The Story Guardian Pledge

For everyone who tells stories: nonprofit leaders, marketers, fundraisers, communicators, and storytellers.

I will remember whose story it is.

I may help tell the story, but I do not own it. I will honor the voice, agency, dignity, and humanity of the person who lived it.
I will recognize the power I hold.

I will examine the assumptions, biases, stereotypes, and power dynamics I bring to someone else’s story and how they may shape the story I choose to tell and the way I tell it.
I will make consent explicit.

I will seek informed, contextual, and ongoing consent whenever possible. I will make sure people understand how and where their story may be used, and I will honor their right to change their mind.
I will seek to understand before I tell.

I will do the work to understand the cultural, social, historical, and personal context surrounding a story rather than interpreting someone else’s experience solely through my own lens.
I will protect the vulnerable.

I will consider not only the impact a story could make today, but the impact telling it could have on the person tomorrow and in the far future. I will take particular care when stories involve children or others who may not be able to consent or fully understand the implications of sharing their story.
I will honor the whole person.

I will not define people by their trauma, hardship, circumstances, or need. I will honor their strengths, complexity, dignity, and possibility.
I will value the people beyond the story.

I will think beyond the individual to the families, communities, and people represented by their story. I will take care not to reinforce stereotypes, stigma, or harmful narratives in pursuit of a compelling story.
I will care for those who encounter the story.

I will consider how a story may affect those who hear, read, or see it—especially people who may recognize their own experiences in it. I will take care not to glorify harm, offer dangerous oversimplifications, or leave vulnerable audiences without appropriate context, resources, or paths to help.
I will tell the truth.

I will not embellish, manipulate, sensationalize, or distort someone’s experience simply to make a story more powerful. I will value accuracy over a more dramatic narrative.
I will put people over performance.

I will not measure a story’s success only by the clicks, tears, donations, views, or action it generates. Because a story that succeeds at the expense of the people inside it has not succeeded at all.