Deepen Your Impact

This list of resources is our love letter to the community. We’ve kept it free for everyone because knowledge on commercial influence should be accessible to all and we want to support nonprofits in maximizing their impact. 

“Looking upstream.” “Addressing root causes.” “Transforming systems.” “Targeting social inequities.” – Many public health and environmental organizations know that in order to maximize their impact, they must focus on systemic drivers of issues rather than bandaid solutions. But understanding the need to address drivers and knowing how and where to begin is another. That can be doubly challenging for organizations that are beginning to connect the dots between corporate misbehavior and the public health, environmental, and social problems they’re trying to solve.

We know incorporating commercial determinants into strategy is a lot easier said than done, but if we want to achieve our greatest potential impact, it is absolutely critical. We need civil society to help cut health and environmental issues off at the source and that means addressing business harms. So, we’ve curated a list of materials for nonprofits looking to deepen their impact and dive deeper into the commercial determinants of health. 

NGO ‘Inside’ and ‘Outside’ Strategies (2023) - An in-depth study led by Belinda Townsend that compiles a matrix of strategies civil society across the world employ to rally against industry harm and drive upstream change. The study divides actions that target business behavior from those that target policy change from inside the sectors (e.g., by collaborating with them) or by putting external pressure on them (e.g., by publicly naming and shaming them). They focus on peer-reviewed research rather than other types of documentation, like organizational reports, case studies, or media coverage of activities. This does make it somewhat limited in its coverage. For example, only 12 studies cover the U.S., and we can name way more than 12 organizations off the top of our heads that work to address corporate harms, like Union of Concerned Scientists, Oxfam America, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, Greenpeace, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Alliance for Health and Safe Chemicals, Environmental Working Group, Public Citizen, The Truth Initiative, Southern Environmental Law Center, Corporate Accountability. We could keep going forever. Nevertheless, the range of strategies the paper outlines can be used for inspiration. For a quick overview without the details, use this Science Digest visualized version of the article from Movendi. The details are worth it, though, as they go into actual case studies and tactics used. 

Public Health Playbook (2022) - An “oldie but goodie” in the world of rapid proliferation of CDOH research publications, this piece led by Jennifer Lacy-Nichols holds up and offers public health actors eight concrete strategies for countering the corporate playbook. Readers can choose from: 1) expanding public health training and coalitions, 2) increasing public sector resources, 3) linking and learning from social movements to foster collective solidarity, 4) protecting public health advocates from industry threats, 5) developing and implementing rigorous conflict of interest safeguards, 6) monitoring and exposing corporate activities, 7) debunking corporate arguments, and 8) leveraging diverse commercial interests. Coordinated action across all eight strategies would hold the biggest promise to countering the corporate playbook. 

Commercial Determinant Resource Hub - Developed and curated by Local Health and Global Profits (LHGP) and Centre for 21st Century Public Health (C21PH), this resource hub consists of tools and frameworks for public health groups looking to address commercial determinants. The list separates resources relating to different harmful industries (specifically the biggest offenders: alcohol, tobacco, fossil fuels, gambling, and food industries) and also offers a few other, broader categories for those working across sectors. This includes materials relating to the economy, policy, and a general group of resources relating to CDoH. Included in the general section is a link to an entire other resource hub, CDoH Essentials (2024) created by the Association of Directors of Public Health in the UK. CDoH Essentials outlines a set of materials to help guide public health practitioners in the development of workshops and briefings. While these lists were developed in the UK, their value applies across contexts and there’s plenty to sink your teeth into. 

Logics of (Dis)engagements with Industry (2026) - Hot off the press this year, this study, also led by Belinda Townsend, as well as Fran Baum, Sharon Friel, and others, interviewed 30 senior policy and advocacy staff from NGOs active in alcohol and/or ultra-processed-food advocacy in Australia about their organizations’ engagement or decisions to not engage industries in their work. The research can be useful to organizations looking to intentionally consider the pros, cons, and arguments for and against collaboration. The paper identifies that many organizations consider engagement with industry problematic because of the risks of being delegitimised by the partnerships and suffering reputational risks because of clear competing interests. Some organizations see the benefits of gathering intelligence and appearing reasonable through limited engagement with alcohol and ultra-processed foods (UPF) businesses. Some see partnership and revenue raising as important benefits of engagement, although if you choose to go this route you’d need to consider how you’d ensure your work is not diluted, sanitized, or co-opted by your corporate partners. The paper applies beyond the Australian alcohol/UPF setting as accessing the logics and arguments the researchers identified can help nonprofits wrestle with important questions when choosing their own path of (dis)engagement with industry. 

Transnational Playbook for Harmful Commodity Regulation (2026) - This paper led by Kathrin Lauber is also based on interviews - 22 with nonprofit professionals focused on alcohol and UPFs, and 6 with representatives of international organizations (IOs). It also used the inside/outside strategies frameworks of the first work on the list. But, in the context of influencing the transnational regulatory landscape, the authors found that organizations preferred inside strategies based on consultation, participation, and collaboration with nation state governments and with the IOs. Outside, more oppositional, strategies were seen by some as less appropriate. When agitation was deployed, it was more to name and shame the corporations under consideration with the goal of then shifting government policies. Many organizations and individuals struggle with the choice of working quietly and gently within the systems producing corporate harms, or loudly and aggressively in opposition to them to drive change. This paper can help such deliberations, especially through the authors’ critical appraisal that points out that trying to stay within the system creates limitations on the forms of action non-profits can take. The barriers to entry to high-level fora are many and once access is granted, many organizations seek to keep it, which can mean they eschew more confrontational forms of engagement.

Stealing Corporate Thunder: A Guide to Prebunking and Debunking Commercial Disinformation in the Policy Space (2026). Earlier this year, we wrote this handy guide for debating commercial actors for any organizations that engage with corporate perspectives in one way or another. Public policy conversations or public comment periods are one avenue to engage with and debunk or prebunk likely corporate misinformation and spin. Not all organizations do this routinely but should. If you’re planning to submit public comments on any CDOH related policies, or want to consider it as an action, here is a gift link from us to our Stealing Corporate Thunder strategy! If you find it useful, consider supporting our work or working with us to put it into practice. 

We hope this list helps you and your team feel more confident in incorporating commercial determinants into your work. We tried our best to include the most relevant resources for nonprofits but if we omitted any materials that you think are critical for NGOs, please let us know and we’ll be sure to feature it in future editions. 

AI Disclaimer: No AI was used in the writing or editing of this post or any other edition of the Commercially Determined newsletter. Enjoy the flow and narrative flourishes, or not. Forgive our errors, or don’t. Just know that they're all 100% human created.

We do not run ads and we do not take corporate sponsors. Paid subscribers, founding members, and tippers help us stay independent