Marcus is the founder and principal of Message Agency, a digital agency based in Philadelphia, PA, which he founded in 2007. Message Agency is a certified B Corporation and social enterprise that focuses on using web-based technologies to meet the needs of organizations and progressive businesses that serve the public good.

Marcus is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and has over 20 years of experience in developing and implementing strategies and social marketing campaigns for the public and nonprofit sectors. He has gained extensive expertise in Internet-based communications, website design and development, messaging/branding, content strategy, and project management.

After leaving a full-time position at the University of Pennsylvania in 1995, Marcus founded a consulting practice, primarily working with investigators in the fields of education, economics/labor, and social sciences at university-­based research centers. In the decade that followed, his practice grew to support a broader range of nonprofit organizations and sustainable businesses, and he founded Message Agency in 2007 to focus on the third sector. Today, his firm serves over 100 organizations each year. He has grown the firm to a staff size of 17 full-time employees, tripling in size and doubling in revenue over the last 3 years.

Underlying Marcus’ professional experience in the public sector is over two decades of volunteer work around civil rights and economic and community development. He has served on the boards of numerous nonprofit organizations in Philadelphia and is often challenged with finding ways to balance the interests of a range of stakeholders for development and public projects and bringing disparate groups together to collaborate.