10 Instagram Best Practices for Nonprofits

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With 2.4 billion active monthly users, Instagram is a very powerful social network used by nonprofits worldwide. According to the most recent 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 carousel posts have the highest engagement at 0.66% – compared to 0.51% for single photo posts and 0.41% for reels. 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 because 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.

Instagram Bios

Write a compelling Instagram bio. You are limited to 150 characters and draw attention to your bio with emojis and campaign hashtags. For example, Oceana and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Account Category & Contact Information

Be sure to add a category to your profile, such as “Nonprofit organization” or “Charity organization,” and if you are a location-based nonprofit open to the public, then also add your address. Please note that to add the category or a “Shop” or “call” button, you need to upgrade to a business account as discussed in #2 below.

Story Highlight Covers

If your nonprofit regularly shares stories on Instagram, make a strong first impression by creating custom Highlight covers. For example, Feeding America and the Trevor Project.

Verified Badges

Until recently, the verified blue badge was reserved only for notable brands and personalities with a large following on Instagram. 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 new verification program for Instagram and Facebook that allows brands of all sizes to get verified — but it is not free. Fees start at $14.99 per month per Instagram Account and Facebook Page. Named Meta Verified, the program offers a verified badge, enhanced profiles, customer service, and search optimization.

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. 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.

3) Post 2-4 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 2-4 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. Posting every day or multiple times a day is a lot of effort to reach a tiny fraction of your followers.

As a reminder, according to the Social Media Industry Benchmark Report, Instagram carousel posts have the highest engagement at 0.66% – compared to 0.51% for single photo posts and 0.41% for reels.

Post Eye-Catching Carousels and Photos

On Instagram, first and foremost, post eye-catching carousels of images and single photos of your nonprofit 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 on Instagram 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 embedded text and a compelling 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. For example, Women for Women International:

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 be up to 20 minutes long, but 5 to 15-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 reel content still requires a lot of creativity, time, and staff who 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.

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.

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 Instagram 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 three hashtags. As a best practice, stay away from using general hashtags, such as #green and #happy, and instead narrow your focus on hashtags relevant to your nonprofit, such as causes (#FoodInsecurity), special campaigns (#StandforOceans), and your location (#Tucson).

Also, 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 nonprofits began asking their followers to visit their website by including “Link in bio” or “🔗 in bio” in their captions.

When the strategy was new 2-3 years ago, it worked and referral traffic increased from Instagram, but its effectiveness has worn off. Instagram users are increasingly annoyed by the ask 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. Therefore, it’s best for nonprofits to use “Link in bio” CTAs only for the occasional fundraising ask and important campaigns. For an example of a “🔗 in bio” CTA, see the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The 2026 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, craft a content marketing plan, and current best practices for using social media for community engagement and fundraising.

6) Engage followers who 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 most recent Online Donor Feedback Survey, 12% of online donors have made a donation through Instagram Fundraising Tools. Of those, 83% said they are likely to do so again. With that level of interest in donating on Instagram, 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.
“Donate” stickers in stories: It’s worth noting, however, that according to the most recent Nonprofit Tech for Good Report, donation stickers are not effective.
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.

Your nonprofit and your followers can easily create an Instagram Fundraiser in minutes. Fundraisers last for 30 days, can be added to each post shared by the creator during that 30 days, and are also 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 and tells them step-by-step how to do it in captions.

8) Experiment with Instagram Ads.

Organic reach on Instagram is currently estimated to be 3.5%, 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 add to your advertising budget. In Facebook Best Practices for Nonprofits, Nonprofit Tech for Good recommends that 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 $1,079 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.

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. According to Socialinsider, stories with videos have a higher exit rate than images, but video stories generate a higher reach.

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 Visit Tucson.

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 most recent 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 its 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 clarified that posts from third-party apps get less organic reach 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: January 4, 2026