And if brands can respond to that desire, it makes good business sense. According to the Havas Index, ‘Meaningful Brands’ outperform the stock market by 133%. “If a brand is seen to be embedding compassion and kindness into the core of what they do, they are going to have customers that commit to them in the long term,” claims Bailey.

Ethical values also play an important role for employees. “One of the key issues for businesses today is finding talent and retaining it,” says Michael Hayman, co-author of Mission: How The Best In Business Break Through. “If your team loses belief in what it is you do, then they leave.” But if they’re inspired, you’re on the path to financial success. According to a recent survey from employment specialists Bain & Co, “Inspired employees are more than twice as productive as satisfied employees”.

The cool factor

For charities, of course, the benefits of this kind of alliance are twofold: raising both funds and awareness (just look at the impact on once-taboo causes such as AIDS and breast cancer thanks to collaborations with the fashion and beauty industry over the past few decades). Today, if the product itself is the kind of thing you can’t wait to Instagram – boom! Dani Lawrence is a director of Help Refugees (helprefugees.org.uk), launched in 2015 in response to the growing migrant crisis. The response, she says, “snowballed” – partly due to the help they’ve had from brands. “Katharine Hamnett was an early supporter, designing us a ‘Choose Love’ T-shirt based on her iconic Choose Life design,” says Lawrence. “The reaction was amazing. We had photos of entire families wearing them on Christmas Day on our Instagram feed.” The right sponsored_longform and right products create that magical thing all brands want: authenticity. “After the financial crash, trust in business was tarnished and needs to be rebuilt,” says Hayman. “Without trust you won’t sell your product, but placing good intentions at the centre of your brand is one way to win it back.”

A heart for business: Stylist investigates the rise of ethical companies