2026 Ethical Storytelling

Kony 2012 is widely considered the first genuinely viral fundraising campaign. Invisible Children’s 30-minute film reached roughly 100 million views in under a week and drove a surge of donations and merchandise sales. Many took it as proof that social media had rewritten nonprofit fundraising. Then people from the communities the film was about began to weigh in. Screenings in northern Uganda drew a mixed and often frustrated response. Ugandan writers and journalists noted that the story centered American young people, simplified a complex regional history, and described a threat that had largely left the country years earlier. Within weeks, one of the most successful campaigns the sector had seen also became one of the sector’s most cautionary tales, and it is still a story fundraisers learn from today.

We start with Kony for a reason. How we tell a story is closely tied to whether we can be trusted, and this conversation is neither new nor local. Communities have long shared thoughtful concerns about how the nonprofit sector tells stories across borders and sectors.

Two fundraisers will share how they build donor narratives with communities rather than about them. Gabriela Reyes (Casa Latina) discusses how language-inclusive fundraising that serves both English- and Spanish-speaking donors, earns and keeps the trust of the immigrant communities her organization serves. Jessica Nieves (Think Big Collective) shares a “hero-centered” co-creation method drawn from work with immigrants and refugees in Seattle, Phoenix, and California, and internationally across Northeast Africa and the Caribbean. She covers how to build psychological safety and prevent re-traumatization before asking for a story, and how to collaborate when you and the storyteller don’t share a language.

The conversation will conclude with concrete practical tips and participants will be sent a follow up guide with tips for ethical storytelling.