do it how it’s always been done), driving collective action (collaborating with businesses and nonprofit leaders that share these values), and redefining leadership (demonstrating what we’re doing and holding ourselves accountable).
Of course, there are challenges that come up along the way. It takes fortitude to keep our focus on a larger picture while navigating the weeds day-to-day.
Our change to a 4-day workweek had two primary purposes: one, to reduce burnout, and two, to allow more time and energy to go back into the community. Devoting one working day per week to rest and personal life pursuits, as well as 1 hour of paid volunteering and 1 hour of paid skill-building, has led to an increase in both net profit and net direct support to causes. It has led to fewer cash donations, perhaps, but that was intentional (see our Shifts in Giving blog post).
Paid volunteering time allows our team to support causes with time and skills, even when we can’t give actual money (let’s be honest: some months just aren’t profitable, and we have to focus on basic operations). And beyond money or volunteering, we can amplify causes we believe in. This might be using social media platforms to signal-boost (think re-posting Instagram stories), but more importantly, we never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth and showing up in the community. We’ve seen it time and again: one connection can alter the course of a cause.
Communities we choose to invest in
What guides our choice to support a cause, given all the various plates we’re juggling? In the shortest answer possible, relationships. Over the past several years, we’ve collaborated with, advocated for, donated to, and otherwise invested in a number of causes. Many of them are led by clients and friends we love dearly. Sometimes it’s a cause that’s personal to one of our team members.
Here are some organizations we’ve supported in the past few months — and why we chose to support them.
Giving when it’s personal
My hometown, Pacific Palisades, was the epicenter of the Palisades fire that broke out in January 2025. A huge portion of my town (and many parts of Los Angeles) was either destroyed completely or badly damaged. Mediocre sent funds to the California Fire Foundation, which assisted with relief for the Palisades fire and other fires throughout the state.
Thrive Global Partners focuses on three key aspects of human flourishing in the developing world: leadership training, women’s vocational advancement, and child development programs. We love the folks who champion this cause locally — over time, we’ve learned to trust their instincts as well as their generosity. Supporting this cause helps our friends continue to do good work, and of course it helps that we align on the issues they’re addressing. We also designed Thrive’s brand and website (this was paid work at our nonprofit rate).
Don’t just donate, show up
Ironcology provides support services and resources to cancer patients in the state of Kentucky, including hotel vouchers, gas cards, and meals (costs that can often fall between the cracks when pursuing medical care). Several of our team members signed up for the Survive the Night fundraiser — an overnight triathlon relay race — along with our friends at Sounds Fun. Come out and join us July 18-19 (who’s in for the 4:00AM shift?).
Pushing our industry towards a greater cause
Mediocre is actively involved with the American Advertising Foundation (AAF) D5 district board. As part of the annual American Advertising Awards, the AAF recognizes exceptional work from intentionally-marginalized communities with the Mosaic award. When the AAF board wasn’t able to pass Mosaic award winners on to the next level of the competition for free, we offered to cover the costs.
Supporting with skills, not just dollars
Box2Box aims to level the playing field for refugees, new American students, and their families by empowering them to become independent thinkers, high-achieving scholars, and productive citizens. One of our partners, Shawn, uses his volunteer time to serve on the Box2Box board to help guide community efforts. We also designed their brand and website as a pro bono project and pay a small monthly fee for their website hosting.
Advocating on the local level: building up our local economy
Our long-time neighbors and friends at Common Good, and their sibling initiative Matchstick Goods, do great work in the North Lexington community where our office is based. Their upcoming summer program helps students build lasting friendships, receive a daily meal, enjoy field trips to the pool, skating, and bowling, play sports in the park, create artwork with On the Move Art Studio (another of our past donation recipients), and explore higher education opportunities through four college visits. We cover their annual website hosting cost as a donation each year, and purchase Matchstick Goods when we can (most recently at their annual fundraiser).
Last fall, we partnered with Vote Yes for Parks! to support their community-driven ballot referendum to improve parks across Lexington. We designed Y4P’s visual and verbal identity and built their website (this was paid work at our nonprofit rate), and we also supported the initiative with a cash donation. In November 2024, Fayette County voters established a new tax dedicated to funding projects for the city’s 100 parks (the first property tax added by voters in 20 years!). For some extra fun, learn about the strategy and execution of the identity project in our case study.
And finally, we learned about Best Buddies Kentucky from our friends at Activate Games. This organization fosters one-to-one friendships for individuals with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities. In 2024, we sponsored our friend’s fundraising campaign on behalf of this organization with a cash donation.
Where we’re going
Our clients, like us, are working for longevity in both business and the community. You never know when a single hello, inquiry, or friendly gesture will turn into a lifelong friendship or partnership, yield an exciting opportunity to flex our skills, or just lead to a lot of fun. When we’re looking for new things, we’re staying curious and checking our comfort. When we’re asking ourselves what matters — in other words, what’s at stake and for whom — we’re the most tapped-in versions of ourselves. That’s where we want to be.
And don’t forget — you’re a crucial part of our community, too. If there’s a cause or organization that you’re passionate about, we’d love to hear about it.
