Social Gain. bringing good people together to do great things.
Hi, I'm Sharon,
Copywriter by trade, marketing nerd and storyteller by heart. Three decades across creative industries, community engagement and values-driven work — from AFTRS national film tours to Variety, the Children's Charity, where I learned how deeply purpose could drive impact.
I consider myself an engagement partner connecting people and projects, creating the space for the leaders, businesses, creatives and communities to meet real needs, strengthen identity and amplify their impact.
Through events, projects and collaborations, I deliver in a style that's uniquely Social Gain: authentic, fabulous and deeply human. My work is collaborative, grounded in place, designed with care, and shaped by the communities I serve.
My purpose is simple: to improve well-being where we live, work and socialise through meaningful connection.
Have you heard about Ikigai? The sweet spot between what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. That's me and Social Gain.
Four ways in. One approach.
Event strategy, design & delivery
From concept to load-out — events built for meaning and momentum, not just headcounts and hashtags.
Community engagement
The people in the room, and the space between them. Consultation that actually gets people to show up.
Marketing for good
Copy, comms and campaigns for purpose-driven leaders who want to sound like themselves.
Meaningful collaborations
Win–win partnerships that turn purpose into measurable impact. Better, together.
The pillars everything stands on.
Community is a practice.
Our region doesn’t have a shortage of good people. It has a surplus of separation. So Better Together partners up the experts, services, businesses and leaders across the sectors. It amplifies what is already there. It shines a light on the people and work already doing good. It connects. It saves money and resources by ending duplicated effort, and it finds new ways to cut through. It does not invent; it amplifies. It does not compete; it connects.
Bring good people together to do great things. When we’re Better Together, everyone wins.
People and place, first.
The best stories are already in the room — you just need to ask. Social Gain documents ordinary lives with extraordinary care: the woman you walk past regularly, the artist you can’t find online, the story behind one treasured photo. Hyper-local is not small thinking — it is the only scale at which trust actually works. And people can’t participate in what they can’t find, so making local life visible, findable and shareable is infrastructure, not decoration.
Creativity is the conduit.
Art does what data can’t. It reveals what’s felt but not yet spoken, connects across difference, and lets a community hold difficult things without being crushed by them. Creative Courage is not asking anyone to be fearless — it is giving people enough structure, feedback and real-world practice to take the next risk. Submit the work. Meet the deadline. Put your name on it.
Fun is not the opposite of serious social purpose — sometimes fun is what makes participation possible.
Shining a light on others and increasing the impact of work that makes a difference is the driving principle of Social Gain.
Have a project brewing? Working on an event, project or strategy that needs real cut through?
Let's talk: 0411 281 467 sharon@socialgain.com.au
Have you heard about Ikigai? It's a beautiful Japanese concept about finding your reason for being — the sweet spot between what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. That's me and Social Gain.
The longer story starts on the front desk of an advertising agency. In the late nineties I was the receptionist at Hertz Walpole Advertising while studying copywriting and art direction at AWARD School. I was lucky to have the creative team take me under their wing, encourage me to do AWARD, and I came out a trained copywriter, forever grateful.
From there I fell into film: media kits at Globe Films, then four years at AFTRS doing PR and marketing — events, media releases, its 30th anniversary, and six weeks managing the 2003 National Screening Tour of graduate films, with career panels and workshops.
Then three years at Variety, the Children's Charity NSW, running events and appeals — the annual Melbourne Cup Lunch for 500 at the Four Seasons, the Op Shop Ball, Cherry auctions, and managing four volunteer fundraising committees. Working with doctors, carers, therapists and schools, I saw how deeply purpose drives impact.
After that, I became a mother and worked from home. For around five years I wrote features and profiles for Woodlands Publishing art and craft magazines. Profiling artists and artisans was my favourite work, I wrote 41 in all.
In 2008 two things began at once. I started Sydney Writer, a strategy-to-launch content and marketing consultancy I ran for fifteen years. And when I first became a mother, I started Sydney Mum, an online magazine. Over nine years it grew to 363 articles, 144,000 words, a podcast and a contributor network.
In January 2020 we moved from Maroubra Beach to drought-affected Dubbo. The plan was to stay a year, but thanks to a pandemic we're still here.
Events and projects, built to last.
In 2023 I renamed Sydney Writer to Social Gain. From International Women's Day 2024 we built the Dubbo Women's Festival, now grown into The Orana Woman, a year-round platform, and the Orana Every Woman Festival each March. It earned a mention in Hansard. Around it sit Town Telly, Dubbo Slide Nights, Let's Taco'Bout It forums and Dubbo's Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever.
Right now I'm taking Social Gain through social enterprise certification exactly as it stands — events, projects and all — so the work outlasts the grants.
That's stage one. Where it's heading: three pillars, built on the three values underneath everything I do.