Using Social Media to Promote Your Fundraising

Written By Hattie Stiff

Social Media and Fundraising

More and more student travellers are turning to social media to help raise awareness for, and promote, their fundraising journey.
Using platforms such as Instagram or TikTok can be a great way to update lots of people at once about any new challenges or milestones, and can also be useful to promote your events and get them out to a wider audience who may want to attend and support. Using social media for fundraising also comes with it’s challenges around privacy and online safety, so it’s important to find the right balance for you.

Whether you’re just getting started on your fundraising journey, or looking for extra ways to reach more people, then carry on reading for hints, tips and further inspiration!

Why Use Social Media?

• It can help with your long-term motivation and accountability knowing that you have people waiting to hear how you’re getting on
• Social media profiles can help spread awareness for the cause behind your expedition and why you’re excited to go
• You can share what expedition you’re going on and what projects you’re going to be involved with to lots of people at the same time
• Sharing fundraising targets and updates to lots of people at the same time helps with time management and organisation
• It gets people excited for you, which means they may be more likely to donate to your cause

Social Media Top Tips

• Start by thinking what platform you want to use. Instagram is often the most popular and has the most people already using it, so a good place to start.
• Choose a clear profile picture and a short but punchy bio to explain what your account is about
• Link to your fundraising platform in the bio so people can easily donate and see more background on your upcoming expedition
• Stay consistent with posting, so people know where you’re up to with your fundraising target. This also helps with Instagram knowing that you’re an active account that has things to say!
• Engage with your followers as much as you can. If people comment, reply back to them and start a conversation. It’s a great way to stay motivated, spark new ideas from a wider audience and signal to Instagram that your content is engaging and worth sharing with more people

What Should I Post?

• Be authentic, and show the highs and lows of your fundraising journey so people can see the effort you’re putting in
• Show all the steps, including the behind the scenes of organising the events and how they went. Did you bake cakes? Did you organise a fun run? What did you do to get there? People love to know how things work, and it will help inspire other fundraisers too
• Share more of the day-to-day organisation and behind the scenes on your stories, but post some of them to your feed too! It helps to make people feel involved and want to continue following your journey, and helps if they’ve missed out on your stories
• You can post about the ‘why’ behind the account, such as where you’ll be going on expedition and what you’ll be getting up to
• Take your photos in good lighting and don’t post anything blurry. They don’t have to be super aesthetic, but clear colourful photos help tell your story so much better
• Talk about your milestones, what upcoming fundraising events and activities you have going on
• Use story highlights to categorise old stories and keep certain stories available on your profile, such as one highlight for each activity, one for behind the scenes, and one for your current fundraising pot

Being Safe on Social Media

• Keep your location and full name private
• Only share what you feel comfortable with
• Don’t share your full address, school name or daily routines, or any other things personal to you
• Ask yourself “Would I be happy for a teacher, parent, or future employer to see this?”
• Stay respectful and avoid posting anything that could be seen as offensive, unkind, or too personal, as it can be hard to delete things forever once they’re online, even though you can delete your account
• If your account is public to raise more awareness for your fundraising, make sure you’re happy and comfortable with who’s following you
• Don’t feel bad about blocking or removing followers
• You can also get your parent or guardian to run your account or help you with content, replying to comments and monitoring your followers

Student Traveller Inspiration

We thought we would share some accounts who we feel have done a great job sharing their fundraising journey on social media!

Getting Crafty

Georgina is travelling to Borneo in 2025, and decided to take on lots of craft projects to raise her funds. She created an Instagram account called 3 Gen Crafts, and used it to promote the items she was making and selling.

We love the way that she took consistent photos of all her handmade jewellery, and showed a mix of close ups, market stall setups and people wearing her items.

She also mentioned her fundraising link in her bio, so that people could donate straight into her fund.

Safety was a key priority too, and we love the way she used a business name for the account and didn’t put her full name in the bio.

Graphic Design and Fundraising

Paige is travelling to Peru in 2026, and decided to create an Instagram account called NoDramaLLama26 to promote her fundraising efforts of cycling the length of Peru over 78 weeks, and climb the altitude of Machu Picchu in 10 days.

Instead of posting photos of her updates, she instead created a feed made up of graphic design posts, each showing how close she is to reaching her goal and what activity she achieved that week.

The colours stand out amazingly, and even though the graphics show a lot of information, they all work cohesively together to tell her story. In each caption, she explains more about how the challenge went that day, and so far she’s managed to raise an amazing £1,885 towards her expedition!

We love that she did something different and used colour and illustrations to document her journey. It definitely makes it stand out from the crowd!

Showing Your Fundraising Efforts

Lacie is travelling to Tanzania in 2026, and decided to create an Instagram account, lacie_tanzania_expedition.2026, to document her fundraising journey and promote all the different activities she was taking part in to reach her target.

We love the way she showed the mix of activities she’s been doing, including uploading to pre-loved clothing websites, car boot sales and making beaded jewellery and custom clothing.

She also noted that her Instagram page has helped her to share her story, and she was inspired to create it by other students travelling with Camps. She told us that the page has helped her visualise her journey and see how far she’s come, and she can’t wait to finally get out to Tanzania in 2026.

What to Do with Your Fundraising Instagram Account After Your Trip

A great way to round off your expedition and fundraising account is to post about your experience once you’re home. This can include photos and videos from your expedition, and a summary post – or a few summary posts – about how you found the experience and what you got up to whilst you were there.

This is a great way to update everyone about your return, and to show your sponsors and followers where their money went whilst you were fundraising.

It’s a lovely full circle moment for both you and the people that supported you along the way!

Your Journey, Your Voice

You don’t need thousands of followers or likes to be a content creator. If you’ve created content and posted it on social media, you’re already there! You also don’t need lots of followers or likes to make an impact on others and fundraise for your expedition, just sharing your journey and genuine passion can go a long way.

Every post helps tell a bigger story — and it’s all part of the adventure! Remember that it’s a great tool for edging closer towards your overall fundraising goal, but it’s also not worth becoming stressed over to keep updated every day.

There are also plenty of social media fundraising resources on the Traveller Gateway!