Six core reasons why good is hard
Research-backed insight and experiential lessons on where and how cause marketing and other campaigns for good fall short.
Why Good Is Hard
Breakthrough messaging strategies for social and economic change.
Doing good is the easy part. Getting people to care, believe, and act is the hard part. This is the playbook for mission-driven leaders seeking to build momentum and grow real impact.
★★★★★ 5.0 on Amazon · Hardcover & Kindle
The premise
Everyone wants to do good work. So why does it feel so hard?
Because good intentions don't market themselves. Social entrepreneurs, mission-led companies, causes and non-profits compete for attention against the loudest, best-funded voices in the culture — and usually lose on message, not on merit. Why Good Is Hard takes commercial go-to-market strategy and reshapes it for those leaders building change.
What's inside
What you'll take away
A seven-step process to solve them
A repeatable framework for turning mission into positioning, positioning into campaigns, and campaigns into funding, votes, and behavior change.
A detailed playbook for success
Proven strategies and tactics for tackling market inertia and building power to influence change.
Free companion tool
Not sure where you stand? Take the assessment.
Score your change progress against our "Six Horsemen" assessment to uncover where you can improve, and what tactics will work best.
Question 3 of 6
How is revenue performance (sales, donations, grants, investments, etc.)?
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Illustrative only — not the actual assessment. Sample question shown for reference.
About the author
Tim Young
Tim Young is an entrepreneur, advocate, and growth strategist dedicated to helping organizations turn purpose into measurable impact with the team at Young Marketing Consulting. For more than 25 years he has helped organizations — from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 companies — build marketing strategies that drive real impact, including mission-driven nonprofits and cause-based initiatives.
He has led strategy for national advocacy organizations, community development lenders, foundations, and consumer brands — and has sat on both sides of the table, as the agency and as the client trying to get a bold idea approved. Why Good Is Hard is the method he wishes every mission-driven team had on day one.
Praise
What early readers are saying
I've sat with the quiet frustration Tim names—why is doing the right thing so hard?—and his answer is, at its core, a marketing masterclass: understanding your audience, sharpening your value proposition, building community, and telling stories that land. If you lead a purpose-driven company or nonprofit, this is your playbook—not because it tells you what's right, but because it shows you how to make people want what's right.
In Why Good Is Hard, Tim strips away the vanity metrics and, through his MVP framework and the "SUV Pivot," shows why most groups market "off-road capability" when the market is actually buying "safety and utility"—miss that distinction and you miss the market. He offers the structural fix: positioning that sincerely represents your group and is built specifically for the people who actually need the solution.
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