Impact reports lean on photographs because a tutoring table or a garden bed is easier to recognize than a footnote. That convenience is exactly why consent files matter. A parent who agreed to a closed Facebook album has not automatically agreed to a 2,000-piece mailer. A volunteer who posed for an internal newsletter may not want their face on a foundation portal.
We ask for the consent form, the date, and the permitted uses before a picture enters a layout. If the form is missing, we crop to hands, tables, produce, or architecture, or we leave the frame out. A stock photograph of smiling strangers is worse than a small, honest picture of the actual room with faces omitted.
Captions should carry the program name, the season, and whether the scene was typical or a special event. A holiday meal is not a proxy for Tuesday lunch. A ribbon-cutting is not a proxy for a year of case management. Donors who attend the gala already know the difference; the packet should too.
Children require a narrower rule. If a school partner forbids identifiable minors in public reports, we follow the partner, even when a parent signed a looser form. The report is not the place to win an argument with a principal.
When in doubt, commission a new picture on a day when consent can be collected in the room. It is slower than mining last year’s phone roll. It also prevents a January letter from a family who found themselves in a donor mailer they never approved.