Agencies for good: Social purpose and sustainability

Ahead of our data update in June where we will be adding the Social purpose and sustainability subsector to our benchmarking Data Shots, we take a closer look at agencies ‘for good’. What do Social purpose and sustainability agencies look like? Where are they based? How are they performing? What is their measure for success?

In mapping Social purpose and sustainability agencies, we are drilling down into one of the niche corners of our sector. But although this subsector is small, our report shows that there is a lot that the wider agency world can take away from these agencies whose primary focus is making a positive impact.

Executive summary

We have mapped 211 Social purpose and sustainability agencies across the UK. These agencies have been mapped based on selective criteria to create a list that only includes those whose primary focus – in their clients, their campaigns and within their company – is positive social or environmental impact. Having mapped this subsector, our key findings are:

• Social purpose and sustainability agencies have a much higher proportion of women-founded and women-led agencies than the sector as a whole
• The subsector has a much more even spread of agency sizes – measured by headcount or turnover – than the sector as a whole
• Only four other subsectors (of 29) are more London-centric than Social purpose and sustainability agencies, perhaps due to the concentration of charities and not-for-profit organisations in London and the south
• The subsector has the highest growth rate of any of the 29 subsectors we have mapped
• Almost half of all Social purpose and sustainability agencies are either Growing or Growing Fast (see report detail for definitions)
• The subsector has a much higher proportion of Innovate UK grant funding when compared to its size within the agency sector
• In key financials, such as average turnover, turnover-per-head and GVA-per-head, the subsector underperforms compared to the agency sector as a whole
• This speaks to the fact that within the Social purpose and sustainability subsector, success is measured in other ways than financial results, such as social impact

Mapping Social purpose and sustainability agencies

Our mapping process combines machine-learning technology via our partners at The Data City with expert guidance from our team to identify agencies within our Social purpose and sustainability subsector. This approach involves our team scrutinizing thousands of agency websites, refining results through the elimination of inaccurate matches and the promotion of model agencies, followed by a rigorous quality assurance process where a different team member reviews the list.

For this report, we employed deliberately selective criteria that went beyond surface-level credentials like B Corp certification or ESG policies. We examined each agency’s client portfolio and campaign history to verify their “for good” narrative, carefully analysed their language choices (see below) and included only those whose primary focus is social or environmental impact.

Our final list comprises agencies that exclusively deliver socially positive campaigns, sustainability specialists, behaviour change agencies focused on social good, agencies who work solely with charities or not-for-profit organisations, and those committed to ethical clients only. It is interesting to note that all 211 agencies we have mapped in this subsector are independent agencies – none of them belong to one of the ‘Big Seven’ holding companies. 

You can read more about how we map the agency sector and the Social purpose and sustainability subsector in particular, via our report preview.

What do Social purpose and sustainability agencies look like?

As of Spring 2025, we have mapped 211 Social purpose and sustainability agencies active in the UK.

These agencies:

Employ 3,531 people

Have a total turnover of  £323m

Contribute £217m in Gross Value Added (GVA) to the UK economy

Have a GVA per agency employee of £61,321

Gender – A higher proportion of women-founded and women-led agencies

One of the most striking findings when looking at Social purpose and sustainability agencies as a subsector of the agency sector as a whole is when it comes to women-founded and women-led agencies. 

Women-founded agencies

We can map the gender of founders and directors in any of our agency subsectors or across the sector as a whole based on the declared titles of officers at Companies House. Women-founded agencies are those with women directors within the first two years of operation, and we can see that there is a significant difference between the number of women-founded Social purpose and sustainability agencies (42.9%) and the number of women-founded agencies across the sector as a whole (26.9%).

Women-led agencies

For an agency to be seen as women-led, it requires more active women directors than men. Again, here we can see a significantly higher proportion of women-led agencies in the subsector than across the agency sector as a whole.

Women directors

Interestingly, the gap between the agencies in the Social purpose and sustainability subsector the rest of the sector almost completely disappears once we look at the total number of women directors, where the difference between them is a single percentage point.

Agency size – A more even spread than compared to the sector as a whole

When it comes to measuring the size of an agency, within our mapping of the sector we can do it in one of two ways, either by headcount or turnover. In the Social purpose and sustainability subsector, as with the agency sector as a whole, the rise of AI, fractional working, use of freelancers and other developments means that the number of employees may become less important when understanding agency growth and performance.

Social purpose and sustainability agencies by headcount

Within the Social purpose and sustainability subsector, when looking at the number of agencies by size we can see that there is a far more even distribution compared to some subsectors and the agency sector as a whole. Mid-sized agencies are playing a large role in the Social purpose and sustainability cohort than we have mapped elsewhere.

Once the agencies with no data are removed, we can look at the proportion of the remaining agencies and compare it to the agency sector as a whole. Again, whereas the agency sector is dominated by micro and nano agencies – when measuring the sector size by the number of agencies – the Social purpose and sustainability subsector shows a more even spread across small and medium-sized agencies and, indeed, a higher proportion of large agencies as well.

Social purpose and sustainability agencies by turnover

We see similar results when measuring agency size by turnover. The smallest interval (agencies up to £500k in turnover) is the largest when it comes to the number of agencies in both the Social purpose and sustainability subsector and the agency sector as a whole, but the proportion is not the same. More than a quarter of Social purpose and sustainability agencies have a turnover of £500k to £3m, compared to 11.4% of the entire agency sector.

Region – more London-centric than almost any other subsector

For this report, as well as our Agency by Agency Industry Report and IndieNation report, we are exploring the agency subsector regional clusters based on the UK’S ITL1 regions (International Territorial Level, used by the Office of National Statistics or ONS). This allows us to look for regional trends when it comes to Social purpose and sustainability agencies, and how the subsector compares to the agency sector as a whole.

Agencies mapped by region

As with all but two of our subsectors, the region with the most Social purpose and sustainability agencies is London. Indeed, with 41.1% of subsector agencies being based in the capital, only four other subsectors we have mapped are more London-centric: Influencer (55%), Creative (54.1%), Media (44.2%) and Data and analytics (42.4%).

Comparison with the sector as a whole

This domination of the subsector by London, especially when combined with the South East – more than half of all Social purpose and sustainability agencies can be found in these two regions – compares to a broader geographic spread across the sector as a whole. One explanation for this could be that charities and non-profit organisations are disproportionately (when compared to population) based in the south, and organisations based in London and the south hold most of the charity sector’s income and assets (see NCVO Civil Society Almanac 2023).

Employees by region

Another way to explore the regional distribution of the subsector (or the agency sector as a whole) is to look at the number of employees working across the regions, which takes into account the impact of larger agencies.  With 2,392 Social purpose and sustainability employees working in London, they make up 68.2% of the whole – compared to the fact that 53.6% of all agency employees work for London-based agencies. 

Regions with a noticeably lower proportion of employees in this subsector compared to across the sector as a whole include East Midlands (0.8% compared to 3%), West Midlands (0.5% compared to 3.2%), Scotland (1.4% compared to 2.9%) and Yorkshire and The Humber (3% compared to 6.1%).

Growth – The fastest growing subsector we have mapped

Growth rate of the Social purpose and sustainability subsector is 22%, compared to 7.3% for the agency sector as a whole.

No other subsector we have mapped has such a high growth rate. In our Spring 2025 Agency by Agency Industry Report, the closest were Amazon/Marketplace (20.4%), Influence (16%) and Digital transformation (15.9%).

About the data

We map the number of agencies in the UK agency sector together with our partners at The Data City, whose sophisticated machine-learning tool allows us to find and categorise active agencies after adjustment for dormant companies and those in liquidation or administration. Depending on the individual agency and the services they offer, agencies can appear in more than one of our subsector lists.

Growth rates are provided by our partners at The Data City and are based on the annual headcount and turnover growth of any given agency we have mapped. Employee count data is more common than turnover data, and to account for the lag in reporting, The Data City’s machine-learning platform can make an accurate best estimate. If an agency has less than three years reported data on employee number, no estimate is made and no growth data is reported.

Growth traffic light for Social purpose and sustainability agencies

When we look at the growth rates of the agencies mapped in the subsector in more detail, we can see that almost half (46.6%) of all Social purpose and sustainability agencies are either Growing or Growing Fast, meaning a growth rate of 10% or more. For the agency sector as a whole, this figure is 20.2%. The closest other subsector we have mapped is Conversion, in which 42.5% of agencies are either Growing or Growing Fast.

New agencies founded

Interestingly, the explanation for these growth rates are not necessarily related to being newer agencies in a period of expansion. Of all agencies we have mapped, 10.7% are three years old or younger, compared to 9.9% of Social purpose and sustainability agencies. Indeed, 61% of all agencies are under ten years old, compared to 50.7% of Social purpose and sustainability agencies, which means that almost half of all agencies in the subsector have been operating for a decade or more. 

As with the agency sector as a whole, although new Social purpose and sustainability agencies are being founded, the rate has slowed in recent years.

Growth by size (headcount)

When measuring the size of a Social purpose and sustainability agency by headcount, we can see that the large growth numbers across the subsector are weighed more towards the larger agencies, although more than half of agencies with a headcount of 3-10 and more then three-quarters of agencies with a headcount of 11-20 within the subsector are either Growing or Growing Fast.

Growth by size (turnover)

Small to medium-sized Social purpose and sustainability agencies (when measured by turnover) are showing good growth rates, with over half of all agencies in £500-£1m and £1m-£3m intervals, and more than three-quarters of agencies with £3m- £10m either Growing or Growing Fast. The results for the largest agencies will be influenced by the small number of agencies in each of these size intervals.

Investment and innovation – Innovative social purpose agencies attracting funding

When we look at investment attracted across different subsectors, agencies within Social purpose and sustainability are – as a cohort – receiving less investment proportionate to the size of the subsector. The Social purpose and sustainability subsector makes up 0.8% of the entire agency sector when based on the number of agencies, 1.3% of all agency employees and makes 0.9% of total turnover across the sector. The agencies in this subsector have raised only 0.07% of total investment funding across the agency sector as a whole.

At the same time, when it comes to innovation, the Social purpose and sustainability subsector is outperforming its size, whether that is measured by number of agencies, employees or total turnover. The £1.5m of Innovate UK grant funding run by agencies in the subsector equals 4.2% of all Innovate UK grants won by all agencies, suggesting that this is a subsector where innovation and ideas are rewarded.

Language – How Social purpose and sustainability agencies describe themselves

Having mapped the Social purpose and sustainability subsector, we were interested in exploring how the agencies that belong to this cohort describe themselves. We ran a keyword analysis of some of the key terms relating to the subject of social purpose and sustainability, to see how many agencies in the subsector used them.

Of course, the use of particular keywords would not be enough for an agency to be included in our mapping of Social purpose and sustainability agencies, but nevertheless the results are interesting. The most commonly used keyword from our selection was “social”, which appeared on the websites of 99% of the agencies in the subsector, closely followed by “change” (95%), “impact” (94%) and “good” (93%). 

One of the key findings of all the mapping we have done across the agency sector so far is the importance of clarity of proposition: how does an agency explain what they do and what differentiates themselves from others.

Productivity – Key financials suggest a different approach to measuring success

As we will explore, there are many ways to measure success when it comes to running an agency, and within the Social purpose and sustainability subsector, this debate is perhaps even more pronounced.

Turnover-per-head

Across all size intervals when agency size is measured by headcount, the average turnover-per-head across the sector is higher than for agencies mapped within Social purpose and sustainability. When we measure the size of an agency by turnover, this is also true with the exception of agencies with an average turnover of £10m or more.

This could be the result of lower spend by the type of clients agencies in the subsector work for, but it could also be a result of the strategy of the agencies themselves. For some agencies in the cohort, impact may be valued more highly than revenues, and the decision about which clients to work for and which campaigns to work on might also have an influence on these results.

Average turnover

The average turnover of different sizes of Social purpose and sustainability agencies is also lower than the sector averages, from the smallest to the largest of agencies. Again, these results will be influenced by the very nature of the agencies in the subsector and the choices they make around the clients they work for and the campaigns they work on.

Headcount	Social purpose and sustainability	All agencies
1 to 2	£62,052	£67,881
3 to 10	£243,571	£294,956
11 to 20	£701,246	£876,542
21 to 50	£2,140,393	£2,793,471
51 to 100	£4,571,611	£10,022,470
101 to 250	£23,358,519	£32,313,431
250+	£75,964,884	£102,738,397

About the data

Data for turnover is provided by our partners at The Data City based on financial reporting to Companies House. As there can be a lag in financial reporting, The Data City uses sophisticated modelling to provide estimated turnover for the current year’s values. Where this is impossible, no data is reported.

Data for employees / headcount is provided by our partners at The Data City based on reporting to Companies House. As there can be a lag in reporting, The Data City’s machine-learning platform can make an accurate best estimate. If an agency has less than three years reported data on employee number, no estimate is made and no data is reported.

Data for the agency sector as a whole comes from our Agency by Agency Industry Report, published in March 2025.

GVA-per-head

One metric that is often used as a measure of productivity is Gross-Value-Added or GVA. Within the Social purpose and sustainability subsector, the GVA-per-head (£61,321) is notably lower than the average across the agency sector (£77,399). This continues to be the case when we break it down by agency size. When we explore the other subsectors, we can see that Social purpose and sustainability has the lowest GVA-per-head of all 29 subsectors we have mapped.

As with the other financial metrics, does this show that these agencies are more focused on creating impact than driving their own profit margins?

Social purpose and sustainability – So what does success look like?

The vision and long term goals of many Social purpose and sustainability agencies are often a reflection of the impact that they want to have on society, people and planet. But it can be quite difficult to measure impact that goes beyond traditional commercial metrics and therefore how close an agency is getting to achieving their ultimate goals.

There are lessons that can be learned from the third and voluntary sectors when it comes to measuring success in these terms, combining commercial metrics (which remain vitally important) with social and sustainability impact created. One way of doing this is to take a ‘triple bottom line’ approach, in which an agency will consider their people, their impact on the planet and purposeful profit as a measurement of success.

One of the agencies that appears on our Social purpose and sustainability list is Jack & Grace. They use this triple bottom line approach to measure progress towards their vision: ‘Because doing no harm isn’t enough’. Their impact report transparently communicates their commitments, areas of focus, metrics for success and next steps for the future. 

This approach is not for everyone. But there is much that can be learned from Social purpose and sustainability agencies and is worth considering:

• Success looks different within the subsector, with social and environmental impact valued alongside (or even above) financial performance
• Social purpose agencies show that building a business around positive impact can drive strong growth, innovation and resilience, even if traditional financial metrics are not the only measure of success.
• The subsector’s higher proportion of Innovate UK grant funding suggests that agencies that focus on Social purpose and sustainability are seen as important drivers of innovation and future thinking

Questions for agencies to ask themselves

If you are interested in adding (or increasing the emphasis on) social purpose and sustainability within your agency or organisation, we will be exploring this subject further in the coming weeks as part of our new Agency Toolkit of articles and resources, exclusive to Agency by Agency subscribers.

As a starting point, you might want to consider the following:

• How do you define success beyond financial results, and how does social or environmental impact feature in that?
• Are you building a business that creates the kind of positive change you and your clients would like to see in the world?
• What different models of leadership, growth and funding creativity could you adapt?

And of course, this conversation is not only for agencies. It is something for all types of companies to consider, including for ourselves at Agency by Agency. Can your business, our business or any business, be both a profit-driven entity and a platform for positive impact on society and the environment and what might it look like? The answer will not be the same for everyone, but these are questions that are certainly worth asking.

FAQs

You will find information about all our data points within the report. For an overview of our methodology, the work with our partners at The Data City, and a glossary of definitions for all our data points, please take a look at our FAQs page.