For years, corporate volunteering was often framed as a feel-good benefit. It helped attract talent, gave employees a chance to support causes they cared about, and signaled that a company stood for something beyond quarterly results.

That framing was not wrong. It helped open the door to a more human, more participatory approach to corporate purpose. It brought more people in, made purpose feel more personal, and gave companies a way to connect business with something bigger than the bottom line.

But as Sona Khosla sees it, the opportunity has now grown far beyond that.

Hope is not a word Barbara Perry and Harry Hutson use lightly.

They know how it sounds in a workplace shaped by layoffs, burnout, distrust and AI anxiety. Soft. Vague. Maybe even naïve. That is exactly why they think it matters.

In their new book Hope at Work, out April 20, 2026, the longtime leadership advisors argue that hope is not a slogan or a personality trait. It is something leaders either build into an organization or fail to build at all.

At a moment when many corporate impact commitments are getting quieter, Mastercard is making the opposite case. Mastercard has now connected 1 billion people and more than 65 million small businesses to the digital economy, a milestone that signals more than reach. It points to a deeper belief about what economic growth should do — and who it should serve.

For a long time, people didn't associate Hollywood with environmental progress. Debbie Levin saw an opening there. Over almost three decades at the Environmental Media Association — the nonprofit behind the Environmental Media Awards — she helped take a small, overlooked organization and build it into a real platform inside the entertainment world.

For something so simple, journaling carries a surprising amount of baggage. For many people, the word still brings to mind teenage diaries, gratitude lists that never quite stick, or pages filled with late-night spirals. Laura Rubin has spent more than a decade trying to change that. A creative coach, speaker and founder of AllSwell Creative, she has guided thousands through mindful writing workshops designed to reconnect journaling with creativity and self-knowledge.

For all the clichés about dating apps, the real story is often much more vulnerable. In a time when loneliness, social anxiety and the search for belonging shape so many people’s lives, platforms like Tinder are not just changing how people date — they are changing how people find affirmation, community and the courage to reach out.

There are moments when leadership is measured not by force, but by what someone is willing to lay down.

Adam Gardner has spent more than three decades on the road as a touring musician. As a founding member of the American rock band Guster and co-founder of REVERB, he has also spent more than twenty years working on something most fans never see — the environmental cost of live music.

The future of work is often described as if everyone is already on the same path. But that is not how it looks in real life. More than 2.5 billion people around the world are still offline, and many more are connected without the skills, support or networks that can turn technology into something meaningful.

HP’s Future of Work Accelerator is where that gap starts to feel less abstract and more hopeful. This year’s 2026 cohort builds on a program designed to support organizations helping people prepare for jobs, careers and economic mobility in a world being reshaped by digital technology and AI

For more than 20 years, filmmaker Daniel Glick has been drawn to a certain kind of story. Not empty inspiration. But stories about people trying to heal, protect, restore and help.

There is a familiar choreography to digital advertising. A brand pays for attention. A consumer looks for the skip button. Everyone acts as if this is normal. Amy Williams, founder and CEO of Good-Loop, built her company on a different idea. Good-Loop is an advertising platform that helps brands like Nike, Ford and Quaker Oats, turn ad impressions into donations to nonprofits, while also helping improve media performance and reduce the carbon footprint of campaigns. Advertising, she believes, can create a moment of genuine exchange instead of interruption.

As president of Brady, one of the nation’s leading gun violence prevention organizations, Kris Brown has spent years thinking not only about how to reduce gun deaths, but also about how to confront the emotional numbness that now surrounds them.

In a city where restaurant reservations can take weeks and grocery stores overflow with options, hunger can feel like a contradiction. Yet across Los Angeles County, thousands of people struggle daily to access consistent, nutritious meals. Hollywood Food Coalition (HoFoCo), a nonprofit that has served meals in Hollywood for decades, is working to close that gap in a new way. For Arnali Ray, the organization’s Executive Director, and Linda Pianigiani, Director of Development and Communications, who helps lead community engagement and fundraising initiatives, that work is about far more than food relief. It is about building a more connected and dignified system of care.

Advertising veteran Greg Viljoen founded Bigger Than Me in Cape Town, South Africa, after years in the agency world convinced him that creativity could do far more than build brands. In a country where youth unemployment remains one of the most urgent challenges facing the next generation, he built the agency to focus not on purpose as performance, but on impact that can actually change people’s lives.

During Oscars week in Los Angeles, the industry gathers to celebrate craft. The Lumen Awards, presented by The Impact Lounge, are built to celebrate something else alongside it — the stories and people who can move culture and inspire action.

Every Monday at 5.30 pm, Jabari Hearn used to open a Zoom room and do something most corporate systems don’t make easy. He showed up for the people who needed help. Not a panel. Not a conference. Not a one-off talk. Just real “office hours” where marketers could ask the questions they were carrying alone.

The ritual became Monday Night Mentorship, a mentor-led community built to accelerate the advancement and impact of marketers of color — and it has just passed its five-year mark. It grew fast, powered by a diverse Board of Mentors and a simple promise: if you show up, you won’t be invisible.