Can supporting a charity actually help grow your business?

For many business owners, charitable giving is something they do because they genuinely want to make a difference. But according to Kirrily Graham, founder of Dovetail Social Enterprises, businesses are often missing a much bigger impact and opportunity: moving beyond one-off donations and creating strategic charity partnerships that benefit the charity, the community and the business itself.

In this episode of Ethical Persuasion Unlocked, Patrick talks with Kirrily about how the right charity partnership can help differentiate your business, strengthen customer relationships, engage employees and even make your organisation more attractive to talented people looking for somewhere they can be proud to work.

There is also a fascinating persuasion-science dimension. When a business genuinely supports a cause that matters to its customers or employees, principles including Liking, Reciprocity, Unity, Social Proof and Authority can naturally come into play. And when people discover what your organisation stands for before they decide whether to engage with you, the effects of Pre-Suasion may begin even earlier and impact if your message or offer is even considered.

Doing good doesn't have to be separate from doing good business. Done properly, one can help grow the other.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

✅ Donation vs. Strategic Partnership: Why simply giving money to a charity is very different from building an ongoing partnership — and why the latter can create considerably more value for both parties.

✅ The Business Case for Doing Good: How the right partnership can help with customer acquisition and retention, employee engagement, recruitment, brand differentiation and team pride.

✅ Why You Shouldn’t Hide the Good You Do: Many businesses are reluctant to talk about their charitable involvement because they fear appearing boastful or as though they are virtue signalling. Kirrily explains why that can be a missed opportunity — and how to communicate your impact without making yourself the hero.

✅ Make the Impact Tangible: Why “we donated $2,000” may be far less powerful than explaining what that contribution actually made possible for a real person or community.

✅ Customers Can Become Part of the Story: Discover how some businesses allow customers to co-contribute to the causes they support — and why customers can feel genuine pride in knowing their purchase helped make something positive happen.

✅ The Persuasion Science Behind Charity Partnerships: Patrick explores how supporting a cause can naturally activate Liking, Reciprocity, Unity, Social Proof and Authority — while Pre-Suasion can shape how people perceive your organisation before a sales conversation or employment decision even begins.

✅ How to Choose the Right Charity: Kirrily shares some of the due diligence businesses should undertake before forming a partnership, including values alignment, charity registration, DGR status, financials, governance and evidence of genuine impact.

✅ Why Small Charities Can Be Mighty: Many grassroots charities have enormous potential but lack the marketing, business development, technology and operational resources needed to scale. Strategic business partnerships can help change that.

✅ Two Persuasion Strategies for Charities: Patrick shares research-backed approaches that can increase cooperation with charitable requests — including the powerful Rejection-then-Retreat strategy and the surprisingly effective impact of reminding people that they are free to choose.

Your Ethical Persuasion Challenge

This episode’s challenge is simple: identify one cause that genuinely aligns with your business, your people and your values.

Then ask yourself three questions:

Could we do more than simply donate? Consider whether your business could contribute expertise, products, services, exposure, staff involvement or other resources that would genuinely help.

Could we make the impact tangible? Instead of communicating how much you gave, find out what that contribution actually achieved. What person, family or community did it help, and what changed as a result?

Are we telling the story — or hiding it? If you're already doing something worthwhile, think about how you could communicate it without making yourself the hero. Put the charity, the people being helped, your employees or your customers at the centre of the story.

The goal isn't to support a charity so that you can influence people. Support a cause because you genuinely want to make a difference. Then don't unnecessarily hide the good that is being done.

Resources Mentioned:

Dovetail Social Enterprises – Find out more about Kirrily Graham and Dovetail’s work connecting Australian SMEs with grassroots charities:

https://www.dovetailsocialenterprises.com.au

Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) – Research registered Australian charities and access information about their activities and financial reporting:

https://www.acnc.gov.au/

ABN Lookup – Check an organisation's ABN details and Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status:

https://abr.business.gov.au/

TED Talk – Dan Pallotta: “The way we think about charity is dead wrong” – The talk Kirrily describes as a light-bulb moment that changed how she thought about charity expenditure, growth and impact. Find if lower down on Dovetail's website: https://www.dovetailsocialenterprises.com.au

Episode 9 – The Principle of Unity: How “We” Beats “You vs. Me” Every Time

Explore the persuasion science behind shared identity, “we-groups”, increased cooperation and the favouritism that can result when people recognise someone as “one of us”:

https://ethicalpersuasion.com.au/podcast/0009

Episode 10 – The Science of Social Proof: How One Image Tripled Results

Learn why seeing other people like us taking an action can make that action considerably more attractive to us:

https://ethicalpersuasion.com.au/podcast/0010

Kirrily Graham’s Social Media Links:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirrilygraham/

Patrick’s Social Media Links:

Podcast – https://ethicalpersuasion.com.au/podcast/

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@ethicalpersuasion

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-van-der-burght/

Facebook – https://web.facebook.com/ethicalpersuasion/

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/ethical_persuasion/

Twitter/X – https://x.com/yesmoreoften

TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@ethicalpersuasion

Book Page – https://yesmoreoften.com/

Personal Profile – https://patrickvanderburght.com