Instagram is testing a donation feature called Fundraiser

Popular photo-sharing app Instagram keeps on getting new features that make it more relevant for users. Facebook has been focussing a lot on the app since the time its popularity went up with a majority of users of the social media platform.

According to a report in TechCrunch, Facebook has added another commercial feature on its photo-sharing app. Instagram is said to be testing a new Fundraiser feature that would enable users to raise money for various non-profit organisations via the Stories feature.

TechCrunch has credited these findings to Jane Manchun Wong, who discovered code and images within the Instagram app that hint that the platform will soon have support for Fundraise. Eventually, users will also have an option for searching for a non-profit and add it to their Story. And other users will be able to make donations via that person’s Instagram Story.

Instagram has also said in a statement that it is testing this feature and said that is expected to roll it out to everyone “later this year.”

The photo-sharing app said, “We are in early stages and working hard to bring this experience to our community. 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. Later this year, people will be able to raise money and help support non-profits that are important to them through a donation sticker in Instagram Stories. We’re excited to bring this experience to our community and will share more updates in the coming months.”

We should mention that this feature is very similar to Facebook’s Donate functionality which, according to the company has helped raise $1 billion for various non-profits. However, as TechCrunch pointed out, such donation features require users to enter their credit card details.

This means that by adding the Fundraiser feature to Instagram, the social networking platform will be getting access to millions of credit card numbers. Would you be comfortable with this given that Facebook has a not-so-good-history with data? Let us know in the comments below!