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Here are some authentic content ideas for you to consider.
Your staff and volunteers are one of your greatest assets for authentic content. Forget the formal case studies. Instead, let your team share their daily experiences, challenges, and moments of truth. When your programme coordinator shares their honest reflections about a project that needed rethinking, or your frontline workers talk about what keeps them going during tough days – that’s the reality that you should be showing your supporters.
Your donors are probably drowning in perfectly polished impact reports. Stand out by sending them real insights into your journey. Share the mistakes you’ve learned from. Talk about the community feedback that made you pivot your approach. Document the messy, complicated process of creating real change. You’ll find that donors appreciate this honesty – it helps them understand why their support matters more than any glossy brochure ever could.
The charity sector can be surprisingly competitive. Break this pattern by sharing your authentic experiences with other organisations. Create content that openly discusses sector-wide issues. When you talk about your uncertainties and learning moments, you give other charities permission to do the same.
Real authenticity means letting your beneficiaries/service users/clients tell their stories their way. Move beyond carefully edited testimonials. Let them share their full experience – including the parts where your support wasn’t perfect. Here’s an example of a film we made with Dementia UK. With Jude’s story, we gave her full reign of how she wanted to come across and how she wanted her story told.
This film was watched by thousands on social media, showing that authenticity is usually the key ingredient in connecting people to your cause.
You could also create content that shows your clients how their feedback is actively shaping your programmes. This kind of honesty builds trust and shows that you’re truly committed to your mission.
If this all sounds a bit scary, that’s natural. True authenticity means letting go of control over your narrative. It means trusting that your supporters will appreciate your honesty, even when it shows imperfection.
Being authentic and showing mistakes is appreciated more and is even backed by psychology! The Pratfall Effect suggests that people who are competent and make a mistake, are more likeable and relatable compared to those who don’t. In the study, separate groups of participants ranked an individual answering quiz questions. In one experiment the individual split coffee during the quiz and in the other they didn’t. But here’s the thing – they were ranked more favourably by the participants when they spilt the coffee. This is not to say you should make a mistake on purpose to stand out, but being vulnerable enough to share them and how you’re working to improve them can go a long way. In a world where everyone can spot manufactured content a mile away, your genuine voice will stand out.
Remember, every time you choose to share a real story instead of a polished one, you’re not just being authentic – you’re helping transform how the charity sector communicates. You’re showing that real impact comes from real conversations, and that honest content builds stronger connections than perfect content ever could.
If you’re interested in creating your own authentic charity film content, have a chat with us at emma@thesaltways.com and we can help get you started.
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