Where Business Strategy and Community Impact Align
I work with founder-led service firms that want their community engagement to be aligned, measurable, and strategically sound — not reactive or performative.
My work on business-aligned impact has been featured in Inc., Bloomberg Businessweek, and Entrepreneur.
Most founder-led firms are already giving.
What’s missing isn’t intention. It’s structure.
But too often, their giving is reactive—driven by requests, relationships, or good intentions rather than strategy. The result? Scattered donations, unclear priorities, and impact that’s hard to explain internally or externally.
I help leaders change that.
For more than 30 years, I’ve worked at the intersection of business strategy, community investment, and measurable impact—helping organizations move from well-meaning activity to intentional action that aligns with who they are and where they’re going.
This work isn’t about charity for charity’s sake.
It’s about clarity, alignment, and results—for communities and the business.
About Sue Hyatt
My background spans business leadership, organizational systems design, and community engagement strategy.
My work has taken me across corporate, nonprofit, and public-sector environments — advising leaders who are navigating complex decisions about values, growth, and community impact.
- Founder, Big Purpose Big Impact, Ltd.
- Founding Executive Director, B:CIVIC
- Author, Strategy for Good
I’ve helped leaders answer questions like:
- What causes actually align with our business?
- How do we say no—without damaging relationships?
- How do we explain the value of this work to our board, employees, or investors?
- How do we make impact visible without overcomplicating it?
Here’s what what guides my work:
- Good intentions are not a strategy
- Writing checks is easy. Alignment is harder.
- Impact should strengthen your business — not distract from it.
- Businesses can do meaningful civic good without losing clarity or focus.
I’m not interested in performative generosity or feel-good stories that fall apart under scrutiny.
I am interested in helping leaders build clear, defensible, values-aligned approaches to community investment that actually hold up in the real world.
I work best with leaders who:
- Are tired of reactive, request-driven giving
- Want their strategic giving to reflect their values and their business priorities
- Care about credibility, clarity, and long-term impact
- Are open to being thoughtful—and sometimes uncomfortable—about tradeoffs
This may not be for you if:
- You’re looking for a one-size-fits-all CSR template
- You want marketing spin without substance
- You’re not willing to make real decisions about focus
- You want a checklist or template without engaging in the strategic decisions that give community investment its meaning
- You’re looking for a CSR checklist rather than strategic alignment
I didn’t come to this work from theory alone.
I’ve seen what happens when well-intentioned efforts miss the mark—when decisions are made for communities instead of with them, and when impact is assumed rather than understood. Those experiences shaped how I work today: practical, grounded, and respectful of complexity.
I bring both heart and rigor to this work—because communities deserve better than guesswork, and leaders deserve strategies they can stand behind.