Facebook’s photo-sharing platform, Instagram, will add a donation feature onto posts to allow users to promote and donate to charities and not-for-profits.

The donation sticker will be added onto Instagram’s Stories, a feature that allows users to share photos and videos that expire 24 hours after posting. When users click on the link, it will direct them to the charity’s donation form.

In a post, Vice President for Product Partnerships at Facebook, Ime Archibong, said: “Instagram will bring the ability for people to support nonprofits that are important to them through a donation sticker in Instagram Stories.”

Facebook said it was too early to talk on how this feature will collect donor data and whether this can be shared with charities, but would reveal more details soon.

A spokesperson told Third Sector UK: “Instagram is all about bringing you closer to the people and things you love, and a big part of that is showing support for and bringing awareness to meaningful communities and causes.”

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According to a 2018 M+R Benchmark study, Instagram is the fastest-growing channel for not-for-profits. For every 1,000 email addresses, not-for-profits had an average of 41 Instagram followers, up 44 per cent, compared with 474 Facebook fans, which is up 15 per cent, and 185 Twitter followers, up 13 per cent.

In addition to the Instagram donation button, Facebook announced during a Facebook Communities Summit, that it would expand its blood-donation feature. At the moment, it is only available in Bangladesh, Brazil, India and Pakistan.

The feature allows people to register as blood donors by submitting an online form with their name, location and interest in donating blood. This then enables charities to notify donors when a blood donation centre near them needs more blood.

This is not the first time Facebook has updated its features for philanthropy purposes. In November, Facebook announced that people raised over US$1 billion for causes that they care about since introducing charitable giving tools in 2015.

On Giving Tuesday 2018, Facebook announced it matched a total of US$7 million in donations. Its birthday fundraising feature also raised more than US$300 million.

Facebook Founder, Mark Zuckerberg, said in a post on the platform: “In the last year since we launched birthday fundraisers to help people dedicate their birthdays to raising money for a cause, people have raised over $US300 million for over 750,000 non-profits – everything from food banks to animal shelters to Alzheimer’s research.”