Can I use my story?

Are refugees allowed to use their story to advertise or fundraise? Is that morally justifiable? Hussam takes a critical look at these questions.
One winter Sunday, I happened to see a post from a young man on LinkedIn that had gone ‘viral’. I read the post to my fiancée and was surprised how blatantly and impressively the post author shared his personal fate. It was about his arrival, his failure, his success and in the end about building his business. My first question was: is it morally acceptable to use his own very personal story online like this to attract clients? After all, he started an agency and posted his personal story on his advertisement for it. I also asked this question aloud, to which my fiancée asked back, “And is it okay to use your personal story to raise funds?”

Personal stories as a basis for crowdfunding

Then I had to think directly about myself, about kohero, and about many people around me. As you probably know, I founded kohero magazine back in 2017 as the “refugee magazine.” Since then, we have been fundraising as a non-profit project, including two crowdfunding rounds. The nature of crowdfunding – perhaps of fundraising as a whole – is very much based on personal stories and fates. That’s why I kept focusing on my person, my story as a refugee and my journey of being a refugee and then becoming a founder and so on.
The comparison between customer acquisition on LinkedIn and crowdfunding for a non-profit project like kohero is not quite suitable. There are big differences, and I don’t want to be too negative about that. We had great success in both crowdfunding rounds and I know how valuable every support is for kohero magazine. It doesn’t matter if it’s a financial donation, a donation of time, or a Like on Facebook. I just wonder what the impact is when we put ourselves as refugees or ex-fugees in the spotlight like this. Is it pride in our own history? Or are we turning ourselves into a product?