Our Sole Focus is Social Impact
Cause Influence is the Foundation
Entertain Impact was borne out of our founder's desire to channel his success in the music and entertainment space into a social venture that would pioneer the field of cause influence, where individuals and organizations commit their respective influence to help advance social and philanthropic causes.
Our Cornerstones
Although each campaign is unique, these tenets form the core of who we are and guide our approach to every project.
Community
Everyone has a role to play in building a better, safer, more equitable society. We embrace that responsibility with passion and conviction.
Change
True impact is the result of systemic change, not band-aid half-measures. Everything we do is done with the intention of bringing about that change.
Culture
To change systems, you first need to change culture. And to do that, you need the power and influence of cultural leaders.
Connection
A worthy cause and catchy campaign aren’t enough in today's busy world. To raise the collective conscious and compel action, you need to connect the exact right message to the exact right person.
The Social Impact Team
Our clients are the heroes on the front lines—fighting to do things like eradicate polio, reform the criminal justice system, and prevent domestic violence. We are the thinkers, doers, connectors, and communicators working behind the scenes to help them win those important battles.
Paul M. Katz
Paul Katz
Founder & CEO
Paul Katz is the founder and CEO of Entertain Impact, a social impact agency whose singular aim is to advance the collective good.
Founded in 2005, Entertain Impact is a social venture that, through its campaigns, brings together philanthropic organizations and purpose-driven businesses with public figures, celebrities, thought leaders, and entertainment properties for a higher purpose: Creating a socially just world. Under Paul’s leadership, Entertain Impact has played a pioneering role in the developing field of Cause Influence, where individuals and organizations commit their respective influence and power to help advance social and philanthropic causes for all our benefit. Paul oversees all strategy, business, and creative operations to ensure success on behalf of the agency's clients, drawing on his two-decades as a successful music industry executive with an extensive network in the entertainment, business, and philanthropic fields.
Entertain Impact’s wide-ranging clients include the Grammy Music Education Coalition, the SEIU Union, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and MasterClass. Through hundreds of campaigns, Entertain Impact has helped its clients raise awareness, support, and billions of dollars in donations for causes ranging from polio to domestic violence to racial inequities. Paul also provides pro bono services to emerging non-profits and volunteers his time as a strategic consultant to philanthropists and celebrities interested in serving the greater good. Most recently, Paul founded a non-profit, the Entertain Impact Initiative. Its first two projects are “Go Local,” a campaign launched during the Coronavirus pandemic to support shopping in local stores to bolster the health of the local communities they serve, and soonerisbetter.org, an informational website connecting people to organizations that promote voter registration.
As the founder of the music advisory firm Eye2Ear, Paul continues to guide creative, production, and distribution of the music for culturally significant film and TV projects. His portfolio includes the Oscar winning movies Green Book, 12 Years A Slave, and American Factory. Paul also serves as senior advisor to Made In Memphis Entertainment, an independent group of music publishing, distribution and record labels, whose social mission is to give opportunities to young people through music.
Prior to becoming a social entrepreneur, Paul was an attorney and senior executive at Jive Records and Zomba Music, where he worked with renowned artists, including A Tribe Called Quest, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Donnie McClurkin, P!nk, and Outkast. For his production work on the franchise Twilight, Paul earned multiple GRAMMY nominations. Current and past boards include ELMA Music Foundation, the Greenberger Center for Social and Criminal Justice, Made in Memphis Entertainment, the Recording Academy, and Witness.
Neda Azarfar
Neda Azarfar
SVP, Marketing
As Senior Vice President of Marketing, Neda oversees brand, digital, and communications strategy on behalf of Entertain Impact and its clients. Neda brings more than 15 years of experience to Entertain Impact, having worked across all disciplines of marketing communications, from advertising and public relations to trade campaigns and public affairs.
With a background in the start-up tech space, Neda was a key member of the team that helped relaunch Myspace as a music discovery platform in 2011. Shifting gears, she transitioned to the non-profit world in 2014, when she became the Vice President of Marketing Communications at the Recording Academy, the organization behind the GRAMMY Awards. There, Neda led brand, digital marketing, public relations, promotions, and special events for the Academy, its charities—MusiCares and the GRAMMY Museum—and its advocacy division. Working at the nexus of entertainment and social good, Neda helped to pass pro-creator music legislation, launch donor communications platforms, and establish digital fundraising programs.
With a passion for mission-driven storytelling, Neda enjoys applying her strategic communications skills to develop campaigns that move society forward. In her spare time, Neda travels the world, eats like a champ, reads and writes fiction, and cherishes time with her newborn son. Neda holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego.
Sandra Lauckner
Sandra Lauckner
VP, UK Office
Sandra Lauckner is Vice President, UK, and head of Entertain Impact's London office.
Sandra brings more than 20 years of experience to her role at Entertain Impact, where she drives international business development and oversees strategic planning and execution for the agency's UK clients. She also leads public figure engagement and manages activations for the European extensions of international campaigns, such as the End Polio campaign for Rotary International.
Her background spans women's health and childcare, communal development, and advocacy with a focus on developing countries. Representing her native Germany's embassy in South Africa, Sandra worked closely with the regional EU delegation, gaining invaluable insight into the political aspects of international development and cooperation.
More recently, Sandra worked at Prospero World, a consultancy practice advising philanthropists. There, she led awareness and fundraising programs in support of the organization’s non-profit clients. As part of her work, Sandra helped launch the Cornucopia Club, an influential membership program that introduces philanthropically-minded individuals to relevant charity organizations through ultra-exclusive salon experiences.
When she's not helping non-profits achieve their goals, Sandra enjoys literature and the arts, cooking with her family, and hosting gatherings.
Jesse Highstein
Jesse Highstein
Development Manager
As Development Manager at Entertain Impact, Jesse Highstein brings purpose-oriented funders together with philanthropic causes, building coalitions of support to underwrite Entertain Impact’s social good campaigns. In his role, Jesse oversees development and partnerships, including research, program creation, outreach, and cultivation, creating custom integration opportunities that align the needs of non-profit clients with the goals of corporate funders, public partners, and community leaders. In addition, Jesse provides strategic counsel to advance clients’ development programs and fundraising campaigns.
Jesse brings more than a decade of experience to the agency, having worked in the tech and international music spaces. Prior to Entertain Impact, Jesse served as a Community Developer at NY-based startup Withfriends, where he established more than 100 membership programs and raised $3 million in recurring income for small business clients over a two-year period.
Passionate about live music, Jesse fused his love of the arts with his skills as a builder, connector, and marketer to launch Gasa Gasa, a New Orleans music club that serves as a community resource by highlighting local musicians alongside national touring acts.
Jesse earned dual Bachelor of Business Administration degrees in Music Business and International Business from Loyola University in New Orleans. He spent two years living in Buenos Aires, recording music, volunteering, and exploring. Today, he continues to write and play music and spends the rest of his downtime cooking, shooting double-exposure film photography, and walking around NYC.
Holly MacDonald
Gina Graves
Marissa Montañez
Holly MacDonald
Director, Research & Design
Holly has contributed to awarding-winning national and international social good campaign strategy in marketing and communications. As Director of Research for Entertain Impact, Holly is involved in all aspects of strategy leading up to a campaign launch and oversees the company’s research team.
Her work with the Entertain Impact team includes the American Diabetes Association’s Diabetes Dance Dare, Usher’s State Farm Neighborhood Sessions, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Art of Saving a Life, St Damien’s Pediatric Hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Cycle for Survival, Grammy Music Education Coalition launch, and more. Additionally, Holly has headed up social impact campaign work around film (The Man Who Knew Infinity with Dev Patel, and Jeremy Irons; Andy Serkis’ Breathe with Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy), as well as music consulting for film.
As a video producer and director, Holly’s credits include work with Brian Wilson, Jay Sean, Angelique Kidjo, Lucius, And The Kids, and more.
Prior to joining the Entertain Impact team in 2014, Holly worked within independent music management and festival curation. She received her BA from Hampshire College in 2013 in neuropsychology and public health. Her thesis covered the physiology and psychology of playing music, which examined the intersections between creative expression and health. At the time, she worked domestically and abroad on projects in sustainable agriculture, and has supported grassroots public health initiatives and music education programs. Holly remains involved in some of this work, sitting on the advisory board for EDGE (Ecological Development for Growing Economies), an organization headquartered in both the United States and Haiti.
For Holly, Entertain Impact creates synergy between the two fields that drive her focus. A native of the Catskill Mountains, Holly presently resides in New York City.
In her free time, she enjoys the farmers market, creating music, and the occasional DJ gig.
Gina Graves
Digital Marketing Coordinator
As Digital Marketing Coordinator, Gina Graves works closely with Entertain Impact’s portfolio of clients to strategize, implement, and measure social media, email, paid, and content campaign activations to ensure optimal alignment across channels. With more than five years of marketing communications and planning experience, Gina is often the go-to person on the team, creating campaign messaging and materials, preparing project plans, overseeing research, connecting talent teams, and—above all—communicating with clients. Although the focus of her work varies from day to day, Gina’s singular mission is to ensure that goals are met and everyone is happy.
Previously, Gina served as Marketing Coordinator at civil engineering firm Baskerville-Donovan, Inc., where she focused on client communications, social media, and visual design. Gina also has experience in the entertainment space, having created multi-channel digital content to promote music, ticket, and merchandise sales for local artists. Prior to that, Gina provided pro bono marketing services to local animal non-profits Dog Harmony and Animal Allies, for whom she developed awareness-building communications plans to grow volunteers and boost sponsorships, respectively. Most recently, Gina combined her passion for creative communications and visual storytelling to launch a small business selling her own handmade tattoo-inspired illustrations.
A Florida native, born and raised, Gina earned her Master of Arts degree in Strategic Communications and Leadership and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and Journalism from the University of West Florida.
In her spare time, Gina likes to draw, play with her two cats and pup, and enjoy life as a newlywed.
Marissa Montañez
Executive Assistant
As Entertain Impact's Executive Assistant, Marissa Montañez brings her organizational and project management skills to help facilitate everything from client campaigns and business development to logistics planning and personal calendars. Action-oriented by nature, Marissa is often the one in the meeting taking copious notes and pitching in with helpful ideas and research. Her aim is to increase efficiency at Entertain Impact for the greater purpose of helping the agency's roster of clients maximize the good that they do.
Prior to her time at Entertain Impact, Marissa spent eight years at Apple. There, she focused on resource planning, events, and workflow coordination, helping to manage time for nearly 100 team members. Marissa balanced the structured organization of her profession by pursuing and participating in various creative endeavors, such as digital design and analog photography. Marissa also commits personal time to advancing the social causes she cares most about: civil rights, child welfare, and environmental protections.
Marissa earned two Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of Texas, San Antonio, having studied Cultural Anthropology and Communications Studies. In her spare time, she enjoys international travel, photography, and making memes.
If you're looking to apply your skills and know-how to help do some good, come join us.