Purpose
New York/London PR and movement-building firm founded by Jeremy Heimans; incubated The Syria Campaign and promoted the White Helmets; spun out of Avaaz
| Purpose
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Public-benefit corporation / PR and movement consultancy |
| Founded | 2009 |
| Founder(s) | Jeremy Heimans (co-founder and CEO); co-founders of Avaaz and GetUp! |
| Status | Active |
| Headquarters | New York (with London / Purpose Europe operations) |
| Services | Incubating and running social-movement campaigns; advising organisations and companies on mass participation and narrative strategy |
| Key people | Jeremy Heimans (co-founder and CEO); Tim Dixon (Purpose Europe director); Anna Nolan (worked on Syria Campaign while at Purpose); John Jackson (Purpose strategist) |
| Website | purpose.com |
| Remarks | Grew out of Avaaz and GetUp!; incubated The Syria Campaign (2014); promoted the White Helmets as a central narrative vehicle |
Purpose is a New York- and London-based public-benefit corporation and PR/movement consultancy founded in 2009 by Jeremy Heimans. It specialises in building and supporting social movements, digital mobilisation and narrative strategy. Purpose grew out of the same network that created Avaaz and the Australian group GetUp!. In 2014 it incubated The Syria Campaign, which became the principal vehicle for international branding and advocacy around the White Helmets. Critical accounts have characterised Purpose’s Syria work as part of a wider regime-change public-relations effort.[1][2]
Origins and model
Jeremy Heimans co-founded Avaaz and GetUp! before launching Purpose in 2009 “to be a home for 21st century movement building.” Purpose describes itself as mobilising citizens and consumers, combining political organising, behavioural economics and technology. It operates both a commercial arm and a Purpose Foundation. Early projects included All Out (LGBT rights). Heimans has said Purpose “grew out of some of the most impactful new models for social change” including “the now 30 million strong action network avaaz.org.” The firm has advised clients ranging from foundations and NGOs to companies, and has positioned itself as an explicitly progressive enterprise.[1][3]
The Syria Campaign and White Helmets
In 2014 Purpose launched and staffed The Syria Campaign. A contemporary Purpose job listing sought campaigners for the project and stated that Purpose grew out of Avaaz and similar models. On 16 June 2014 Heimans drafted articles of association for the campaign’s parent company. Purpose Europe director Tim Dixon and Purpose strategist John Jackson were appointed to The Syria Campaign’s board. Anna Nolan, who later co-directed The Syria Campaign, has stated that she worked on the campaign while still at Purpose between January and June 2014.
Purpose’s Syria work centred on elevating the White Helmets. In a 2017 lecture Heimans described finding “a group of volunteer search and rescue workers who pulled people out of the rubble” and realising that an emotionally potent story could shift Western public narratives about ordinary Syrians. The Syria Campaign, incubated by Purpose, became the main vehicle for the #WhiteHelmets branding, the Oscar-winning documentary and high-level advocacy. Critical reporting (Grayzone, Wrong Kind of Green and others) has argued that Purpose created multiple anti-Assad vehicles (The Syria Campaign, Syrian Voices, #withSyria and White Helmets promotion) that aligned with Western regime-change objectives while presenting as independent civil-society solidarity.[2][4][5]
James Sadri of The Syria Campaign later dismissed links to Avaaz as “Russia Today stuff,” but Purpose’s own materials and Heimans’ statements explicitly trace the lineage.[2]
Key people
- Jeremy Heimans – co-founder and CEO; co-founder of Avaaz and GetUp!; author of New Power.
- Tim Dixon – Purpose Europe director; board member of The Syria Campaign.
- Anna Nolan – worked on The Syria Campaign while at Purpose; later co-founder/director of the campaign and White Helmets advisory council member.
- John Jackson – Purpose strategist; board member of The Syria Campaign; previously involved in the Burma Campaign UK.
See also
External links
- Purpose website
- Grayzone, October 2016
- Wrong Kind of Green, September 2014
- Forbes, December 2011
- Archived Purpose job listing, 2014
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Rahim Kanani, Jeremy Heimans of Purpose.com on Mobilizing Millions for Change Forbes, 13 December 2011.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Max Blumenthal, Inside the Syria Campaign, the shadowy PR firm lobbying for regime change The Grayzone, 2 October 2016.
- ↑ Aspen Ideas, Jeremy Heimans Aspen Ideas, accessed 10 October 2026.
- ↑ Wrong Kind of Green, SYRIA: Avaaz, Purpose & the Art of Selling Hate for Empire Wrong Kind of Green, 17 September 2014.
- ↑ Jeremy Heimans, lecture excerpt, OuiShare Fest Paris 2017 (quoted in Wrong Kind of Green / related commentary).