You've Been Reframed: How ought beneficiaries be represented in fundraising materials?

The debate about how images and content depicting the people who use NGO’s services (called ‘contributors’ in this paper) ought to be gathered and used is often polarised between those who want to use images that will raise the most money (‘fundraising frame’) and those who want to depict contributors in a positive way, with dignity, and that focuses on solutions. However, one crucial voice that is missing from this conversation is that of contributors themselves, with little research carried out into their opinions about, and attitudes, to how their stories are told in NGO content. This paper aims to add contributors’ voices by reviewing the research that has been done on this subject and what we can infer from that research.