When Jorge Alvarez arrived at Rutgers University as a first-generation college student, he couldn’t find anyone who looked like him, a Latino man, talking openly about mental health. “I felt very lost,” he later said. So he decided to be that change. He revived the Active Minds chapter at Rutgers and built it into the largest student-run mental health organization on campus, with an intentional focus on creating space for Black and Brown students. He took that same energy online, building a community of over 115,000 TikTok followers through educational content on mental health, generational trauma, and cultural identity. That trajectory led him, in 2022, to the White House, one of just 30 young advocates invited to the first-ever Mental Health Youth Action Forum, where he joined a conversation with Dr. Jill Biden, Selena Gomez, and Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy to make the case for culturally relevant mental health care. He returned again in 2024. @mtvnews To champion MentalHealthAction, #FLOTUS Dr. Jill Biden, SelenaGomez, and Surgeon General Dr. #VivekMurthy teamed up with @mtv to amplify the voices of youth activists and chart the path forward. @dometipongo spoke to Gomez about why it’s “OK not to be OK” and more. Head to mentalhealthishealth.us ♬ original sound – MTV NEWS Today, Alvarez is being recognized by Engage for Good as its first-ever Emerging Leader of the Year. Now in its 24th year, the Halo Awards have long recognized the best corporate-nonprofit partnerships in the country. This year, for the first time, the organization is also recognizing the people behind the work: a pioneer who built the field before it had a name, a leader who has made it sharper and more responsive, and a younger voice who is pushing it somewhere new. The Pioneer: Carol Cone In 1983, a small shoe company called Rockport had a problem: nobody knew who they were. Carol Cone had an idea. Link the brand to something bigger than footwear — the emerging walking-for-health movement — and make the company a genuine champion of it. Rockport grew from a $20 million unknown into a $150 million brand. More importantly, Cone had stumbled onto something she would spend the next forty years proving: that a company’s values, done right, are a business strategy.She’s now known as the Mother of Cause Marketing, and the résumé backs it up. Cone founded the nation’s first cause marketing consultancy in 1980, produced more than 30 research reports that helped turn the field into a discipline, and has executed more than 250 purpose programs for some of the world’s leading companies. She’s directed $5 billion toward social causes through initiatives like the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women, the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade, and Aflac’s My Special Aflac Duck. She wrote the book — literally, Breakthrough Nonprofit Branding — hosts the Purpose 360 podcast, now more than 220 episodes in, and has mentored over 1,000 people coming up in the field. Engage for Good is honoring her with its Lifetime Achievement Award. “She didn’t just contribute to this space,” said EFG CEO Muneer Panjwani. “She defined and legitimized it.” The Collaborator: Karen Little What sets Karen Little apart isn’t just what she’s built, it’s how she builds it. The head of Rapid Response at PayPal is known across the social impact sector for bringing people together in moments when most organizations are still figuring out what to do. When wildfires tore through Los Angeles in January 2025, Little didn’t wait for the smoke to clear. She activated PayPal’s financial tools, nonprofit partnerships, and giving infrastructure, moving resources to the organizations that needed them while the crisis was still unfolding. She has since helped write the playbook on strategic disaster philanthropy — the kind other companies can actually follow. Her instinct for convening shows up elsewhere too. Little founded the Bay Area Social Impact Gathering, which started as a dozen peers talking over drinks and has since grown into a network of more than 250 professionals spanning corporate, nonprofit, and foundation sectors. “Her balance between strategy and humanity is what sets her leadership apart,” said Panjwani. She is the inaugural recipient of EFG’s Impact Leader of the Year Award. The Next Generation: Jorge Alvarez Back at Active Minds, Alvarez has built that same personal conviction into a career. As Senior Manager of Corporate Partnerships & Engagement, he’s helped raise $6M+ for youth mental health and guided the A.S.K. campaign to reach more than 28 million people. He serves on the board of Youth MOVE National and was recognized as a 2023 Young Innovator in Behavioral Health. “Youth and young adults are eager to lead,” he said when he received the award. “They just need organizations and allies to listen.” What Comes Next Carol Cone built the foundation. Karen Little is strengthening it. And Jorge Alvarez is one of the people who will decide what gets built on top of it. That’s what this year’s Halo Awards are really about, not just celebrating what the corporate social impact field has accomplished, but taking stock of who’s carrying it forward. “Together, they represent a field that is evolving, deepening, and rising to meet a more complex moment,” said Panjwani.All three will be recognized at the Halo Awards Gala during the Engage for Good 2026 Conference, April 21–24 in Palm Springs. The post Three leaders who are changing what it means to do good in business. appeared first on Upworthy.