Cody Damon Levels the Playing Field through Social Impact Communications and Entrepreneurship
When Cody Damon (G ‘09) came to AUP for a Master’s in Global Communications, following an undergraduate degree in international relations, he hoped to become an international sports agent. As fate would have it, his whole career path shifted in his first year at AUP when he attended the Sustainable Development Practicum in the visionary community Auroville, India. His experience Auroville with communications projects for NGOs awakened in him a passion for social impact communications as a vehicle for change. “It was the first time I was really exposed to that level of poverty and need,” Damon explains. He saw the good that so many people were doing and realized that their work could potentially be done better with the right tools and resources. While at AUP and in India, he also learned about the UN development goals, which laid the academic foundation for his future passion.
The year Damon graduated from AUP, he started his own communications agency, Damon Strategic, a real risk given the financial crisis, but he didn’t stop there. In 2012, he co-founded Media Cause (which acquired Damon Strategic), a company whose mission clearly aligned with the goals of the Sustainable Development Practicum. Media Cause, which Damon ran out of four offices, managing 70 people until 2022, was an agency aiming to work specifically with non-profits, to help them with strategic communications and marketing in order to level the playing field.
Today, he runs a number of US-based companies—including Outfield Apiaries, a honey company; and WIN | WIN, a media company that operates at the intersection of sports and philanthropy. Through WIN | WIN, Damon aims to address his growing concern that in American society, athletes are viewed only for what they can do on the field, with little regard for who they are as people. Damon started a platform to curate and distribute stories about the human side of athletes and how they give back in an effort to drive social change. “We’re trying to showcase the complete human and all the good they’re doing,” he says.
Damon explains that many non-profits use sports as a vehicle for social change, especially in the United States, where sports play a very important role in civil society, citing the Boys and Girls Club, Learn to Play programs, and after-school programs. He hopes to better tell those stories in order to elevate that ecosystem.
In addition to managing his businesses, Damon teaches entrepreneurship at Tufts University to help students build their own ventures from the idea stage to fundraising stage, and is the director of program development for Boston College softball. His success in business provides the financial safety net to focus his work on social change over profit. For example, Damon has returned to AUP several springs in a row to take part in the Social Impact and Communications Practicums.
“I love being around that age group,” he says, referring to the students he has worked with at AUP as well as in the Boston area. “They approach trying to solve problems with so much energy and idealism.” Damon’s approach is to fall in love with the problem, not the solution, and to not be afraid to take risks. “Find a problem that’s worth solving; research; talk to people; learn things and then come up with a unique solution. Don’t fall in love with your solution, because it’s going to change.”
As he navigates his businesses, and his passion for sports, teaching and philanthropy, he continues to see relationships as one of the most valuable parts of his AUP experience. “The different environment and the challenges faced brought me closer to the people also going through those challenges,” he says of his time at the University. “Over the years, I have been able to rely on these people and leverage those relationships; they are people with similar thought processes and perspectives. AUP is a mindset,” he adds.
“Going to AUP was a risk,” he says. “I will never forget the dread I felt getting on the plane. I had never been to France; I didn’t speak French…” This experience ultimately proved invaluable for his future career as an entrepreneur with a high tolerance for risk who has learned how to capitalize on his own mistakes. For Damon, “the beautiful thing about being an entrepreneur is that you take a risk every day, and you learn from it, and you ultimately make a difference.”