After rolling it out for Instagram Live, Instagram is now testing a dedicated fundraising feature on the platform. Users in the UK, Ireland, and the US can now host fundraisers for their small business, for a friend, or for any other personal cause.
The feature has also been available on Facebook which, I’ll remind you, is a parent company of Instagram. And it has proven to be pretty popular. According to Facebook, “people have raised over $64 million for COVID-19 and racial justice fundraisers globally” across both platforms. “And in the last 30 days, donations on Instagram have doubled in the US,” Facebook continues.
If you live in any of the three countries, you should now be able to create a Personal Fundraiser. Go to Edit Profile > Add Fundraiser > Raise Money. Choose a photo, select a fundraiser category, and add some details that will tell your story and encourage others to donate. The donations go through Stripe, so you now have to enter your information for it. And this is pretty much it – tap Send and your fundraiser will be submitted for review.
There are certain rules for starting a fundraiser and there are 14 available categories. This is why all fundraisers go through a review process. If your fundraiser complies with the rules, it will be approved and you’ll start raising money. Each fundraiser lasts 30 days by default, but you can extend it as many times as you want. lastly, not that you must be 18+ years old to start a fundraiser.
Image credits: Facebook
It’s still not clear when and if Instagram will roll out the feature globally. However, considering the popularity it gained on Facebook and Instagram Live, it’s likely to become an integral part of the platform. While there are devoted websites for fundraising such as GoFundMe, I think it’s good to have it on Instagram as well because it’s an extremely popular, accessible, and user-friendly platform.
[via The Verge]
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