2022 Awareness Days Get ahead on yearly campaign planning with our guide to approaching top awareness days
Define your Purpose
Earth Day, Pride, World Mental Health Day. These internationally recognized days of awareness are a useful tool for reminding us to care about important social issues year-round. And by organizing campaigns inspired by significant cause days, your company will demonstrate its support of key social issues ranging from equality to sustainability to mental wellbeing. That’s why we’d like to motivate you to think about upcoming awareness days and how you can address them within your own organization. With proper planning, you’ll be able to put together a campaign that invites employee participation by connecting throughout the year on social issues that matter.
By taking the time to align on a compelling corporate purpose, you’ll only get more of your employees on board throughout the year to donate their time or money to relevant causes. When your purpose means something to you, your employees, and society, it becomes easy to choose the awareness days that will inspire the most engagement. And if you’re in need of some assistance, check out our step by step guide to defining corporate purpose. Then come back here to filter through our suggested awareness days, which includes our personal recommendations and resources for building meaningful and successful campaigns.
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Plus, by organizing something like a company volunteer day, creating a challenge-based campaign or managing a giving scheme, everyone will have a chance to make their own personal impact. Follow this guide to learn how to use your own CSR campaigns to address significant awareness days that will help your employees stay engaged in goodness all year round.
Before anything else, it’s crucial to start with purpose. Ask yourself: What is your company purpose and how can you serve this purpose through your awareness day efforts?
3 Table of contents 04 Black History Month 05 World Cancer Day 06 International Women's Day 07 Earth Day 08 Pride Month 09 World Humanitarian Day 10 World Cleanup Day 11 World Mental Health 12 Giving Tuesday /Giving Season 13 International Human Rights Day 14 Other awareness days to consider
It’s a month to elevate Black voices and celebrate the community for their contributions to society—both historically and now. Honor diversity & inclusion in your workforce by organizing a campaign to commemorate this month.
Motivate your employees to engage in challenges throughout the month such as reading a book on racial equality or making an effort to buy from only Black-owned businesses.
Elevate black voices from both within and outside of your organizations by inviting Black speakers to present on the topic of racial inequality. This is also a good moment to share Black stories, celebrate successes and promote further education.
Host an event
Challenges
Volunteering Encourage your teams to volunteer for a black owned organization during the month. Some examples include the African Diaspora Network, Healing through the sound of music, and Black Girls CODE.
Learn more about how to engage your employees this Black History Month See
Date The month of February in the US & Canada and October in the UK Context Black History Month is an annual observance that encourages us to share, celebrate, and understand the impact of Black heritage and culture.
Our Guide 4
Black History Month
Resources: Learn more about
Date Friday, February 4th, 2022 Context World Cancer Day is an internationally recognized day to raise cancer awareness and to encourage its prevention, detection, and treatment. As this is an issue that has affected many, it’s an important day to honour the friends, family members and colleagues who are fighting against it.
World Cancer Day
Fundraising Event
Motivate employees to take part in a company-wide walk or run to help raise funds for cancer research. By encouraging family members and friends to sponsor their participation in the event, you’ll get more people involved and contributing to the cause.
Promote participation in the official 21 day challenges, as proposed by the World Cancer Day Organization. This year s challenges include closing the care gap, focusing on your own health, and eliminating cervical cancer. World Cancer Day here.
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Challenges
6 Date Tuesday, March 8th, 2022 Context International Women’s Day is both a global celebration of the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women and a yearly reminder of the gender inequality that still prevails today. It’s a day that has been honored for well over a century, with the first celebration held in 1911. Show support for your female workforce by taking a stance on IWD. Fundraising IWD fundraising for a women’s charity of choice. This could include the potential to match donations or reward employees for their donations. Challenges Challenge-based competitions centred around gender inequalities and biases. For example, challenge your employees to read a book on gender equality and discuss together We Should All Be Feminists, Invisible Women, and The Persistance of Gender Inequality are good places to start! Learn more about how to engage your employees this Women’s Day Goods Collection In office goods collection for local women’s NPOs in need of supplies for vulnerable women. International Women’s Day See Our Guide
Organize a donation drive in which every X amount of money raised, the company commits to planting X number of trees.
Education Bring in a speaker from a local NPO to discuss the importance of sustainability on the local environment. This will give your employees a bit more context as to how their personal choices affect the world around them.
Learn more about how to engage your employees this Earth Day
Date Friday, April 22, 2022 Context Earth Day is an annual celebration that honors the achievements of the environmental movement and raises awareness of the importance of longterm ecological sustainability. This is a significant opportunity for your company to stand-out as an environmentally friendly organization and engage employees in activities that enable them to promote sustainability in their own lives.
Earth Day See Our Guide
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Challenges
Specific Earth Day themed challenges to be completed during the month of April. For example, challenge your employees to delete old emails to minimize CO2 consumption or sticking to reusable water bottles for a whole week.
Donation Drive
8 Pride Challenges Challenge your employees to learn about and support the LGTBQ+ community by watching an educational movie or documentary on the subject, buying from and promoting LGBTQ+ owned businesses, or reading an article on the history of the LGBTQ+ community and discussing with colleagues. Fundraising Organize a fundraiser for relevant NPOs like Rainbow Railroad, the Trevor Project, and It Gets Better. Volunteering Many Pride events are run entirely by volunteers. Consider organizing an event to volunteer for parades and other events throughout the month. Learn more about how to engage your employees this Black History Month See Our Toolkit Date The month of June 2022 Context Pride Month commemorates the ongoing pursuit of equal justice for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community and celebrates the accomplishments of LGBTQ+ individuals. Affirm the voices and experiences of your LGBTQ+ employees by advocating for their equality during the month of Pride.
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World Humanitarian Day Humanitarian Day
Give employees a certain number of hours in the year to dedicate to skills-based volunteering so that they can consistently build relationships and provide relevant support to a cause that inspires them.
Date Friday, August 19th, 2022 Context World Humanitarian Day is an international day of awareness dedicated to recognizing the work of humanitarians, while honoring those who are made most vulnerable by the causes humanitarians fight against. Last year, the focus was the climate crisis, challenging the world to take action in solidarity with the people that need it the most. For this reason, World Humanitarian Day is a significant way to highlight the people who put themselves on the frontlines of these causes and reminds us to act as humanitarians in small ways everyday.
Skills-based volunteering
Resources: Learn more about World Humanitarian Day here.
Organize a Humanitarian Day event that challenges your team members to act together as humanitarians by volunteering for a local shelter to help people in the surrounding community.
This year, World Clean-up day falls on a Saturday, but you can still organize a day out of the office on Friday the 16th to collect trash. Alternatively, you could mount a weekend event at which employees spend a few hours cleaning up a local park, inviting family members to join. Then, everyone gathers at the end for an outdoor barbeque - maybe even the last of the summer season! This is a great way to encourage employees to log volunteer hours in 2022 and could be considered part of a wider Green Month with related challenges, fundraisers, and more.
Education Challenge employees to better understand how their personal choices make an impact on the environment by bringing in a speaker from a local NPO or sharing an article on sustainability.
Date Saturday, September 17th, 2022 Context World Clean-up Day is a yearly reminder to stand up against the global issue of human waste by helping to clean-up our local communities. It’s the perfect motivator for organizing a company clean-up event that gets employees outside and serving the greater good.
Resources: Here are two organizations that are working globally that you can speak with to help organise clean-ups: National Clean-up Day and World Clean-up Day.
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World Clean-up Day
Clean-up event
Date Monday, 10th October, 2022 With initiatives running all month Context World Mental Health Day is an international day for global mental health education, awareness, and advocacy against social stigma. In our current climate, it’s crucial to communicate to employees the importance of mental health. By honoring World Mental Health Day, your workforce will feel they can make their own mental health a priority.
World Mental Health Day
Learn more about
Promote mental health by raising funds for related NPOs like BringChange2Mind, the World Federation for Mental Health, or Suicide Zero. Looking for organizations that serve your local communities is also a good way to show your employees that you care specifically about how this issue affects them. volunteering organizing a remote, group volunteering event to help related NPOs work on items such as their fiscal plans or marketing plans so they can continue doing important work. how to engage your employees this World Mental Health Day
Skills-based
Donations
Encourage your employees to participate in challenges that promote mental wellbeing. For example, challenge them to commit to one week off of social media or going for a walk everyday after lunch for the whole month.
Consider
See Our Toolkit
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Challenges
Leverage your employees’ heightened interest in sharing goodness at this time of the year by organizing an irresistible holiday-based initiative.
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Learn more
Create a calendar during the month of December with everyday acts of kindness to follow throughout the holiday season. Some ideas include group blood donation, goods collection of clothes to donate to an NPO of choice, goods collection of toys to donate to an NPO of choice, and matching the value of a holiday gift with a donation to charity. about how to engage your employees throughout the Giving Season
Giving Tuesday
Gifts of Kindness
Find a local children s home to partner with during the month of November and commit to a number of gifts that will be provided to vulnerable children and adolescents.
Giving Tuesday/Giving Season
See Our Guide
Date November - December 2022 Context Giving Tuesday is the official kick-off of the Giving Season, when we’re all feeling more inspired to donate our time, money, and resources to help those in need. This is an exceedingly engaging moment to encourage employees to participate in giving campaigns, as everyone wants to do their part leading up to the holidays.
Celebrate Giving Tuesday by putting together a donation matching campaign that animates employees to give to a selection of charities. This could be paired with other fundraising events such as a bake sale in the office.
Kindness Calendar
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Starting on the 25th of November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and ending on Human Rights Day, organize a two week long period of supporting human rights causes. domestic abuse. holiday period. Resources: Learn more about International Human Rights Day here.
International Human Rights Day Human Rights Celebration
Ask employees to share the human rights causes that are important to them then provide a donation matching scheme. Collect donations to send to a local women’s shelter to support victims of Plan a volunteer day at a food bank to support families in need during the
Date Saturday, December 10, 2022 Context International Human Rights Day celebrates and fights for the universal rights that each person should be guaranteed from birth. Landing in the middle of the holiday season, this is a useful awareness day for giving your holiday CSR campaigns a specific focus.
14 March Zero Discrimination Day World Water InternationalDayTransgender Visibility Day April World Book InternationalDayDay of Sport June World Environment Day World Oceans Day World Blood Donor Day World Refugee Day World Elder Abuse Day January Martin Luther King Day May Mental Health Awareness Week July International Day of Friendship World Day Against Trafficking in Persons Disaster Relief/Hurricane Season Other awareness days to consider 14
15 September International Literacy Day International Translation Day International Day of Awareness of Food Loss & InternationalWaste Day of Charity World Suicide Prevention Day October World Teachers’ Day World Food InternationalDayDay of Older Persons International Non-Violence Day International Day of the Girl International Day for the Eradication of WorldPovertyBreast Cancer Day November World Children’s Day International Day of Tolerance December Human Rights Day International Volunteer Day for Economic & Social InternationalDevelopmentMigrants Day International Human Solidarity Day International Volunteering Day Other awareness days to consider August International Day of the World’s Indigenous People 15
Serve your corporate Purpose this year by taking action today
Are you feeling inspired to start planning an awareness day campaign? We cannot stress the importance of planning ahead when it comes to this process; the last thing you want to do is scramble to put together an event or initiative. In fact, the more time you give your employees to get excited for the campaign, the more they’ll buy into the idea and get involved. But if you’re having trouble organizing initiatives of this nature, consider using a CSR platform, like Alaya, to help manage your campaigns, track impact, and connect employees all in one space. With this kind of support, you can ensure that your actions are worthwhile by reaching, engaging and inspiring all team members to serve your corporate purpose throughout the year.
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Benevity, a certified B Corporation, is a leader in global corporate purpose software, providing the only integrated suite of community investment and employee, customer and nonprofit engagement solutions. A finalist in Fast Company’s 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards, Benevity’s cloud solutions power purpose for many iconic brands in ways that better attract, retain and engage today’s diverse workforce, embed social action into their customer experiences and positively impact their communities. With software that is available in 22 languages, Benevity has processed nearly $8 billion in donations and 43 million hours of volunteering time to support 326,000 nonprofits worldwide. The company’s solutions also facilitated 530,000 positive actions and awarded 1.2 million grants worth $12 billion. For more information, visit benevity.com.
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