This is the eighth post in a blog and webinar series called 101 Digital Marketing & Fundraising Best Practices for Nonprofits, written and presented by Heather Mansfield. Please sign up for Nonprofit Tech for Good’s email newsletter to be alerted of new posts. Thank you!
Related Webinar: Social Media Strategy for Nonprofits
Related Certificate Program: Certificate in Social Media Marketing & Fundraising
With two billion active monthly users, Instagram is a very powerful social network used by nonprofits worldwide. According to the Nonprofit Tech for Good Report, of the 89% of nonprofits worldwide that use social media in their digital marketing and fundraising strategy, 75% of those use Instagram.
That said, Instagram reach and engagement are at an all-time low and it is becoming increasingly more difficult for nonprofits to get exposure in the Instagram Feed. According to Rival IQ in their Social Media Industry Benchmark Report, Instagram Reels have the highest engagement at 0.62% – compared to 0.59% for carousel posts and 0.52% for single photo posts. Study and test the best practices below to ensure your nonprofit is utilizing Instagram effectively.
1) Maximize your Instagram Profile Picture and Bio.
Making a positive first impression is crucial to securing new followers on Instagram. First, ensure that your nonprofit uses a well-designed, visually compelling profile picture. In most cases, your profile picture should not include text as it would be too small to read in the Instagram feed on a smartphone. For examples of text-free profile pictures, see the Nature Conservancy and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
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Instagram Bios
Second, write a compelling Instagram bio. You are limited to 150 characters and draw attention to your bio with emojis and campaign hashtags. For example, the United Way and No Kid Hungry.
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Account Category & Contact Information
Finally, “add the category of “Nonprofit organization” or “Non-governmental organization (NGO) under Edit Profile > Category. You can also add contact information which will add a “Contact” button, a “Call” button, or an “Email” button to your profile depending upon which contact information you provide. If you are a location-based nonprofit, such as a museum or zoo, then also add your address. Please note that to add the category and contact information, you need to upgrade to a business account as discussed in #2 below.
Story Highlight Covers
Third, if your nonprofit regularly shares stories on Instagram, make a strong first impression by creating custom Highlight covers. For example, Oceana and the Trevor Project.
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Verified Badges
The verification process on Instagram is changing. Until recently, the verified blue badge was reserved only for notable brands and personalities with a large following. Small and medium-sized nonprofits could apply for the verified blue badge, but most were declined. It’s been a frustrating experience since verified accounts get more organic reach in the feed.
That said, Meta is currently rolling out a Meta Verified for Instagram and Facebook that allows brands of all sizes to get verified — but it is not free. Fees will start at $14.99 per month per Instagram Account and Facebook Page and like all previous Meta rollouts, the early adopters benefit the most. To begin, sign up for the Meta Verified waitlist.
2) Ensure that your Instagram account is a Business Account.
To get access to Insights, to post ads, set up a Shop, and use Instagram Fundraising Tools, your nonprofit must have an Instagram Business Account. To upgrade to a business account, go to your Instagram profile in the mobile app and select Settings > Account > Switch to professional account. During the process, you will be prompted to connect your Instagram account to your nonprofit’s Facebook Page account. It’s worth noting that you must be an admin of your Facebook Page to take this action. Once you have connected the two, you officially have a business account.
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3) Post 2-5 times weekly to your Instagram account.
The most often cited best practice is to post to Instagram once to three times daily, but for the majority of nonprofits that is a ridiculous benchmark. Posting that often may make sense for nonprofits with a large following, a vast array of visual content, and a significant budget for advertising, and if that describes your nonprofit, then go for it.
But most nonprofits should aim to post consistently 2-5 times a week. Like Facebook, an increasingly stingy algorithm on Instagram makes posting daily a waste of time for small and medium-sized nonprofits unless they invest in advertising. As a reminder, according to the Social Media Industry Benchmark Report, Instagram Reels have the highest engagement at 0.62% – compared to 0.59% for carousel posts and 0.52% for single photo posts. Posting every day or multiple times a day is a lot of effort to reach a tiny fraction of your followers.
Post Eye-Catching Photos
On Instagram, first and foremost, do your best to post eye-catching images and carousels of images of your nonprofit’s mission and programs in action. Your photos do not necessarily need to be beautiful or awe-inspiring, but they do need to contribute to your organization’s story.
Keep in mind that organic reach for photos is at an all-time low, so if your nonprofit lacks visually compelling photography, you can also curate and source photos on Instagram that speak to your mission and programs.
It’s worth noting that a good photo with a well-written caption can outperform a boring Instagram Reel any day of the week, so despite Meta’s push to steer brands and individuals towards posting more reels (to compete with TikTok), sharing photos on Instagram is still a best practice.
Share Reels (if you have the time and skills)
Instagram Reels are videos uploaded to Instagram that come with in-app video creation and editing tools. Reels can but up to 90 seconds in length, but 5 to 10-second reels perform best, according to HootSuite.
If your nonprofit has 3-10 hours per week to create reels, then experiment with reels (and TikToks), but know that not all nonprofit missions and programs translate into compelling reels content. Youth-oriented activism, animal welfare, women’s rights, environmental activism, and arts and culture are natural fits for reels content, but even then reels need to be produced and edited in a way that can capture your follower’s attention and inspire engagement.
Creating video content has always been a challenge for most nonprofits, and even though the best reels are “authentic” and not professionally produced, creating reels content still requires a lot of creativity, time, and staff that are skilled in using video apps and comfortable on camera. For examples of nonprofits successfully using reels, see the Dance Theater of Harlem and Wildlife SOS.
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Share and Schedule Posts and Reels Using Meta Business Suite
Meta is putting a lot of effort into building their Meta Business Suite platform and Meta has a pattern of rewarding early adopters. Meta prefers that admins use Meta Business Suite to post to Instagram (and Facebook) rather than using third-party apps, such as Buffer and HootSuite. Meta has made it clear that posts from third-party apps get less exposure in the feed and your nonprofit runs the risk of being classified as a data scraper if you connect third-party apps to your Instagram account.
4) Prioritize writing effective captions.
In the early days of Instagram, writing short captions (less than 100 characters) was the predominant best practice. People joined the social network primarily for the visual experience, not to read.
Today, Instagram users have evolved and they are willing to read long captions – even portions of articles or blog posts copied and pasted directly into Instagram. The character limit for an Instagram post is 2,200 and while posting lengthy captions in every, or even most posts, is not the recommendation, writing captions that are multiple sentences that strategically use hashtags and emojis is the current best practice.
Use 3-5 Hashtags and Emojis in Captions
In Instagram’s early days, using large numbers of hashtags in Instagram captions was acceptable and even considered a best practice. The idea was that if your nonprofit used 10, 20, or even 30 hashtags in each caption, your nonprofit would reach potential new followers. Today, using that many hashtags is considered hashtag spamming and it hurts Instagram engagement.
According to Socialinsider, the highest average engagement rate (3.4%) is generated by posts with 3-5 hashtags. As a best practice, stay away from using general hashtags, such as #green and #happy, and instead narrow your focus on hashtags relevant specific to your nonprofit, such as causes (#FoodInsecurity), special campaigns (#StandforOceans), and your location (#Tucson).
Also important to know is that using emojis in Instagram captions can boost your engagement by 48%. Emojis are a colorful way to draw attention to your captions ❤️ 🧡 💚 and calls-to-action 💥. If your nonprofit posts to Instagram using Meta Business Suite on a desktop computer, Emojipedia.org is a must-bookmark!
Tag Partners and Corporate Sponsors
Partners and corporate sponsors are notified when they are tagged in your posts. It’s a simple way to express appreciation for partnerships and an excellent means to steward corporate sponsors.
5) Use “Link in Bio” call-to-actions sparingly.
Capturing website traffic from Instagram has always been a challenge due to the fact that you can not include hyperlinks in captions, so over the last five years nonprofits have asked their followers to visit their website by including “Link in bio” or “🔗 in bio” in their captions.
When the strategy was new, it worked and referral traffic increased from Instagram, but its effectiveness has worn off. First, Instagram users are increasingly annoyed by the need to navigate away from the feed to visit profiles > click profile link > agree to go offsite > then browse a list of links featured on Linktree or Later. Second, Instagram has begun sending prompts to admins warning that they should disconnect from third-party apps, such as “Link in bio” apps, or risk being classified as a data scraper.
For both of these reasons, it’s time for nonprofits to use “Link in bio” CTAs only for the occasional fundraising ask and important campaigns and that nonprofits move away from “Link in bio” apps and use Instagram’s native ability to feature five links in your bio or create your own “Link in bio” page on your website. For an example of a “🔗 in bio” CTA, see the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Our Certificate in Social Media Marketing & Fundraising program covers the fundamentals of social media marketing and fundraising for your nonprofit. Participants will learn how to create a social media strategy, how to craft a content marketing plan, and current best practices for using social media for community engagement and fundraising.
The program requires the completion of three webinars and costs a total of $100 USD. You can attend the webinars live or view the recordings. Learn more & register!
6) Engage followers that comment on your posts and reels.
Responding to comments on Instagram seems like an obvious must-do, but a quick browse of comments posted on nonprofit accounts on Instagram reveals that a large number of nonprofits completely ignore comments.
If your nonprofit doesn’t have the time to reply to comments with words, then at least acknowledge comments with a “❤️.” This can be done in seconds using the mobile app or Meta Business Suite > Inbox > Instagram. A good example is the nonprofit She Should Run which is consistent in liking comments (that are not politically divisive) posted on their Instagram.
7) Utilize Instagram Fundraising Tools.
According to the Global Trends in Giving Report, 10% of online donors have made a donation through Instagram Fundraising Tools. Of those, 93% said they are likely to do so again. With that level of interest in repeat giving, nonprofits would be wise to experiment with Instagram Fundraising Tools.
To begin, check to see if Instagram Fundraising Tools are available in your country. If yes, then sign up for Meta Fundraising Tools. Once approved, add the fundraising tools to your Facebook Page and then connect your page with your nonprofit’s Instagram Business Account to get access to:
- “Support” buttons on profiles (only visible in the mobile app): Similar to Facebook, it’s unlikely that your followers will donate through the “Support” button on your profile unless you ask them to in captions.
- Fundraisers in photo posts, reels, and live videos (only visible in the mobile app): Instagram Fundraisers can be created by nonprofits or by individuals and brands that want to support nonprofits.
- “Donate” stickers in stories: According to the Nonprofit Tech for Good Report, donation stickers are not effective.
Your nonprofit and your followers can easily create an Instagram Fundraiser in minutes. Fundraisers last for 30 days, can be added to multiple posts, and featured on the creator’s bio.
That said, it’s likely that your followers do not know how to create a fundraiser for your nonprofit on Instagram, so it benefits your nonprofit to spread the word. For example, The International Fund for Animal Welfare asks their followers to create fundraisers in captions.
8) Experiment with Instagram Ads.
Organic reach on Instagram is currently estimated to be 7.60%, according to Socialinsider. Like Facebook, Instagram has quickly evolved into a pay-to-play platform, and experimenting with Instagram Ads is now required if you plan on investing time in growing and engaging an Instagram community for your nonprofit.
Instagram Ads can be easily created, however, to excel at Instagram Ads, you’ll need room to fail and experiment – and you’ll need to double your advertising budget. In Facebook Best Practices for Nonprofits, Nonprofit Tech for Good recommends that small nonprofits spend a minimum of $250 per month on Facebook Ads. To add Instagram Ads to your social media marketing strategy, add another $100-250 to your monthly budget. It is worth noting that, on average, nonprofits spend $1,006 monthly on digital advertising. For your reference, the cost-per-click (CPC) for Instagram is relatively inexpensive, according to Web FX.
Creating and managing effective Instagram Ads is a hard-earned skill. You need to know how to create UTMs to track traffic as well as how to use Meta Pixels to track conversions from your ads. To ensure that your ad dollars are well-spent, consider signing up for Meta’s Certification Program. It’s free, beneficial to your nonprofit, and looks excellent on a resume.
9) Experiment with Instagram Stories & Instagram Live (if you have the time and skills).
Best Practices 1-8 should be the top priorities for nonprofits, but if your nonprofit has the time, it’s worth experimenting with Instagram Stories and Instagram Live to see if they are a good fit for your nonprofit on Instagram.
Instagram Stories
Tangible return on investment (ROI) from Instagram Stories is elusive. As mentioned, “Donate” stickers in stories are not effective for the vast majority of nonprofits that use them and click-throughs from “Link” stickers are low.
That said, if your nonprofit is less worried about acquiring donations or website traffic from using Instagram Stories, but you’re all in for using stories to engage your community, then experiment with the vast array of engagement tools offered for Instagram Stories and be sure to archive your stories in Highlights. A good example of a nonprofit using stories is Junior Achievement of Arizona.
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Instagram Live
Like Facebook Live, for most nonprofits, Instagram Live is best used periodically for special events and campaigns and even though you can add a “Donate” button to your live streams, thus far according to the Nonprofit Tech for Good Report, fundraising through Instagram Live has been unsuccessful. If you have an influencer willing to go live with a “Donate” button, that could be effective, but that strategy is only relevant to a very few well-connected large nonprofits.
10) Study and use Meta Business Suite.
Meta has put a lot of effort into building their Meta Business Suite platform and Meta has a pattern of rewarding early adopters. Meta prefers that admins use Meta Business Suite to post to Facebook and Instagram rather than posting from third-party apps, such as Buffer and HootSuite. We don’t have the exact data, but Meta has made it clear that posts from third-party apps get less exposure in the news feed.
That said, Meta Business Suite is available on Desktop (business.facebook.com) and as a mobile app (App Store, Google Play) and the platform toolset is extensive:
- Share posts, reels, and stories to Facebook and Instagram (Threads is likely coming soon)
- Plan and schedule posts, reels, and stories in advance
- Manage your Facebook and Instagram Inboxes
- Create and manage ads
- Access and study Insights
Post Updated: May 19, 2024
Our Certificate in Social Media Marketing & Fundraising program covers the fundamentals of social media marketing and fundraising for your nonprofit. Participants will learn how to create a social media strategy, how to craft a content marketing plan, and current best practices for using social media for community engagement and fundraising.
The program requires the completion of three webinars and costs a total of $100 USD. You can attend the webinars live or view the recordings. Learn more & register!
