diff --git a/docs/contributing.txt b/docs/contributing.txt
index 61b24f4705..f3bee14069 100644
--- a/docs/contributing.txt
+++ b/docs/contributing.txt
@@ -738,6 +738,11 @@ If you're using another backend:
       deleted when the tests are finished. This means your user account needs
       permission to execute ``CREATE DATABASE``.
 
+You will also need to ensure that your database uses UTF-8 as the default
+character set. If your database server doesn't use UTF-8 as a default charset,
+you will need to include a value for ``TEST_DATABASE_CHARSET`` in your settings
+file.
+   
 If you want to run the full suite of tests, you'll need to install a number of
 dependencies: