INFO Cooperazione
The Italian community of International Cooperation
17th October 2022
It is not certainly the first time that the topic comes back among the workers of the sector, especially those who take care of raising funds in the world of private donors. Among the fundraisers there are different schools of thought and over the years there have been several occasions of debate that led to significant reflections regarding the use of images in the activities of communication and fundraising of NGOs and all the institutions operating in the world of international solidarity and humanitarian help.
We ourselves have conveyed this debate on our website page suggesting guidelines and materials elaborated by Italian and European organizations that have thought to regulate the use of images especially when dealing with minors. A debate that, a few years ago materialized in the constitution of a national conference promoted by several institutions of the sector regarding the use of images in the campaigns of communication and fundraising, that brought to the adhesion of AOI and Link2007 at the Institute of Advertising Governance (IAP).
An important news, that could contribute further to the debate, arrived from the UK few weeks ago, where an important charity that historically deals with childhood launched the campaign OverExposed, an invitation to raise standards and reframe the way in which the sector uses the images and the stories of the kids. As part of their commitment, the charity in question, Chance for Childhood, decided to stop showing the faces of the kids under 18 in its images and videos and to completely remove the faces of the kids from all the fundraising activities.
This is the challenge that the OverExposed campaign extends to all the organizations and all the workers that for various reasons handle with the communication of fundraising, with the purpose of generating a change sector-wide in the way in which organizations consider their own editorial standards.
Reformulate our thought, reshape their future; this is the slogan of the campaign that wants to put an end to the presentation of the kids as the “helpless victims” by using decent narrations and images that truly protect their identities, their rights and their dreams. The organization will engage in collecting, archiving and using the images of minors, recognizing the fundamental importance of their privacy and intellectual property, as highlighted by the United Nation Conventions on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
At Chance for Childhood they are sure that this choice will not negatively affect the results of the fundraising. In the period before the launch of the campaign, all the stakeholders and donors were listened, and most of them encouraged the organization to continue with this choice. However, the flows of the revenues will be closely monitored every month to see if this change will have an impact, but the organization believes to have taken adequate measures to minimize this risk more.