Graef became a UK citizen in 1995. He was a trustee and then a patron of the Koestler Trust for art in prisons, the Rehabilitation for Addicted Prisoners Trust, the Irene Taylor Trust for Music in Prisons, the Voice of the Child in Care, Who Cares? Trust and Prisoners Abroad, a charity which supports Britons imprisoned outside the UK. He is a patron of the Mulberry Bush School in Oxfordshire, the subject of Kim Longinotto's "Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go" for Films of Record. He is a patron of the charity Compassion In Care, which campaigns on abuse of the elderly.