The Case Study Formula That Doesn't Sound Like a Brochure

Most charity case studies share two problems: they sound like a brochure, and they treat the person as a prop. Both come from the same root - the writer started with the message they wanted to land, then went looking for a story that would prove it. Good case studies start the other way around. The story comes first; the message earns its place at the end, or not at all.

What follows is the formula I use with every storytelling team - six lines, in order, each doing one job. It is not the only way. It is the one that has held up across hundreds of pieces and dozens of charities.

The six-line formula

1. A specific moment. Not a summary - a single Tuesday-morning, real-place moment.
1. The before. What was true for them six months earlier, in their words.
1. The turn. The thing that changed - the call, the form, the friend who pushed.
1. The work. What the charity actually did, named in plain terms.
1. The now. Where they are today, in concrete detail.
1. The forward. What they are trying next - not a fundraising ask, their ask.

Six lines. Each one is a paragraph, sometimes two. The whole thing reads in 90 seconds.

A worked example

Before

"Reni was struggling with anxiety and our team supported her through a difficult time. Today, she is studying at university and is grateful for the help she received."

That is what most case studies look like. It is honest, it is short, and it is invisible. The reader skims it because nothing in it is specific.

After

"Reni rang us on a Tuesday morning in February. She had not slept for three nights. Six months earlier, she had stopped going to her A-level lessons; her mum had stopped asking why. Our counsellor, Maya, called her the next day. They spoke every Wednesday for fourteen weeks. This September, Reni moved her tuition deposit from her piggy bank to her uni bank account. She wants to study psychology. She is thinking about volunteering on the helpline next summer."

Same person. Same charity. Same intervention. The second version respects the reader because it respects the subject. Concrete details do all the work that adjectives were trying to do.

How to interview for it

You cannot write a six-line story from a one-paragraph briefing. The interview has to be done in a way that surfaces the moments, the before, and the now. A few rules:

• Sit somewhere they chose. Not a meeting room. A coffee shop, a kitchen table, a park bench. The location changes the story.
• Ask for sensory detail. "What were you wearing when you made the call?" "What did the room look like?" Sense memory unlocks the moment.
• Use silences. The most useful sentences come 10 seconds after you stopped asking questions. Resist the urge to fill the gap.
• Read it back to them. Always. Before any publication, the subject sees the draft and edits it. They are the author of their own story.

The consent and safeguarding checklist

Before any case study goes near a website, run through this list:

• Written consent on file, dated, naming the channels (web, social, email, print, broadcast, third-party reuse).
• A clear statement of what they can change and how to withdraw.
• A child-safeguarding sign-off if the subject is under 18, plus a parental consent.
• A pseudonym option offered, even when not requested.
• A diary date, twelve months from publication, to re-check consent and accuracy.

Get this right and you save a future crisis. Get it wrong and the cost is not just legal - it is trust, and trust takes years to rebuild.

Three traps to avoid

Trap 1: The composite character

Tempting, especially when you have several similar stories. Don't. A composite is fiction; readers can feel it, and the moment one detail is questioned, the whole charity loses credibility. If you cannot name a real person, do not write a case study.

Trap 2: The rescue narrative

"We saved her" is the brochure formula. It is also rarely true. Most charity work is collaborative - the person did most of the work, with your help. Frame the case study as theirs, with your charity as part of the supporting cast. It is more honest, and it is better copy.

Trap 3: The case study as ask machine

A good case study can sit alongside a fundraising ask. It cannot be one. Resist the urge to bolt "Donate now" onto the end of every story. The story is the point. The ask comes elsewhere.

A pattern to put on your editorial calendar

One published case study a month, written to the formula above, with full consent on file, re-checked annually, written by a single named author. That is a sustainable rhythm for almost any charity. It produces twelve usable pieces a year - enough for fundraising appeals, web pages, social posts, board reports, and the inevitable journalist who asks for "a real example" twenty minutes before deadline.

Twelve stories. One formula. The point is not to tell more stories. It is to tell each one well enough that a stranger reads it twice.

Further reading

Community Storytelling Without Exploitation | A Year of Content on One Page | Your Social Bio Is Your Hardest Copy