Reports & Research
A critical analysis of charity advertising in the UK
Charity Advertising, 2026.
Impact Storytelling: the Ecosystem, the Evidence and Possible Futures
AKO Storytelling Institute, May 2024.
Better Conversations About Ethical Storytelling
M&C Saatchi World Services, August 2023.
Rethink Reframe Redefine: Co-Creation and Storytelling: Testing the Contributor-Centered Storytelling methodology with UNHCR
Jess Crombie Consultancy, 2024.
The People in the Pictures: Vital perspectives on Save the Children’s image making
Save the Children, 2017.
Guidelines & Policies
Broke Project
Self-care for Storytellers (or Your Story Is Yours)
Define American
American Dreaming: The Roadmap to Resilience for Undocumented Storytelling, 2022.
Donor Relations Group
A Checklist for Ethical Storytelling: Stirring Hearts, Not Manipulating Minds
Ethical Stori by Paul Ekuru
D.I.G.N.I.T.Y Test; A Framework for Non-Profit Ethical Storytelling
Immigrants Rising
Storytellers Bill of Rights
New America
Ethical Storytelling Guidelines
No Lip Service
Ethical Story-modeling™
Orangewood Foundation
Ethical Storytelling: Uplifting Voices with Integrity
Photographers Without Borders
Code of Ethics
SOS Children’s Villages
Ethical Storytelling Guidelines
Surefire Communications
Story Manifesto
United Way
Ethical Storytelling Guidelines
Academic Criticism & Research
Journal Articles
Macrae, Andrea. Small Stories in Charity Fundraising Letters and the Ethics of Interwoven Individualism, Poetics Today, Volume 43, Issue 2, June 2022.
Mäkelä, Maria, Samuli Björninen, Laura Karttunen, Matias Nurminen, Juha Raipola and Tytti Rantanen. Dangers of Narrative: A Critical Approach to Narratives of Personal Experience in Contemporary Story Economy, Narrative, Volume 29, Issue 2, May 2021.
Mäkelä, Maria and Hanna Meretoja. Critical Approaches to the Storytelling Boom, Poetics Today, Volume 43, Issue 2, June 2022.
Polletta, Francesca, Tania DoCarmo, Kelly Marie Ward and Jessica Callahan, Personal Storytelling in Professionalized Social Movements, Mobilization: An International Quarterly, Volume 26, Issue 1, 2021.
Santos, Pablo Victor Fontes, Victoria Motta de Lamare França, Cristina Rego Monteiro da Luz, Mônica Leite Lessa, Humanization, Dehumanization, and Spectacularization: The Semiotics of UNICEF’s Unfairy Tales, International Political Sociology, Volume 19, Issue 1, March 2025.
Willett, Ashlan S., Aaron Levy and Rita Charon. For Clinicians Who Write Essays About Patients: Conceptual Review of Consent and Ethical Considerations, Journal of General Internal Medicine, Volume 41, 2026.
Books
Brooks, Peter. Seduced by Story: the Use and Abuse of Narrative, 2022.
Fernandes, Sujatha, Curated Stories: The Uses and Misuses of Storytelling, 2017.
Polletta, Francesca. It Was Like a Fever: Storytelling in Protest and Politics, 2006.
Meretoja, Hanna. The Ethics of Storytelling, 2018.
Meretoja, Hanna and Mark Freeman (Eds). The Use and Abuse of Stories, 2023.
Salmon, Christian. Storytelling: Bewitching the Modern Mind, 2007.
Squire, Corinne (Ed), Stories Changing Lives: Narratives and Paths toward Social Change, 2021.
Shuman, Amy, Other People's Stories: Entitlement Claims and the Critique of Empathy, 2010.