How ought charity beneficiaries be portrayed – or ‘framed’ – in charity advertising and fundraising?

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There’s often a difference of opinion within charities.

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Fundraisers tend to favour those images that they believe will maximise income (that will be used to alleviate the plight of the beneficiaries). These images tend to show in quite stark context the plight and suffering of beneficiaries, often quite graphically. This is because professional received wisdom says it's these types of images that raise the most money. But they are often criticised as ‘poverty porn’, which stereotypes beneficiaries or does not accord them an appropriate level of dignity.

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So many service delivery staff (and others at charities) tend to favour images that reflect more ‘positive’ values about beneficiaries, maintain their dignity, and focus on the solution to the problem. But fundraisers would argue that such images raise less money.

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This argument has become polarised with little progress towards common ground. So Rogare is trying to reframe this whole question by looking at the evidence for and against negative and positive framing in charity advertising, and by trying to develop a new ethics of beneficiary framing derived from Rights Balancing Fundraising Ethics.