Instagram Launches Personal Fundraisers to Provide Assistance for Businesses amid COVID-19
Instagram is rolling out a new personal fundraiser option to help people and businesses raise money for selected causes amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
As explained by Instagram:
“Starting today, we’re rolling out a new way to raise money for a personal cause, like yourself, your small business, a friend or a cause that’s important to you. We’ll begin with a small test to create a Personal Fundraiser in the US, UK, and Ireland on Android, followed by iOS. If you live in a country where you can donate to a fundraiser through our donation sticker, you are also eligible to donate to a Personal Fundraiser on Android starting today.”
For those ineligible regions, you’ll be able to create a personal fundraiser by:
- Heading to your Instagram profile
- Tapping “Edit Profile”
- Tap “Add Fundraiser” and then “Raise Money”
- You can then choose a photo, and select the fundraiser category – Facebook fundraisers cover a range of potential causes, including “crisis relief’, ‘faith’, ‘hobbies’ and even ‘pets and animals’
- Once you’ve selected the category, you can add details to help tell your story and encourage others to donate (you can see an example of this in the second screenshot in the sequence above)
- You’ll also need to enter your information for Stripe, Facebook’s payment processor for donations
- You can then tap “Send” and your fundraiser will be reviewed by Instagram/Facebook
Instagram will review all fundraisers to ensure that they meet the eligibility criteria. Once approved, you can then start raising money.
“Each fundraiser lasts 30 days and can be extended more than once for 30 more days. You must be at least 18 years old to create a fundraiser.”
Instagram has been looking to add more ways to support people and businesses impacted by COVID-19, with a range of fundraising tools and awareness options to maximize reach and response.
Back in April, Instagram added new gift cards, food order, and fundraiser tools for Stories and profiles, while Facebook has also added to its personal fundraising options in order to enable business owners to create personal fundraisers to call on their customers for support.
And those additions have already had an impact:
“Since January, people have raised more than $100 million for COVID-19 fundraisers globally across Instagram and Facebook, while in the last 30 days, donations on Instagram have doubled in the US. We’ve also seen a large wave of digital activism responding to the global conversation around racial justice. From people raising money to buy medical equipment for Black Lives Matter protesters, rebuilding Black-owned small businesses affected by COVID-19 and funding educational resources related to racial justice, people are eager to mobilize around causes they care about.”
Given this, adding more fundraising options for Instagram makes perfect sense, and as the COVID-19 pandemic lingers on, the need for assistance is only set to rise in the coming months.
