Wonder: Strategies for Good

What Wonder: Strategies for Good does

Wonder: Strategies for Good is a privately held, San Francisco-based strategic communications consulting firm founded in 2014 by Robert Pérez. The firm serves social change organizations, advocacy groups, and philanthropic foundations by conducting audience research and developing messaging strategies grounded in its proprietary Heartwired methodology — a psychology-based framework for understanding how emotions, values, beliefs, identity, and lived experiences shape audience responses to emotionally complex social issues. Wonder's service portfolio spans six practice areas: audience research, communications and message strategy, capacity strengthening/training, policy change, narrative change, and behavior change, delivered through scoped consulting engagements, workshops, and downloadable strategy guides.

The firm's underlying technology is its Heartwired methodology, refined over 14+ years and codified in the 2017 co-authored book 'Heartwired: Human Behavior, Strategic Opinion Research, and the Audacious Pursuit of Social Change' and in published guides covering immigration, ocean conservation, COVID-19 vaccine confidence, caregiving, immigrant health justice, and progressive taxation. Wonder operates as a virtual firm with a network of approximately 20 strategists distributed across the United States (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, Denver, Atlanta, and other metros), enabling it to deliver projects globally — including Amnesty International workshops delivered across at least eight cities in Europe, Africa, and South Asia.

Wonder's revenue model is professional services fee-for-engagement, with custom-scoped projects for nonprofit and foundation clients. The firm is privately held by founder Robert Pérez with no disclosed external funding, subsidiaries, or institutional investors. Its client base is concentrated among major progressive foundations (David & Lucile Packard, Gates, Open Society, Robert Wood Johnson, Gill, Pivotal Ventures) and their grantees, supported by a strategic research partnership with Goodwin Simon Strategic Research.

Name

Wonder: Strategies for Good

Legal name

Wonder: Strategies for Good

Website

https://wonderforgood.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Wonder: Strategies for Good is a private, virtual strategic communications consulting firm that uses its proprietary Heartwired methodology to conduct audience research and develop messaging strategies for progressive nonprofits and philanthropic foundations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Strategic Communications Consulting

NAICS

Marketing Consulting Services (541613), Advertising, Public Relations, and Related Services (5418), Other Management Consulting Services (541618)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Services-Advertising (7310)

akta.pro primary industry

Content & Messaging Strategy (Positioning, Narrative) (MPAAAFAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Nonprofit & Cause Communications (BPAFADAK), Cause/Sustainability & Purpose-Driven Creative Agencies (MPAAAAAL)

Keywords

• Strategic communications consulting
• Audience research
• Messaging strategy
• Narrative change
• Social impact advisory

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices15 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Strategic Communications Consulting: Wonder provides strategic communications consulting services including audience research, messaging strategy development, narrative change campaigns, and capacity building/training programs to social change organizations and foundations. Projects are typically scoped engagements with defined deliverables.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Wonder: Strategies for Good is a virtual B2B strategic communications consultancy that provides audience research, messaging strategy, narrative change, behavior change, policy change, and capacity-building/training services to social-change nonprofits, foundations, advocacy groups, and government agencies. Its work is grounded in a proprietary methodology called Heartwired, which explores how emotions, values, beliefs, identity, and lived experiences shape audience decision-making on emotionally complex social issues.

Product overview

Wonder: Strategies for Good is a strategic communications firm that offers a portfolio of services centered on its proprietary Heartwired methodology for audience research and messaging strategy. The core offering consists of the Heartwired Approach, supported by published guides including Heartwiring Your Messages and the 2017 book Heartwired. The firm delivers professional services across six practice areas: Audience Research, Communications & Message Strategy, Capacity Strengthening (trainings), Policy Change, Narrative Change, and Behavior Change. Specialized offerings include the WIN Training Series for immigration narrative work, public speaking/storytelling workshops, and topic-specific messaging guides covering COVID-19 vaccine confidence, ocean conservation, caregiving, immigrant health justice, and tax policy. The portfolio functions as an integrated service offering rather than a software product or modular platform.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Heartwired Approach Wonder's proprietary research and messaging framework for understanding how emotions, values, beliefs, identity, and lived experiences shape audience decision-making on complex social issues; used to design messaging strategies for advocacy and foundation clients.
• Audience Research Services

Quantifiable outcome

• 51% of unvaccinated Black poll respondents reported being more comfortable with vaccination after viewing Heartwired messenger videos (Colorado Health Foundation COVID-19 vaccine project)
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers14 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Goodwin Simon Strategic ResearchcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014Goodwin Simon Strategic Research is Wonder's primary research partner, co-developing the Heartwired methodology and collaborating on major client projects. They co-authored 'Heartwired: Human Behavior, Strategic Opinion Research, and the Audacious Pursuit of Social Change' (2017) with support from the David & Lucile Packard Foundation.
• Corazón LatinominorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerPartnered with Wonder to implement Heartwired ocean conservation messaging among Latino, Black, and Indigenous communities. Corazón Latino achieved 25x social media growth using Wonder's messaging strategies.
• The Ocean ProjectminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerPartnered with Wonder to implement Heartwired Marine Protected Area messaging at aquariums and zoos including Aquarium of the Pacific, New England Aquarium, New York Aquarium, and Shedd Aquarium.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Spitfire Strategies: Spitfire Strategies is a social-change communications firm that helps nonprofits and foundations build strategy, tell stories, and shift policy. Its Smart Chart messaging framework and cause-communications focus directly mirror Wonder's Heartwired-based approach.
• GMMB: GMMB is a strategic communications firm specializing in progressive causes, foundations, and public affairs campaigns. Its full-service cause communications work overlaps directly with Wonder's strategy and messaging offerings for nonprofits.
• Fenton Communications: Fenton is a progressive public relations and communications firm serving nonprofits, foundations, and advocacy groups with messaging, media strategy, and campaign work. Wonder shares the same progressive-cause client base and direct services-to-movements delivery model.
• Resolute Consulting: Resolute Consulting is a strategic communications and public affairs firm serving nonprofits, foundations, and advocacy organizations with messaging and campaign work. It is comparable to Wonder in serving progressive cause clients with communications strategy engagements.
• Burness: Burness is a communications firm supporting foundations, nonprofits, and social enterprises with strategy, narrative, and media work. It serves many of the same progressive foundation clients as Wonder and competes for cause-communications engagements.
• Purpose: Purpose is a purpose-driven creative agency that builds campaigns, narratives, and movements for progressive causes and foundations. It shares Wonder's emphasis on narrative change for social impact and works with overlapping foundation clients.
• Hattaway Communications: Hattaway Communications is a strategic communications firm focused on advancing social change through audience research, narrative development, and messaging. Its evidence-based, research-grounded approach closely mirrors Wonder's Heartwired methodology.
• BerlinRosen: BerlinRosen is a progressive PR and strategic communications firm with strong nonprofit, advocacy, and foundation practices. Its social impact and public affairs teams compete with Wonder for foundation and cause-based messaging engagements.

Emerging players

• The Opportunity Agenda: The Opportunity Agenda (now part of Uprise) is a social justice communications organization that conducts research on public opinion and develops narrative strategies for progressive causes. It overlaps with Wonder's audience-research and narrative-change work.

Broad incumbents

• Edelman: Edelman is a global public relations firm with a sizable social impact and purpose practice serving foundations and nonprofits. It is a broad incumbent that competes with Wonder for cause-communications RFPs as part of a wider portfolio.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/WonderForGood

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Wonder: Strategies for Good