Your best case study is probably a lie. Here's how to tell an honest one that still gets funded

Think about the case studies in your last funding bid. How many of them ended with the problem solved?

Probably all of them. That’s the shape funders seem to want: a problem, your intervention, a transformation. Beginning, middle, happy ending.

Now think about the problem your organisation exists to tackle. Is it smaller than it was five years ago?

For a lot of charities, the honest answer is no. In 2024/25, 151 charities with an income over £50,000 closed, up from 87 the year before, according to an analysis of Charity Commission data by the accountants Lubbock Fine. CAF’s UK Giving Report found about 4 million fewer people donated in 2024 than in 2019. Capacity is shrinking. And the case studies keep ending in transformation anyway.

This guide is for anyone who writes or signs off case studies, in charities and in the funders and companies that back them.

The arc that gets rewarded

Problem, intervention, transformation. It’s the structure of most grant applications, award entries and annual reports. It’s tidy and it’s easy to read.

It also quietly pushes organisations to invent endings. When the most honest thing you could say is “we’re still here, the problem is still here, and it’s bigger than last year”, that story doesn’t fit the arc.

So organisations do one of two things. They stop telling stories, because they feel they have nothing positive to show. Or they find the one person whose life improved and present them as the pattern.

What false endings cost

When every organisation a funder backs seems to be solving the problem, and the problem keeps growing, trust wears away.

It’s rarely deliberate. The system rewards resolution, so organisations produce it. But the gap between the stories and the reality gets wider every year, and the people who read the most case studies, funders and trustees, are the first to notice.

That’s the part of the standard arc I disagree with most. It treats the reader as someone who needs a happy ending. I’d much rather read “here’s where things stand, what worked and what didn’t”.

An example from my own charity

The problem the Naz and Matt Foundation exists to tackle, religious homophobia that drives families apart, isn’t solved. In 2026 the climate is more hostile than it has been in years. For the first time since we launched Out and Proud Parents Day in 2019, we’ve been asking even supportive parents not to reveal their identity publicly unless it’s completely safe.

That’s an honest story. It shows what we do, what’s changed and what’s got harder. And it makes a stronger case for support than any neat ending could, because it’s true.

A structure for honest stories

I use a five-part structure for stories about problems that aren’t solved yet.

1. Situation. What is happening right now, in specific, observable detail.

2. Stakes. What happens if nothing changes.

3. What we did. The concrete actions you took, without claiming more than you can show.

4. What’s still true. What hasn’t changed yet. This is where honesty builds trust.

5. What happens next. Two futures: one with continued support, and one without.

Ask for: every case study in a bid or report to include a “what’s still true” line, saying honestly what hasn’t changed yet.

How to check a case study for a false ending

Before you send your next bid, read each case study and ask:

• Does it imply the problem is solved, when it isn’t?

• Is this person typical, or the best example we could find?

• If they were standing behind me reading it, would they agree with the ending?

• Have we said what’s still hard?

If any answer makes you uncomfortable, rewrite the ending. Make it true, without making it bleak.

Six questions to ask before a case study goes out

1. What is the situation now, in specific detail?

2. What’s at stake if nothing changes?

3. What exactly did we do?

4. What’s still true that we haven’t changed?

5. What happens with continued support, and without it?

6. Would the person in the story recognise this ending?

Where to start this week

Take your strongest case study. Add one honest sentence about what’s still true. Read it again. It will usually feel more believable.

If you’d like help telling honest stories for your next bid or report, that’s part of my storytelling consultancy.

Questions people ask

Will funders back us if we admit the problem isn’t solved?

Many will respect you more for it. A clear account of what you’ve done, what’s still hard and what happens next is more credible than another story with a perfect ending.

Isn’t it risky to show what’s not working?

It’s riskier to be found out. Honest stories build the kind of trust that survives a difficult year.

What is false resolution?

Presenting a partial or temporary improvement as if the problem were solved. It’s common because the standard story arc rewards it.