Moms and Millennials are the most likely Americans to buy products that benefit a cause, according to a new survey by the Boston marketing firm Cone.

The survey also found that far more American consumers are buying products or services linked with a cause or issue than they did 17 years ago.

Two out of five consumers have bought a product or service in the past year because it was associated with a cause or issue, compared with only one out of five in 1993, according to the online survey of 1,057 adults.

The number of mothers who buy cause- or issue-related products is especially significant: Nearly two-thirds have bought such products in the past, and 93 percent of them said they are likely to switch brands if the newly chosen brand is associated with a cause.

More than half of young adults are also likely to buy products linked with a cause, according to the survey, which defines "Millennials" as people from 18 to 24 years old.

Finally, 86 percent of Americans said that buying such products did not discourage them from giving to their favorite charity - which is good news for charities.

"For nonprofits, this really gives them the ammunition to make the case, both internally within their organization as well as externally, that there's a lot of benefits to working with companies to help raise awareness about both their organizations as well as their social issues," Alison DaSilva, an executive vice president at Cone, told the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Read the survey here.