How To: Start an Awareness Campaign About Your Cause

There are tons of people out there who don’t know much about your cause or how many people it affects. Here are some tips on how to start an awareness campaign about a cause you care about.

1. Post signs and hand out flyers around school, local businesses, public libraries and more high traffic places.
2. Figure out how you want to present your data. DoSomething.org has some great info on tons of causes including facts, effects and dangers.
3. What are the cause-relevant things happening in your area? For instance, if your cause is alcohol abuse, call your local Alcoholics Anonymous and ask about the details of alcoholism in your area.
4. See if you can get a quote from an expert. Call your local university and track down a professor. If your cause is drug addiction, talk to a recovering addict. Real stories are powerful!
5. Sometimes pictures make stronger statements than words, so don’t be afraid to use them. If you campaign for locally grown food, take a picture of a farmer's produce.
6. Now that you’ve got all this info, get some friends together to help you design and complete the posters or flyers. They can also help you put them up when you’re done.
7. Keep in mind that in order to make this campaign effective, you have to vary your strategy. So think about making a few different kinds of signs:
   • Small flyers to pass out to people
   • Big, colorful posters to post on telephone poles: you want these to grab the attention of the people will be driving and/or walking by.
   • Informative flyers to post on cork boards or town message boards.
8. Think what time of year is best to campaign. If your cause is climate change, aim to have a campaign around Earth Day. If it’s alcoholism, get your flyers up in April during Alcohol Awareness Month.
9. Think of strange places you can put up posters and see if you can get permission to post them there. Stick 'em in places like the doors in bathroom stalls of restaurants, cafes, and/or even in restrooms of your local bus or train station.
10. Keep in mind that weather may damage posters so you’ll want to go out periodically and repost your signs.
11. Recruit speakers to come in and speak to students at your school, church, or community center about your cause. If your cause is discrimination, visit your local synagogue to see if someone can come in and speak about Antisemitism.

Don't have a cause? Check out our 11 Causes section. GO