Instagram Donation Sticker has made it easier for Influencers to drive charitable donations through stories

As of January 2019, Instagram’s ‘snap-chatty’ story feature has now amassed over 500 million users. These users make use of Stories daily to take photos, upload an image, upload short videos, and add filter effects & layers to their Instagram Story. Every picture and video uploaded on Instagram Story automatically disappear after 24 hours – without appearing on users’ profile grid or in their feed.

Regardless of the cause, attracting and retaining donors can be quite challenging. It’s common to see non-profits and organizations running several campaigns to help drive support to their purpose. Instagram has provided a way to make much easier for non-profit organizations on a shoestring budget to raise money and reach new audiences with the latest Instagram Donation sticker.

With Instagram turning towards becoming an eCommerce platform

Convincing people to shop and spend more via Instagram is currently a well-known growing trend. However, for some reason, non-profits were left out of this loop when it allowed several major brands to start using the in-app Check-out feature for some products on its traditional photo feed. The Donation feature which was launched on 30^th April 2019 is made explicitly for non-profits organizations with a reasonable cause – those who in some way, were left out of the check-out feature launched in March 2019; perhaps because their goods and services don’t blend well enough to induce shopping.

Since over 500 million Instagram users make use of Instagram Story, brands who are looking for prospective customers to view and engage their product(s) could hardly afford to ignore the massive pool of potential leads they can get from Instagram Story – hence, the reason Influencer Marketing thrives on Instagram. The same can be said about organizations interested in receiving a donation from users.

This makes perfect sense for Instagram

With the introduction of the Donation sticker for Stories, Instagram users in the US will find it much easier to raise money on for their favorite non-profit organization(s). The direct linking of the Donation sticker to non-profit groups’ accounts makes it less stressful to use this new feature on Instagram Story. In a bid to make the new feature ‘donation sticker’ popular, Instagram coordinated with celebrities like Pharrell Williams, Julia Roberts, Miley Cyrus and DJ Khaled.

Prior to this recent development, non-profits either had to ask viewers to use a direct clickable link in their bio or to swipe through to their donation hubs or Facebook fundraisers. With a new design for how it handles giving, Instagram is moving to control those donations too.

How does it work?

You’re probably wondering how to use Instagram Donation Sticker on Stories. Interestingly, it’s not too complicated of a thing to understand.

To use the donation sticker in Stories to create a fundraiser, here’s how to go about it;

1. Sign up for Charitable Giving tools
2. Link Instagram and Facebook Profiles
3. Convert the Instagram profile to a Business Profile

After completing the steps above, a user’s Instagram account will be eligible to receive funds. More so, this Donation feature is entirely made to support non-profit organizations. This means that 100% of the funds raised through the Instagram Donation sticker go to the non-profit.

Now that you’ve set up your non-profit to accept donations through Instagram

Once you’ve completed the above steps, you now have to encourage your viewers or supporters to donate to your cause directly through Instagram Story. And here’s how to achieve that;

It’s almost the same process you follow to upload a regular Instagram story on your Instagram account. The only difference is the inclusion of the Donation sticker, which can be located from the traditional special effect menu. That’s the same place that includes things like Location, Countdown, or Music.

It’s very simple!

Now let’s jump right into it…

1. Launch your Instagram app. After doing so, open the camera button that you’d usually launch for Stories. Then, take a picture or upload your preferred photo.
2. When you have your photo ready to go, open the tray. (FYI, you can do so by clicking on the square button with a smiley face at the top of your camera screen.)
3. Once you’re in, scan the tray and click on the donation sticker. At that point, you’ll be well on your way to raising money for your favorite charity.
4. After clicking on the donation sticker, you’ll see a list of non-profit organizations on your screen (whether you’re following them or not). You’ll also be able to search for charities within the donation sticker tray. When you find your go-to choice, go ahead and click on it.

After you choose the non-profit that you want to raise money for, it’ll appear as a sticker on your Story. Then, you can use Instagram’s creative assets to personalize your fundraiser.

The Non-Profit side

On the donation side, viewers who tap to contribute will trigger a pop-up containing a short bio of the charity alongside different dollar amounts. You can also click through to the group’s Instagram page. After a one-time payment registration, donors can choose to give between $5 and $2,500 per transaction. As Instagram explains in a formal announcement, fundraisers can also track the activity of each pitch by swiping up on each story to see a running contribution total.

That’s pretty much it, though. When you’re done creating your donation Story, add it to your profile or send it to your friends.

Instagram is all about bringing you closer to the people and things you love,” the company said in a statement provided to Fast Company. “An important part of that is showing support and bringing awareness to communities and causes that are meaningful to people, which is why we built a way to donate to non-profits directly from Instagram Stories.”

So what are you waiting for? Are you a non-profit who does not know what to do. We’ve worked on some non-profit websites, take a look at this one here. Let us know what you think, go ahead we’re waiting.