Brand & Editorial Charter
The rules that govern how LWD sounds, looks, and treats the people at the centre of its story. Every downstream artefact — case-for-support, pitch deck, landing page, email, video — must conform to this charter or be redrafted to conform.
1. Purpose & audience geometry
1.1 What LWD is
Life Without Debt Ltd (in formation) is a proposed Australian Public Benevolent Institution that helps terminally ill Australians by paying qualified debt-negotiation professionals to reduce or extinguish their consumer debt in their final months of life. The purpose is relief of poverty, sickness, distress, and misfortune (ACNC subtype), targeted at a moment where debt actively worsens medical and psychological outcomes.
1.2 What LWD is not
- Not a financial counsellor. Not a legal service. Not a debt-consolidation lender.
- Not a general anti-debt advocacy organisation — the scope is deliberately narrow: terminally ill people, at end-of-life, whose remaining months are being spent worrying about debt instead of being present with their families.
- Not a service that promises outcomes. Debt-negotiation results are never guaranteed — every piece of writing acknowledges this.
1.3 Two audiences, three registers
Everything LWD writes has two audiences in the room:
- The beneficiary — a terminally ill person or their family — who must read our public materials and feel seen, not sold to.
- The donor — individual, corporate, foundation, government — who must read our fundraising materials and feel their gift will move outcomes.
These audiences read different documents most of the time. But at the seams (annual reports, homepage, About page, video pillars) they read the same words. The charter's core discipline is this: where they overlap, the beneficiary reading comes first.
| Register | Use for | Distinguishing marker |
|---|---|---|
| Compassion register | Beneficiary-facing content: eligibility pages, application pages, FAQ, intake materials, video Pillar B (“who qualifies”) and C (“how to apply”) | Second person (“you”), plain language, short sentences, no jargon, emotional but not manipulative |
| Fundraising register | Donor-facing content: room-specific case-for-support, pitch decks, gift agreements, stewardship packs | Third person, evidence-led, quantified impact, professional but warm, respects donor's intelligence |
| Governance register | Constitution, policies, board papers, ACNC/ASIC lodgements, regulator correspondence, annual report | Formal, precise, legal-plain-English, citations to Act/section, no marketing language |
2. Tone of voice
2.1 The five voice principles
Principle 1 — Plain, not simple.
Read like an intelligent friend explaining, not a corporate press release, and not a hospital brochure. Beneficiaries are grown adults facing the hardest event of their lives; they can handle complexity, they cannot handle condescension.
Principle 2 — Truthful about limits.
Never promise. Debt-negotiation is a negotiation. Some creditors write off, some reduce, some refuse. We are open about that.
Principle 3 — Present, not pitying.
Beneficiaries are not victims. They are people living the last months of a life they built. We meet them as equals.
Principle 4 — Specific, not abstract.
“$47,000 in credit-card debt across four cards” beats “significant consumer debt.” Numbers, when we have them, are the story.
Principle 5 — Warm, not saccharine.
We are permitted to be moving. We are not permitted to be maudlin. If a sentence feels like a Hallmark card, redraft it.
2.2 Language house rules
| Preferred | Avoid | Why |
|---|---|---|
| “terminally ill”, “end-of-life”, “final months” | “dying” (as adjective), “the terminally ill” (as a noun) | Descriptors, not identities. The person comes first. |
| “beneficiary” (internal); “the people we help” (external) | “client”, “case”, “recipient” | “Client” implies commercial; “case” implies file. “Beneficiary” is technically correct for governance/tax documents; humanised for public. |
| “debt-hardship negotiation” | “debt relief”, “debt cancellation”, “debt forgiveness” | ASIC RG 96 is careful about implied credit-related services. Hardship negotiation is the accurate description. |
| “we work with” the creditor | “we fight” the creditor | Adversarial framing invites regulatory scrutiny under RG 96 and misrepresents the actual process, which is cooperative more often than not. |
| “the family”, “the people you love” | “your loved ones” | “Loved ones” is a funeral-industry phrase and pattern-matches to grief marketing. |
| “we can't guarantee outcomes” | “results not typical” | Second phrase is regulator-flag language for commercial debt services (RG 96, RG 271). We're a charity; use plain honesty instead. |
| “we” (the charity) | “LWD” in public writing (fine internally) | Abbreviations feel corporate to beneficiaries. |
| “free”, “no cost to you” | “complimentary”, “pro bono” | Plain words for beneficiaries. Latin belongs in governance documents. |
| Australian English throughout | “-ize”, “color”, “check” (for cheque) | Style consistency — -ise/-our/-re/-yse. Even in email templates. |
2.3 Sentence discipline
- Beneficiary-facing content: Flesch reading grade ≤ 8. Test every published page.
- Sentences: aim for ≤ 20 words in public; ≤ 25 in donor documents; no limit in governance.
- Paragraphs: no more than 4 sentences in beneficiary content; no more than 6 in donor content.
- Second person (“you”) in beneficiary content. Third person (“the charity”, “LWD”) in governance.
- Never use exclamation marks except in a direct quotation.
- Never use emoji in donor or governance content. Sparingly permitted in social media (Instagram, TikTok) only; never on LinkedIn, X, or long-form.
3. Cultural positioning
3.1 First Nations audience considerations (DRAFT — awaits Deen)
Terminal illness in First Nations communities happens younger, more often, and against a backdrop of intergenerational financial harm. Any LWD material read by an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander beneficiary or family must:
- Not centre a mainstream financial-literacy narrative that implies the person's debt is a personal failing. The structural context is different.
- Acknowledge kinship obligations. Debt in First Nations families is often carried collectively; conversations about “your” debt sometimes miss this.
- Be careful about imagery of Country, ceremony, or deceased persons. Never publish an image or name of a deceased Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person without explicit family and community consent.
- Provide plain-English application pathways that do not require online submission as the only entry point — phone and referral pathways matter.
3.2 Digital-human representation (DRAFT — awaits Deen)
The Ask Laurence AI agent (Sprint 7a) represents a specific person (Laurence Hugo) through a specific medium (HeyGen or Synthesia 2D avatar). The cultural-protocol consultation covers Deen's perspective on:
- What is appropriate representation for a non-Indigenous salaried CEO of a charity that serves First Nations beneficiaries alongside others.
- Whether the AI agent should route First Nations enquiries to a human intake pathway specifically.
- Post-death representation policy — if Laurence dies and the AI persists, what protocol governs its continuation.
- Whether the AI should decline to answer certain culturally-loaded questions and instead route to human intake.
Deen's written position from Sprint 0.16 is quoted in full in the v0.2 of this Charter.
3.3 Broader lived-experience positioning
Beyond First Nations audiences, LWD writes for people carrying financial shame. The following framings are prohibited:
- “Financially responsible” as a virtue.
- “Poor decisions” framing of debt.
- Language that assumes a family unit (a large share of beneficiaries are alone).
- Language that assumes property ownership.
- Language that assumes English as first language (materials require plain-English editions; multilingual glosses at minimum for high-need languages — Arabic, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Auslan pathway for Deaf beneficiaries).
3.4 Beneficiary story permission & consent
See sibling document Beneficiary Depiction Guardrails (Sprint 0.4) for the full permission-and-consent framework. Charter position: no real beneficiary story is published without written consent from the beneficiary while capable, plus family concurrence, plus a documented cooling-off period. Composite stories used in the interim must be flagged “composite” in the copy.
4. Visual identity
4.1 Colour palette
The palette is quiet. Not the vibrant reds of some cancer charities, nor the corporate blues of finance. Forest green anchors trust and stillness; gold accents dignity and warmth without brightness.
| Token | Hex | Sample | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
--forest | #1a5c52 | Primary | Primary brand green. Headings, links, primary buttons. |
--forest-deep | #0f3b34 | Deep | Serious contexts — governance headers, deep-emphasis. Also body text on light backgrounds. |
--forest-mid | #14503f | Mid | Sub-headings, secondary UI. |
--forest-wash | #eef5f3 | Wash | Section backgrounds, table headers, callouts. |
--gold | #c8922a | Accent | Dignity accent. Section rules, badges, links-in-progress. Use sparingly — never larger than a heading. |
--gold-warm | #d4a843 | Warm | Highlights within gold panels. |
--gold-light | #fdf6e7 | Light | Callout backgrounds, subtle warmth. |
| Slate | #4a5568 | Slate | Body text on dark; secondary text; captions. |
| White | #ffffff | Card | Card backgrounds. Never as a page background — the “doc-body” wash is off-white. |
4.2 Typography
- Display face: DM Serif Display (headings only, weights: regular + italic). Reads as printed, deliberate, considered — a book, not a website.
- Body face: Inter (weights: 300, 400, 500, 600, 700). Neutral, legible, screen-optimised.
- Numerals: Inter tabular figures for tables and financials.
- Line heights: Body 1.6; headings 1.2.
- Max reading width: 720–900px for prose; 1080px for tables and dashboards.
4.3 Photography & imagery direction
- Real, unstaged. No stock photography of hands-held-in-hospital-beds. Real Australian light, real Australian rooms, real Australian faces — with consent (see §3.4 and Sprint 0.4).
- Ordinary settings. Kitchens. Verandahs. Country hospitals. Suburban streets. Not designed rooms.
- Documentary tone. Warm natural light. Minimal post-production. No filters.
- No stock imagery for the palliative-care audience under any circumstance. If the story requires an image we don't ethically have, use a plain quotation card with typography instead.
- Illustration — permitted for explanatory content only (how debt-negotiation works; the funnel; the timeline). Never illustrated beneficiaries.
4.4 Logo & wordmark rules
- The wordmark uses DM Serif Display for “Life Without Debt”. Never all-caps, never italic, never letter-spaced.
- Minimum clear space around wordmark = height of the “L” on all four sides.
- Minimum digital size: 120px width. Minimum print size: 25mm.
- Never place wordmark over photography of a beneficiary.
- The registered charity name once ACNC-registered: “Life Without Debt Ltd” (with “Ltd”) in all governance and DGR-required contexts. Public materials may drop the “Ltd” unless a receipt/formal document requires it.
4.5 Iconography
FontAwesome 6 is the standard icon set (already used throughout the intranet). Icons are single-colour (forest or forest-deep); never coloured to attract attention.
5. Editorial process
5.1 The three-desk model
Every published piece of content passes three desks:
- Author desk — drafts to the Charter. Signs a draft note with the register (Compassion / Fundraising / Governance) and audience.
- Editorial desk — checks against Charter (this document) and Beneficiary Depiction Guardrails (Sprint 0.4). Reads at Flesch grade. Reads out loud.
- Compliance desk — checks against Compliance Guardrails One-pager (Sprint 0.6). Verifies no prohibited claims. Sign-off logged in changelog.
For content that names a real beneficiary, a fourth desk applies:
- Consent desk — verifies signed consent form on file, cooling-off period expired, family concurrence documented (per Sprint 0.4).
5.2 Turnaround expectations
| Content type | Editorial desk | Compliance desk | Consent desk (if applicable) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social media post | Same day | Same day | N/A (no real beneficiary) |
| Email nurture (per-item) | 2 business days | 2 business days | N/A |
| Landing page | 3 business days | 3 business days | N/A |
| Pitch deck | 5 business days | 5 business days | N/A |
| Case-for-support one-pager | 5 business days | 5 business days | N/A |
| Real beneficiary story (any medium) | 10 business days | 10 business days | Signed consent on file + 7-day cooling-off + family concurrence |
| Governance document (ACNC, ASIC, DGR) | 10 business days | Deen review | N/A |
| Video pillar | 10 business days | 10 business days | Signed Personality Rights Assignment (Sprint 0.15) required for Laurence; standard consent for any other subject |
5.3 Who sits at each desk
- Author desk: whoever drafts — Claude, Lisa (BD Director), external agency where engaged.
- Editorial desk: Lisa (BD Director) is default editorial owner. Laurence sign-off on tone for beneficiary-facing content.
- Compliance desk: Deen for all governance and any content making legal/financial/eligibility claims. Laurence for debt-negotiation technical accuracy. Carla for financial claims and remuneration disclosures.
- Consent desk: Lisa (BD Director) owns the consent register; Laurence signs off before publication.
5.4 The changelog
Every substantive edit to a published document is logged in the intranet changelog (changelog.html) with: date, editor, brief description, and which desk(s) reviewed. This is the audit trail for Deen and for any future regulatory or Board enquiry.
6. Governance & version control
6.1 Adoption
This Charter is a Board-adopted policy of Life Without Debt Ltd once the company is incorporated. Draft v0.1 is authored by Claude under Laurence's delegated authority (2026-05-17). Adoption sequence:
- v0.1 — Draft (this version). Circulated to Deen (Legal), Carla (CFO), Laurence, Lisa.
- v0.2 — Post Sprint 0.16 cultural-protocol consultation. §3 rewritten to reflect Deen's position.
- v0.3 — Post Deen's Sprint 0 bundle review. All red-lines incorporated.
- v1.0 — Board resolution to adopt at first Board meeting post-ACN issue.
6.2 Amendment
Substantive amendments (any change to §1–3 or §5.1) require Board resolution. Style-level amendments (colour additions, house-rules extensions in §2.2) may be authorised by the CEO subject to Board notification at next meeting.
6.3 Related documents
- Sprint 0.4 — Beneficiary Depiction Guardrails (this Charter's §3.4 references it)
- Sprint 0.6 — Compliance Guardrails One-Pager (Compliance desk in §5.1 uses it)
- Sprint 0.15 — Personality Rights Assignment (§5.2 video row references it)
- Sprint 0.16 — Cultural-protocol consultation record (this Charter's §3.1–3.2 depends on it)
- Sprint 1.5 — Video pillar scripts (must conform to this Charter)
- Marketing Mix Backlog v1.0 — every asset in the backlog must conform to this Charter
6.4 Version history
v0.1 (this version) — 2026-05-17. Initial draft under delegated authority. Awaits Deen (Legal Advisor) and Carla (CFO Advisor) red-line. §3 is placeholder pending Sprint 0.16.