Instagram's New Donation Stickers Will Have You Feeling (& Doing) Good On Social Media
You've probably noticed that your favorite social media platforms have started to become a one-stop shop for civic engagement and getting involved in a broader community. And now, users will be empowered to do even more to make a difference. Instagram's new nonprofit donation stickers will soon roll out so you can support your favorite organization or cause right from the app.
The new donation function will appear as a sticker on Instagram stories, so you can post and raise awareness about plenty of different causes or organizations you want to promote. In a statement provided to Elite Daily, a spokesperson for Instagram said:
Later this year, people will be able to raise money and help support nonprofits that are important to them through a donation sticker in Instagram Stories. We're excited to bring this experience to our community and will share more updates in the coming months.
The Instagram donation stickers were announced at the Facebook Community Summit at the company's Menlo Park Headquarters on Thursday, Feb. 7. The feature hasn't been rolled out yet, but the company says it'll be available on the app in the coming months.
Users may be familiar with this concept from the Facebook giving tools — birthday fundraisers, for example, which allow users to celebrate their birthday with their virtual community by choosing a verified organization or cause to donate to, setting a goal, and inviting their friends to donate on their behalf.
"People fundraise on Instagram all the time [informally]," says Emily Dalton Smith, Director of Product Management and Social Good at Facebook, in an interview for Elite Daily. "We heard from our nonprofit partners that they have very active communities on Instagram and they want to be able to reach them and have their supporters support them."
One noteworthy example: Candace Payne, who used the platform to help get support to house a bunch of homeless Chicagoans during the polar vortex last week.
“For every Candace Payne story, there are 10 or 15 other stories in local communities of people who have taken to the platform in an organic way to raise awareness for their causes,” Facebook Vice President of Product Partnerships Ime Archibong says in an interview for Elite Daily. “That’s why we’re starting with Instagram and extending our giving tools there.”
As to why will the sticker be going on Instagram stories? Archibong says it's a growing way to provide an immersive visual experience and raise awareness at the same time.
The donation sticker is an expansion of what's so far been a successful foray for Instagram and Facebook more broadly into the social good sphere. Facebook's donation features have resulted in $1 billion in donations to date (those birthday fundraisers alone have had a pretty big impact), the company announced in November. The company's features yielded an additional $7 million in fundraising for Giving Tuesday, a day when many nonprofits engage in donation-matching fundraiser just after Thanksgiving.
As for social giving for Facebook at large, “We’ve always had big aspirations for this,” Dalton Smith adds. “This is really core to our mission — helping bring people their communities together around causes they care about."
Users can expect the feature to pop up on their stories in “a couple months,” the Facebook executives said. So if there's a cause you're involved in, keep your eyes out for this new feature soon.
