Why Your Nonprofit Needs to Be Using Instagram Stories

Today we’ll be talking about why your nonprofit needs to be using Instagram stories. If you aren’t already, you should be because Instagram stories have 500 million daily active users and can greatly increase engagement among your followers.  

Getting Started

First off, Instagram stories are posted at the TOP of people’s feeds, no need to scroll through who knows how many posts to reach yours. And stories can really include any content you want, so get creative! Here are a few ideas to get you started: You can do a behind the scenes tour of how your nonprofit works, from donations and volunteers to results! People love to see just exactly what their support is going towards. Use a combination of videos and still photos to keep things interesting! You can also introduce your team. Your nonprofit staff makes a difference so show the world! Be sure to include locations and hashtags within your story to help extend its reach. Events are also great to story. Show your event from start to finish and use text to thoughtfully explain your impact.

Swipe Up

If you have over 10,000 followers, you should definitely be using the swipe up function. It allows you to swipe up to any website you choose, this could be your own website, a fundraising page or maybe a blog you’ve posted. If you don’t have that many followers, no worries. You can add a link in your profile or if you want to have multiple links up at a time, use a platform like LinkTree. These allow you to have one custom link in your profile, which takes visitors to a new page with multiple links. We recommend including links to information about your nonprofit, how to join the team and how to donate, as well as recent blogs or relevant articles. If you have an event hosted on EventBrite, you can also include a button to buy tickets in your profile. Simply go to Edit Profile, then Contact Options and create an Action Button. Want to keep a story available to your followers for more than 24 hours? Add it as a highlight, so that it stays on your profile. Creating covers for each of your highlights is a great way to keep your profile looking cohesive and to keep your stories organized. 

Donation Sticker

Last, but not least, every nonprofit should be using the new Donation sticker. This allows you to donate to an organization directly through Instagram! Plus, the stickers are customizable. You can input text that directly correlates to your organization’s mission, so that people know what their donation is going towards. Let your followers know that they can add the sticker to their stories too to really extend your impact. 

Eva Scattergood