Meta Introduces Fundraisers in Reels, a New Way to Raise Funds In-App for Charities

Aiming to broaden its charity donation capabilities, Meta releases fundraisers in Reels, offering its users another way to raise awareness for their chosen causes.

The new Reels fundraisers will include a 'Donate' button at the bottom of your Reels clip, as seen here.

According to Meta:

“Available today in more than 30 countries, you can donate and create fundraisers directly in Instagram Reels for more than 1.5 million nonprofits. As always, we cover the donation processing fees, so all the money raised using Fundraisers on Instagram goes directly to the organization.”

During the Reels creation process, users will be able to include fundraising details, and these fundraiser links will be available for 30 days.

The feature adds to Instagram's long-standing attempt to increase user engagement in fundraising activities, which has escalated during the pandemic.

In 2020, Instagram introduced personal fundraisers as well as Instagram Live fundraisers, including the ability for users to organize and post charitable fundraisers straight from their Instagram feed. Instagram also offered group fundraisers as a way to assist raise awareness for user-supported initiatives last year.

Since younger users are somewhat more associated with social issues and donating to social good, Instagram needs to give more ways to do so, with the bonus of encouraging money transfer within Instagram, which aligns with the app's larger eCommerce push.

If more users get used to donating money to causes and supporting such initiatives, that habit could easily extend to in-app purchasing. And with Instagram now allowing all users to utilize shopping tags, this will become a much more significant development in the months ahead.

While Meta's encouragement of cause-related efforts is an excellent method to promote awareness and put its huge reach to good use, it isn't completely selfless.

Regardless, it's a great development, and offering more options for people to utilize social media for the greater good can only be a good thing.

Reels fundraisers are accessible in 30 countries as of the present.