An annual awareness calendar can offer your nonprofit lots of great promotional ideas throughout the year.
National awareness days are a great way to spread the word about your nonprofit’s work by aligning your mission with a day that’s dedicated to a specific, relevant issue. Raising awareness allows you to generate visibility for your nonprofit and connect directly with your audience—often reaching beyond your typical supporter base.
These issue-focused events offer great ideas for promoting your nonprofit, raising awareness and support for your cause, fundraising, and shedding more light on the great work that you do every day.
Discovering Relevant Awareness Days
Spend some time looking through all the awareness day events throughout the year by using a 2023 awareness day calendar. Some days raise awareness for multiple causes, but others aren’t linked to a specific issue or cause.
As you look through the calendar, note awareness days that are relevant (or even tangentially relevant) to your nonprofit’s mission. Use this as your jumping off point for generating some great awareness day promotion ideas!
Which Nonprofit Awareness Days Best Suit You?
Once you’ve nailed down every awareness day in 2023 break them down by month to better cater the list to your promotional purposes. It’s important to categorize them by relevance and level of importance.
If you find yourself with many different choices, try sorting the relevant awareness days into priority groups. Base your groups on what you want to achieve with your awareness day publicity plan.
Turning Awareness Days Into Action Plans
Now that you know which awareness days you want to target during the year, finally it’s time to devise a promotional action plan.
There are a few different publicity channels you can use to tap into an awareness day and tie it into your nonprofit’s cause:
- Email blasts
- Social media (there’s a lot of great chatter that happens around awareness days online!)
- Local media, such as TV news outlets, radio stations and newspapers
Remember that your awareness day tie-in is newsworthy! Don’t be afraid of reaching out to a local newspaper or TV station about the awareness day and how your nonprofit furthers the day’s mission.
Spice Up Your Nonprofit Awareness Day
Make your awareness day outreach fun and engaging by adding a digital experience or physical experience.
- Organize an event around the awareness day to improve your nonprofit’s visibility in the community.
- Host a virtual event with an expert in the field relevant to that awareness day.
- Spotlight the work that your nonprofit does around the awareness day with a video or photos.
- Run a fundraising drive centered around the awareness day issue.
Create Your Own 2023 Awareness Day Calendar
Keep this post and these awareness days ideas handy as you build your awareness day calendar for the coming year!
Remember to start planning your activities in advance so you’re prepared when the day rolls around. We suggest writing a narrative or story around each awareness day about how your nonprofit’s mission helps to further that shared cause.
