Instagram

Instagram Fundraising

Take your fundraising efforts a step further by using Instagram to help raise awareness and expand your audience reach! Add a donation sticker to your Instagram story and empower your followers to provide help and hope to those in need.

Getting Started

Follow these steps to add a donation sticker to your Instagram story to support the Red Cross.

Log in: Open the Instagram Application and log into your account

Open Camera: Tap the camera icon in the top left of your screen or swipe right from anywhere in Feed.

Take a Photo: Tap the gray circle at the bottom of the screen to take a photo, or tap and hold to record a video. To choose a photo or video from your phone's library or gallery, swipe up anywhere on the screen.

Add Donate Sticker: Tap the smiley face to add the donation sticker.

Select Nonprofit: Choose Red Cross from the nonprofit options.

Customize Your Story: Use these icons to make changes:

Customize the size and angle of the sticker

Draw or add text to your photo or video.

Remove a sticker by dragging and dropping.

Share: When you're ready to share, tap Your Story in the bottom left.

Adding a Story to Highlights

Stories disappear from your profile, Feed and Direct inbox after 24 hours, unless you add them to your profile as highlights. To add a story to Story Highlights, follow these steps:

Profile: Go to your profile and tap Story Highlights below your username and bio.

Add Highlight: Tap "+" to select the story or stories you want to add to highlights, then tap Next.

Cover Photo: Tap Edit Cover > Choose a cover photo > Tap Done.

Upload Highlight: Enter a story name for your highlight, then tap Add (iPhone) or Done (Android). You can add more photos or videos to your highlight at any time by tapping and holding on the highlight and then tapping Edit Highlight.

Note: Stories you add as highlights remain visible as highlights until you remove them, even after the original story has disappeared. Keep in mind that those you've allowed to see your story can also see your highlights.

*Instagram Fundraising Tips

Frame it: Kickstart your donation story with photos and video of what your cause is and why it matters. Tell the story of what the donations will help accomplish using photos, videos and creative tools like emoji and gradient text to illustrate the purpose of your cause. Don’t forget to drive traffic to your fundraiser by including the link in your bio.
Define Impact: Tell the story of what the donations will help to accomplish.
Get Creative: Use a photo and creative tools like emojis and gradient text with the donation sticker, to illustrate the purpose of your cause.
Highlight: Use the highlight feature so supporters have access to your donation story for more than 24 hours. Highlighting a story pins it to your profile. You can add anything you’ve posted from your archive and delete highlights at any time. Repeat your call to action messaging to drive traffic to your fundraiser. Posting multiple stories with similar messaging throughout your campaign will maximize exposure.
Repetition: Post the donate sticker in multiple stories for maximum exposure.
Use video: Your supporters are craving video content from you! Instagram users consume 80% more video year after year, and 98% of all mobile video is viewed vertically.
Go Live: Make an announcement, share milestones, or just hang with your supporters. Pin a comment to give viewers an idea of what you’re doing
Publish to Facebook and Instagram simultaneously. Integrating your Facebook and Instagram accounts allows for cross-promotion of image posts to optimize your audience reach and engagement across both platforms. In order to cross-post, first link your Facebook account with your Instagram. Currently, it’s not possible for Facebook to post to Instagram, so your cross-posts will have to originate from your Instagram account. You can also add Twitter, Tumblr and other social media accounts. Once set up, one button allows for sharing your stories to Facebook and the another allows for sharing posts. To activate, simply slide the button. Once it turns blue, your posts and stories will automatically publish to your Facebook account.

Instagram FAQs

Where will this be available?

This is currently available only in the US. We’re working hard to bring this experience to more of our global community in the coming months.

How can I make sure my fundraiser continues even after my story expires?

The fundraiser will last for 24 hours on one story unless you add the story to your profile as a highlight. Adding the story to your profile as a highlight will allow people to continue donating to your fundraiser until you delete the story. If you want to post a fundraiser on multiple stories, you will need to go through the creation process again.

Will nonprofits be charged any fees? Will Instagram make money from donations?

Instagram will waive all nonprofit fundraising fees, so 100% of what’s donated via the donation sticker goes to the benefitting nonprofit.

How much can people donate?

People can donate between $5 to $2500 per contribution. They can also donate multiple times to a fundraiser.

How will I know if people have donated to my fundraiser?

Swipe up on your story to view the total amount raised and donations made by each person. You’ll receive an activity notification when someone has donated to your fundraiser. If you have more than 10k followers, you will only receive notifications from people you are following who are also following you. A total amount raised notification will be sent after a fundraiser story expires and if it raised more than $0.

How does my nonprofit receive donations made on Instagram?

Once money raised for your organization reaches the $100 or equivalent minimum donation payout amount, it becomes eligible for a payout. Funds will roll over until the payout amount reaches the $100 threshold per nonprofit. Payouts take 2 weeks to process and will occur bi-weekly as an ACH or direct deposit to your organization’s bank account.

Do people get a notification of how much they raised before their sticker ends?

You can swipe up on your story to view the list of people who donated, how much they donated, and the total amount raised. You’ll also get a notification on the total amount you raised after your fundraiser story expires (if you raised more than $0).