How to write a brilliant charity case study

“I had no idea that writing amazing case studies could boost our fundraising, but our supporters donated an extra £3 million last year!” Who doesn’t want to keep reading that story to find out more?

That’s exactly what we’re looking at in this blog – essential tips and tricks to help you write a good charity case study.

Why have case studies?

You can put statistics on a website to show the impact of your charity, but they can feel quite cold and abstract. Why should your supporters care how much money you raised in Q3, or how many service users have benefitted from your programmes?

A case study can show them exactly how their support has helped change lives. Telling people how their donations have kept families together, helped children reach their potential or given hope to those who felt hopeless is far more powerful than a sterile list of facts and figures.

Creating an emotional connection means you’re more likely to gain new supporters and help existing supporters feel like they’re making a difference. So, how can a case study do all that?

What’s your “So what?”

This basic principle often gets overlooked when writing charity case studies. It might be blindingly obvious to you who your audience is, but have you thought about what they want? The answer is never simply “to read a case study”, so you need to convince them.

The people who donate to, fundraise for and interact with charities are almost always those who’ve had personal experience of the issues you tackle – so your case study needs to be relevant to them and reflect their experiences. If they can see themselves in the story, they’re more motivated to help. 

You also need to think about where people will see this case study; in a newspaper? A fundraising letter? The annual report? The type of case study may change depending on the location. For example, a newspaper might want a dramatic, highly emotional case study but those in a fundraising letter tend to be more positive and reassuring.

Rather than pulling your audience in, the wrong case study can put them off. But if you ask yourself "So what?" at the time of writing, your readers won't have to.

Avoid generic storytelling…

So many case studies sound like they’ve been written to fit a charity case study template. While following a strict formula may make life easier for you, if supporters see that same bland, meaningless messaging everywhere they’ll lose interest.

Most charity case studies will follow this format:

• Beginning – “I had X issue and it affected my life in this way”

• Middle – “I contacted Y charity and this is what they did”

• End – “My life is now much better / I can now do so much more”

Although it’s important to include these elements in a case study, they shouldn’t be the only ones you cover, and they don’t have to be in that order (more on this later).

It’s also tempting to think the more positive and upbeat your case studies are, the better your charity will come across. But by following the standard “good news story” identikit format, your readers will, at best, skip over it and, at worst, not believe you.

… and be specific

The more general your case study, the broader your audience, right? Getting into specific details is far more likely to win people to your cause.

For instance, which of these is more powerful?

“The charity really supported me throughout my treatment.”

Or:

“When Carla, my Macmillan nurse, sat down with me a few weeks after I got my diagnosis, it was the first time I felt like I wasn’t alone.”

The first example is bland and generic, but the second is specific and honest. So, get real – we don’t mean using a ‘warts and all’ anecdote, but giving your audience specific information about how the charity actually made a difference to your case study.

What’s your hook?

You could have the most intriguing tale of human struggle and triumph, complete with an uplifting moral message, but it’s all for nothing if nobody reads it! Your opening hook is your brief window of opportunity to grab your readers’ attention – so don’t squander it.

Many charities start by spelling out the whole who, what, why, where, when of a case study, painting a huge background picture for readers, but that’s a lot of information to take in before they really know what’s happening. 

Why not dive right in with a compelling scene instead? For example, compare:

“During the festive holidays, there are many children with cancer whose condition makes it impossible for them to go home, so they end up spending Christmas in hospital instead. We speak to one of them, 10-year-old Timmy Jones.”

With:

“Christmas is always a weird time of year for us. When most people are looking forward to taking a break with their family, there’s no such thing as ‘time off’ when your child has cancer.”

Using a direct quote will also have more impact, encouraging your audience to keep reading. That’s what we did at the beginning of this blog; if you’re still with us, then it worked!

And don’t be frightened of using the negative. Showing readers how tough things can be helps the case study feel more genuine and honest, and demonstrates exactly why your charity is needed.

Watch your language

When using quotes, make sure you’re really quoting – don’t put words in people’s mouths. For example, no one has ever said “My future now feels much more hopeful, thanks to XYZ charity” in a normal conversation. 

They might say something a bit generic like “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for XYZ charity”, but you can bulk it up with specific information relevant to that case study. For example, “I didn’t think I’d get to see my daughter graduate, but XYZ charity helped me to be there for her big day – and I’m still here today.”

Check that your case study also follows your brand tone of voice. This may require some careful editing – as long as you don’t totally rewrite what they say – but if you’re struggling, are they the right case study for your target audience?

Don’t forget your call to action – and don’t let them forget it either

Finally, make sure you don’t waste all that hard work by tacking on a weak call to action at the end – or worse, leaving it out altogether. What do you want your reader to do?

Although your brilliant case study is now good enough to convince many people to donate, some may want to “Find out more”, “Volunteer” or “Sign up” instead. Again, ask yourself ‘So what?’ to work out what you want the case study to achieve.

Even if your audience is immediately seized with the desire to part with £50, you’re not limited to “Donate Now” either. They could “Make a difference”, “Help more children like Timmy” or even “Bring Timmy’s family together this Christmas”. We’re feeling our purse strings loosen this very second.

Want more advice on creating great charity content? Read all our expert blogs here.