The Pinterest Creator Fund offers educational and financial support to select, eligible creators from underrepresented communities. Here’s how to apply.
It’s the Golden Age of content creation. Social media platforms are offering new opportunities to keep posting on their platforms, including new features and revenue-sharing offers.
Pinterest is no exception. In March 2021, Pinterest launched the beta version of the Pinterest Creator Fund to help show underrepresented creators how to succeed on their platform.
Here, we will take a deep dive into the Pinterest Creator Fund with details covering everything you need to know about what the program is, how it works, and how it differs from Pinterest Creator Rewards.
What Is the Pinterest Creator Fund?
The Pinterest Creator Fund program helps select underrepresented creators with large followings thrive on the platform. The program offers community building, educational support, and financial support.
During five weeks, creators learn how to build a successful presence on Pinterest by optimizing their content, from making their Idea Pins stand out to engaging with trends. One cohort sponsored by L’Oreal gained knowledge about potential partnerships with the brand, suggesting that brand exposure may be a part of at least some courses.
Selected applicants receive $25,000 as a cash grant and other valuable resources, including equipment and ad credits. So far, the program has spiked participants’ followers and engagement statistics, with one creator seeing a 75% increase in followers in just six months.
The program focuses on creators who are people of color, disabled, or from the LGBTQIA community. The program is currently available only to creators in the U.S. However, Pinterest has announced that the program will be open to creators living in Brazil and the U.K. in the later part of the year.
How to Apply for the Pinterest Creator Fund
In its first cohort, Pinterest invited eight influencers to the program. Now, they have announced the program would be open to more creators, albeit with limited slots available.
Pinterest encourages content creators to apply if they:
- Identify as a part of an underrepresented community
- Have an active Pinterest account and are based in the U.S.
- Are 18 years old or above
- Have over 1,000 followers on your Pinterest accounts
- Don’t benefit from the platform’s other monetization programs
- Create content in the area of focus for the current funding cycle
- Are ready to commit to the required hours for the training and program sessions
Creator Fund Content Areas
The Pinterest Creator Fund runs in a quarterly cycle and focuses on a new content area with each round. The first series of funding, which began in 2022, was aimed at beauty and fashion creators, and the next series will focus on health and wellness creators.
Application Timelines
Calls for applications open throughout the year, and selection is competitive. Pinterest looks for high-potential accounts that align with their goals. Although applications for the second round closed in August, you can join their newsletter to be notified on the next call for applications.
Pinterest Creator Rewards vs. Pinterest Creator Fund
The Creator Fund isn’t the only monetization opportunity on the platform.
Pinterest Creator Rewards is open to a broad spectrum of creators, while the Pinterest Creator Fund application is open only to underrepresented communities. The Creator Fund is also available only during certain time blocks of the year targeting a specific content niche during that period.
To be eligible for Creator Rewards, you need to meet the following eligibility requirements:
- Get a Pinterest business account by either linking a new business account or converting your personal account to a business one
- Prove you’re 18 years old or older and a legal resident of the United States or the District of Columbia
- Have at least 250 followers on your business Pinterest account
- Create original content
- Have at least 150 saves of your published Pins and three new Idea Pins within the last 30 days of your application
- Use the latest version of the Pinterest app
With Creator Rewards, you get paid for meeting content goals the platform posts and for engagement with those pins. Creators can make hundreds of dollars, if not more, by meeting a content goal.
People can engage with your posts in the form of comments, reactions, messages, and repins. Pinterest also allows viewers to save Ideas Pins to their boards, which is a great sign you’re building an engaged audience. Rewards are new on the platform, so bugs and issues may be expected.
The Pinterest Creator Rewards program differs from other social media platform programs, such as the TikTok Creator Fund, Snapchat Sound Creator program, and the Instagram Creator Fund. This is because Pinterest lets you enter your content into multiple monetization programs, which provide more ways to make money.
What Are Idea Pins?
Both the Pinterest Fund and Creator Fund focus on Idea Pins, a fairly new feature on the Pinterest app. Formerly called Story Pins before the idea evolved, Idea Pins are a way to introduce multi-page videos to the platform.
Unlike Instagram Reels and Stories, you can save Idea Pins for future reference, they don’t disappear after 24 hours, and there’s no length limit. Idea Pins show up in users’ feed and search results.
Idea Pins also allow you to add shoppable tags or link similar items when featuring products. Creators can add a paid partnership tag to their Idea Pins by tagging their brand partners.
Pinterest recommends new creators use their own faces in their videos, use a storytelling format, and incorporate current Pinterest trends into pins for greater visibility.
So far, Idea Pins seem to be increasing engagement on the platform. As this is a relatively new Pinterest feature, expect more changes to come.
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Understanding the Pinterest Creator Fund Program
The Pinterest Creator Fund aims to support underrepresented creators on the platform by offering them four weeks of training and a grant of $25,000 in cash and ad credits. The platform has open applications throughout the year, with different application periods focusing on different content areas.
To be eligible for the Creator Fund, creators must have 1,000 followers, be part of an underrepresented community, and meet a few other requirements. The application process is competitive, and only eight creators were selected in the first round.
The Creator Fund focuses on giving a few creators from underrepresented communities more benefits, while Creator Rewards are open to any account that has the follower and engagement stats the platform is looking for. Creator Rewards offers minor, ongoing monetization opportunities, whereas the Creator Fund offers a large one-time grant.
Even if you are not eligible for the Pinterest Creator Fund Program, there are many other ways to earn money through content creation. Hype's blog has a number of helpful resources to help you build a successful social media brand.
