Instagram is to trial personal fundraiser tools from this week as part of a ramping up of its functions for charities.

The platform is to give people for the first time the ability to create and donate to personal fundraisers, through a trial taking place in the UK, Ireland and America.

This follows on from the widespread use of personal fundraising tools available on Facebook, which owns Instagram.

The move also follows the creation of Instagram’s first fundraising tool last year when it launched donation stickers.

"We have seen great results from personal fundraisers on Facebook, and we can’t wait to see how the Instagram community uses these to raise money for volunteering trips, educational resources and more, whilst continuing to raise awareness for a diverse range of important causes,” said an Instagram spokeswoman.

She added: “Since launching our first fundraising tool last year with donation stickers, we’ve seen people on Instagram raising money for important causes, from supporting the Black Lives Matter movement to fundraising for those worst affected by Coronavirus.

Since January 2020 more than £51m ($65m USD) has been raised for Covid-19 related fundraisers globally through Facebook and Instagram.

Over the last 30 days donations using Instagram’s sticker tool have doubled.

Half of charities ignoring Instagram

A report released earlier this year found that too many charities are ignoring a wide range of social media platforms, including Instagram. The survey of more than 200 charities, by Charity Comms and the Media Trust, looked at the impact of Covid-19 on voluntary sector communications.

This found that only around a half are using Instagram, compared to 86 per cent using email, a similar proportion using Facebook and 79 per cent using Twitter.

Share Story: