What You Can Learn From These 4 Non-Profit Instagram Accounts

What You Can Learn From These 4 Non-Profit Instagram Accounts

As the saying goes, a photo speaks a thousand words. But photos go deeper than that. Perhaps nothing triggers an emotional response to something quite as much as a picture. This concept is especially true in the world of non-profits.

When visuals are used to tell a powerful story, everyone wins. Non-profits win because they’re able to tug at the heartstrings of potential donors in a way that can’t be translated or done with words alone. Donors win because they feel good about where they put their money. And of course the people who benefit from each cause win because they’re more likely to get donor money in return.

If you’re a non-profit, one of the best platforms to showcase your story in visual format is Instagram. If you need some inspiration for how to best tell your story on this platform, take a look at these four non-profits who are doing an excellent job of spreading the word about their cause.

1. Charity Water

The primary goal of Charity Water is to raise enough money to give clean water to people in Africa. That’s because 80% of serious illnesses in Africa are associated with contaminated drinking water. This non-profit uses Instagram effectively to tell their story with simple, yet powerful, visuals of people drinking clean water in the regions they help. They only post an average of once a day but that’s enough to keep their message in front of potential donors.

2. To Write Love On Her Arms

To Write Love On Her Arms is a non-profit for people who struggle with depression, addiction, or other types of self-harm. Their presence on Instagram is positive, aiming to keep the people they help excited about moving out of difficulty and into happiness. But they don’t just post pictures of people. They take their Instagram a step further and post inspirational quotes to keep their target audience engaged and positive.

3. Neverthirst

Neverthirst is a similar concept to Charity Water. This non-profit provides sand filters for people in areas of the world without filtered water. Their visuals are powerful, showing the difference the filters they provide make, as well as the pictures of the lives they’ve changed through their work.

4. Smithsonian

The Smithsonian is a museum with a mission to preserve artifacts from our past. They’re also the National Zoo. Their Instagram account is powerful because it brings those artifacts and animals out from their museum walls and into the world, letting more people see the work they’re doing for our world. It’s this behind-the-scenes look at what they’re curating that continues to drive engagement from their donors.

One uniquely fun thing they do is give other accounts under the domain of their non-profit the ability to take over their Instagram account. For example, check out the engagement they got when they handed over the reigns to Smithsonian Libraries.

What Can You Learn?

Instagram is a difficult platform for many non-profits because you cannot batch a bunch of content ahead of time and schedule to automatically post. However, the results of having a strong Instagram presence are powerful. By scheduling Instagram as part of your daily routine (and getting a few employees to help too), you can raise more awareness and more funds for your cause just like these four non-profits.

Author Profile Jon Forknell is the Vice President and General Manager of Atlas Business Solutions, Inc., a software marketing company specializing in employee scheduling software, including ScheduleBase employee scheduling software, and other business software solutions. In the past, Jon has been recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration as a SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Atlas Business Solutions was named as one of Software Magazine’s Top 500 Software Companies in 2004 through 2007 and again in 2010, 2013 and 2014.