Since The Marketing Research and Insight Excellence Awards were founded in 2019 by Quirk's Media, the MREF has contributed two categories: the Philanthropic Company of the Year and the Everyday Hero Awards. The winner of the 2024 MREF Philanthropic Company of the Year award is CMB. The winner of the 2024 MREF Everyday Hero award is Cheryl Halpern.

The Philanthropic Company of the Year award recognizes a marketing research company that leads by example in terms of time and financial efforts given to their community. 

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Community impact is a core pillar of the CMB culture. CMB is committed to helping its clients strengthen and grow their businesses, and is actively involved in the communities where its employees live and work. CMB and its employees regularly lend their expertise to boards, participate in making their communities a better place to live, and donate their time and money to organizations they are passionate about. 

The Everyday Hero award recognizes a researcher who is making a difference in and outside of their community but who may not be getting the accolades they deserve. 

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Cheryl Halpern powers over 25 years of continuous volunteerism with energetic passion. Skills honed through market research, strategic consulting, and product management equip Halpern to be an effective and empathetic servant leader. She actively engages at all levels of volunteerism for a variety of organizations, from leadership positions to roll-up-your-sleeves engagement with clients. Her primary focus for the last five years has been founding and leading the Buddy Up for Life Dallas chapter, which conducts 28 annual tennis and fitness sessions for Athletes with Down syndrome. It is the largest chapter in the country and has been named “Best of Texas Tennis” for Adaptive Programming by the USTA for the last two years. Halpern advises others to find the joy, as she has, by considering both an organization’s mission and the type of volunteer tasks and opportunities offered.