When charities engage in 'brand activism', research shows they must demonstrate bravery to attract donations

Charities often rely on “warm and fuzzy” images and “poverty porn” tactics to attract donations. But in recent years, some UK not-for-profits have shifted towards activism-driven campaigns. Shelter’s 2021 Fight for Home campaign took a bold stand in support of the human right to safe housing with a protest-inspired logo redesign and a campaign spotlighting real people affected by the UK housing crisis. And more recently, during Pride month (June), charities including the Worldwide Fund for Nature changed their logos to a rainbow to signal their LGBTQ+ allyship. Charities are clearly well positioned to undertake ad campaigns with notions of social change at their core. But our recent research shows they could risk creating the perception of hypocrisy with such strategies. They need to tread carefully with this kind of “brand activism”, defined as taking a stance on a controversial sociopolitical issue. In March 2023, for instance, Oxfam faced significant backlash when it launched an inclusive language guide stating: “Language has the power to reinforce or deconstruct systems of power that maintain poverty, inequality and suffering”. The conservative right accused Oxfam of being too “woke”