Stories are how most people come to care about a cause. A single, well-told account of one person’s experience can explain a complex problem faster than any report. But the people whose stories NGOs tell are often in vulnerable situations, and the power imbalance between an organisation with a communications budget and a person receiving support is real. Ethical storytelling is the practice of showing impact honestly and powerfully while protecting the dignity, safety, privacy and agency of the people you serve. This guide sets out the principles, the legal basics, a step-by-step consent process and a checklist you can use before anything is published.
Why ethical storytelling matters
There are three reasons to take this seriously, and they reinforce each other.
- Harm prevention. A careless photo caption can reveal someone’s health status, immigration situation or location. For survivors of violence, children, refugees and people in conflict settings, this can create real risk.
- Trust and reputation. Supporters, partners and the communities you work with increasingly notice when imagery is stereotyped or exploitative. Criticism of “poverty porn” and “white saviour” narratives has become widespread in the sector.
- Legal compliance. In the EU, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to images and stories of identifiable people. Belgian law also protects a person’s right to their own image.
Several sector codes provide useful reference points, including the Dóchas Code of Conduct on Images and Messages developed by Irish development NGOs, and the commitments in the Core Humanitarian Standard on treating people with dignity and respect. Reviewing these with your team is a good way to start a shared conversation.
The core principles
Most ethical storytelling frameworks share a small set of principles. Use them as a lens for every story:
- Dignity: show people as capable agents in their own lives, not as passive recipients of help.
- Informed consent: people understand and agree to how their story and image will be used.
- Do no harm: nothing published should put anyone at risk, now or in the future.
- Accuracy and context: stories are true, not exaggerated, and explain the wider causes of a problem.
- Agency and voice: people speak for themselves wherever possible, in their own words.
- Privacy: share only the personal details the story genuinely needs.
- Fair representation: avoid reinforcing stereotypes about places, cultures, genders or disability.
Informed consent: a step-by-step process
Consent is a conversation, not a signature. A person in crisis, or who depends on your organisation for support, may feel unable to refuse. Your process must make it genuinely safe to say no.
- Prepare. Decide in advance what the story is for, which channels it may appear on and for how long. Prepare a plain-language explanation in the person’s preferred language.
- Separate consent from services. Make clear, explicitly, that saying no will not affect the support they receive. Ideally, the person asking for consent is not the person delivering their services.
- Explain uses concretely. “Your photo may appear on our website, in our newsletter and on social media, where anyone in the world could see it and share it” is more meaningful than “for communications purposes”.
- Offer choices. Let people choose levels: full name or first name only or a pseudonym; face visible or not; story only, without a photo; internal use only.
- Check understanding. Ask the person to explain back, in their own words, what they have agreed to.
- Record it. Use a written or recorded consent, noting the date, the options chosen, the language used and who obtained it.
- Explain withdrawal. Tell people how to withdraw consent later and what you can and cannot remove (for example, printed materials already distributed).
- Revisit. Set a review date. Circumstances change; a story that was safe to share two years ago may not be today.
Tip: Avoid collecting consent at the most vulnerable moment — immediately after a disaster, during a medical procedure or at a distribution point. If consent is gathered in difficult circumstances, plan to reconfirm it later.
Safeguarding children and people at risk
Stories involving children, survivors of abuse or exploitation, people with certain health conditions, and people whose legal status is uncertain need extra care. Agree these standards with your safeguarding lead:
- Obtain consent from a parent or legal guardian, and the agreement of the child in a way appropriate to their age and understanding.
- Never publish a child’s full name together with an identifiable image and location.
- Remove metadata (such as GPS coordinates) from photo files before publishing.
- Avoid images showing school uniforms, street signs or landmarks that reveal where a child lives or studies.
- Do not depict children in states of undress, distress or in ways that could be sexualised or misused.
- Do not identify survivors of violence, trafficking or exploitation, even with consent, unless a full risk assessment supports it.
- Ensure photographers, filmmakers and volunteers working on content have been briefed on — and have signed — your safeguarding policy.
When in doubt, use illustrations, composite stories (clearly labelled as such), silhouettes, hands or wide shots, or let the person tell their story in audio without their image.
GDPR for images and stories: the essentials
This section is general information, not legal advice; check your own situation with your data protection officer or a qualified adviser.
| Question | What to consider |
|---|---|
| Is it personal data? | Yes, if a person can be identified directly or indirectly — from their face, name, voice, or a combination of details. |
| Is it special category data? | Details revealing health, ethnic origin, religious beliefs, political opinions, sexual orientation and similar are special category data and need stronger protection, typically explicit consent. |
| What is the lawful basis? | For storytelling, consent is the most common basis. It must be freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous, and as easy to withdraw as to give. |
| What must we tell people? | Who you are, why you are using their data, where it will appear, how long you will keep it, their rights and how to contact you. |
| How long can we keep it? | No longer than necessary. Set a retention period and review images and stories regularly. |
| Where is it stored? | Securely, with access limited to those who need it, and linked to the consent record. |
| What about third parties? | If partners, agencies or media receive stories, define in writing what they may do with them. |
A practical system links each asset in your image library to its consent record, the permitted uses and an expiry date. When someone withdraws consent, you can then find and remove every instance quickly.
Moving beyond poverty imagery
Images of suffering, helplessness and need can trigger an immediate emotional response, but they tend to strip people of agency, reinforce stereotypes about entire regions and imply that your organisation (and your donors) are the heroes of the story. A more ethical approach does not mean hiding hardship. It means showing it honestly and in context.
| Instead of… | Try… |
|---|---|
| A crying child looking up at the camera | A child learning, playing or explaining what they hope for |
| “She had nothing until we arrived” | “She and her neighbours organised a savings group, with support from our partner” |
| Foreign staff or celebrities at the centre of the frame | Local staff, partners and community members leading the work |
| Anonymous groups of “beneficiaries” | Named individuals (with consent) with their own views and voice |
| Need presented without causes | Context about the structural causes and what change is required |
Language matters as much as imagery. Many organisations now prefer “people we work with”, “participants” or “community members” over “beneficiaries”, and person-first or identity-first language as preferred by the community in question.
Co-creation: let people tell their own stories
The most powerful shift is from telling stories about people to supporting people to tell their own stories. Approaches include:
- Participatory photography: giving cameras or phones to community members to document what matters to them.
- Self-written or self-recorded testimony: lightly edited, with the person approving the final version.
- Story review: sharing the draft, caption and final image with the person before publication, in a language they understand.
- Community storytelling panels: involving people with lived experience in deciding which stories are told and how.
- Fair recognition: crediting contributors by name if they wish, and considering appropriate compensation for their time where your policies allow.
A hypothetical example
Imagine a small NGO running a literacy programme for adult migrants in a European city. Previously, its appeal materials used a stock-style photo of a person looking anxious at a form. Working with a group of participants, the team instead invited volunteers from the class to write a short paragraph about what reading in their new language had made possible. Participants chose whether to include a photo and chose the photo themselves. The resulting stories were warmer, more specific and more credible — and the participants were proud to share them with their own networks. This illustrates the principle; your results will depend on your context and audience.
Common mistakes
- Treating consent as a one-off form rather than an ongoing relationship.
- Using an old photo for a new purpose that the person never agreed to.
- Letting agencies or volunteer photographers decide what to capture without a brief.
- Captions that add sensitive details “for impact” that were not needed.
- Assuming that a person who is not online will never see the content — diaspora communities and local media often will.
- Failing to share the published story with the person who told it.
Ethical storytelling checklist
Before publishing any story, image or video featuring the people you serve, check:
- Do we have recorded, informed consent covering this specific use and channel?
- Was it made clear that refusing would not affect services?
- Has the person (or guardian) seen and approved the final version where feasible?
- Have we shared only the personal details the story genuinely needs?
- Could anything — name, location, background, metadata — put the person at risk?
- Has our safeguarding lead reviewed content involving children or people at risk?
- Does the story show the person with dignity and agency?
- Is it accurate, in context, and free of exaggeration?
- Would we be comfortable if the person, their family and their community saw it?
- Is the asset logged in our image library with its consent record and expiry date?
Key takeaways
- Ethical storytelling protects dignity, safety and agency while still showing real impact.
- Consent must be informed, freely given, specific and revisited — never tied to receiving services.
- Children and people at risk need additional safeguarding measures and minimal identifying detail.
- Under GDPR, images and stories of identifiable people are personal data, sometimes special category data.
- Replace poverty imagery with context, hope and people’s own voices; co-create wherever possible.
- Use a pre-publication checklist and link every asset to its consent record.
Ethics and audience-focused messaging are central themes in our Mastering Public Relations workshop, while our Mastering Marketing course looks at fundraising communications that build lasting trust. If you would like to develop a storytelling and consent policy with your whole team, consider an in-house training day, or contact us to discuss your needs.
