How to Raise Awareness for a Cause?

Posted on September 9, 2019

Raising awareness for a cause you care about is extremely important. Raising awareness for important causes allows more people to become aware of an issue you care about. This increases community engagement with the cause. It leads to more charitable donations, volunteer time and can make a huge difference in improving the society we live in. There are several ways in which one can proceed to accomplish this goal.

1. Event Awareness

Often, hosting events to raise awareness towards social and other causes leads to exemplary results. People engaged with the event begin to understand the nuances of the issue being addressed.

Fundraising events are especially important in this regard. Fundraising allows for the growth of awareness as well as donations. These events could be independently organized or part of larger events. It is better to organize events where people meet one another as this allows people to engage with one another and meet each other. A community around your cause can be built. Fundraising events can also be social events. This is usually a fun way to raise awareness.

Educational events also play a role in raising cause awareness. Often, one can choose to teach a skill. At the event, like-minded people can be similarly sensitized to a cause.

2. News

Speak about your cause concerning an existing news story. Often is a social cause is discussed along with breaking news, people begin to understand the importance of the cause. For example, if a story about a homeless person being selfless is being reported, homelessness can then be discussed.

3. Organize a service project

Service projects provide opportunities for people from various groups such as corporates to volunteer together for a particular cause. If these events are publicized and conducted on special volunteer days, or days of giving such as Christmas or the Fourth of July, it leads to greater community participation.

4. Distributing brochures

Distributing brochures which highlight important details related to your cause can help people become more informed. A brochure regarding climate change should include what causes climate change. It is also important to discuss what one can do to help. Donation websites or volunteer organization information should be included. These brochures should be distributed in areas where people are most naturally inclined to think about a particular cause. For instance, social issues can be addressed in and around college campuses.

5. Call-in/Become an Expert

Doing research and publishing case studied or statistical data can add legitimacy to your cause. Not only does such work allow for critical engagement with an issue, but it also allows people to properly understand the cause and work accordingly.

6. Social Media

Social media today has tremendous power to change things. GoFundMe campaigns shared on social media have often garnered immense support and funding, for individuals. At a larger level, making shareable content makes people more likely to share something. On Facebook, 75% of all content posted includes an image. Images are the most shared content on Facebook as well. Instagram also allows for picture sharing. Informative pictures with details regarding where and how to volunteer time or donate money can one of the extremely fun ways to raise awareness for a cause. Know what charities can do in the era of social media.

7. Have social media/other coverage for your event

If you choose to organize an event for awareness, do remember to live-stream it or ensure it garners necessary media attention. This raises cause awareness amongst viewers or followers. It can also help others come up with ideas on how to raise awareness for that or other issues.

8. Selling Merchandise

Often, people are able to more greatly connect with a cause and feel a sense of belonging towards it. People wearing merchandise such as T-shirts in public is one of the fun ways to raise awareness. It causes people to start a conversation and begin to engage with the cause.

Raising awareness has been extremely beneficial to several non-profits and other companies. Truth, a non-profit against smoking uses fun ways to raise awareness. They use pop culture in their campaigns and advertise with Adult Swim as this targets their target demographic of 12-24 years. In 2015, they launched a Vine campaign. “Big Tobacco Be Like” was a campaign under which several popular Vine users pointed out the dangers of smoking.

Curtis Clough was able to raise cause awareness even as an individual using the power of social media. Following the Boston Marathon bombing, he started the hashtag “#BostonStrong”. This hashtag took Twitter by storm and rallied people who wished to show solidarity. The awareness raised was used by One Fund Boston. The organization aimed to raise money for those who needed medical help, as well as for families that lost members in the attack. One Fund Boston was able to raise $80 million before they closed their campaign.

The Oregon Dental Association parodied a song called ‘Teach Me How to Dougie’. Their version was ‘Teach Me How to Brushy’. The parody video garnered 860k views on Youtube. The video was also covered by Huffington Post, the Today Show and others. Given the perception of brushing and dentists, this video was able to change the perception of several people towards oral hygiene.

The March of Dimes is a nonprofit that works on lowering infant mortality rates. Their 2012 National Ambassador Campaign used several social media platforms and content marketing pieces. The campaign was especially successful because of how it was run. As their job was to lower infant mortality, they chose to showcase a young child. The child as the ambassador allowed people to visibly and tangibly see the difference the organization was making. The campaign also used several media including blogs as well as social media. This helped magnify the size of the population they were able to reach.

Wrapping Up

Raising awareness for a cause can lead to extremely tangible benefits. It allows people to truly understand a cause and be engaged with it. It can lead to better donations as well. Successful campaigns in the past have been ones that include an assessment of a target demographic and a wide outreach. Awareness must be raised through media that create greater engagement and have a wider reach. There are several things one can do to raise awareness as an individual or as a group. It is important to begin to raise awareness as meaningful engagement is necessary.

If you are looking to be associated with a cause, iConnectX is a platform that offers you several ways to contribute to a cause you are passionate about!