This year, in GlobalGiving’s London office, we’ll be celebrating Dec. 15. Why? It’s UK Local Charities Day. It’s an annual opportunity to shine a light on small British charities making a remarkable difference in their communities.

Awareness days, such as Local Charities Day, can be a great way to garner support and raise donations for your cause. In any calendar year, there are countless awareness days that nonprofits can leverage for fundraising.

Here are my best recommendations for leveraging the momentum of these days for fundraising, no matter the nature of your cause:

1. Identify days that will resonate with your donors.

Choose awareness days that fit with your mission and resonate with your supporters. If your organization works with refugees, for example, it makes sense to mobilize on World Refugee Day (get World Refugee Day marketing tips here). For small nonprofits operating in the UK, Local Charities Day may be a natural fit.

2. Attend or host an event.

Events are a great way to learn, meet, and network with like-minded organizations and supporters. For UK Local Charities Day, the FSI is hosting fundraising webinars, as well as live Twitter events. You can also host your own event. Big or small, invite friends, volunteers, staff and supporters to a fundraising event or ask advocates to arrange a fundraiser on your behalf. Check out this list of 14 peer-to-peer fundraising ideas.

3. Tap into momentum through online channels.

Use social media in the run-up to the day to create noise and to show your involvement in the day. Supporters will feel like getting involved if there is momentum for the cause and others are joining the conversation, too. Watch our webinar, “Hashtag With A Purpose,” to see how to leverage Twitter and create a buzz during your campaign. Pre-plan your social media content, and think about using varied mediums to showcase your work, such as case studies, ​photos, and ​videos. Get inspired by World Heart Beat Music Academy’s awareness-raising guest blog, and check out some of these free social tools for nonprofits, which can help you organize your content across social media platforms. Organizations taking part in UK Local Charities Day can also use this helpful digital toolkit to plan their outreach efforts.

4. Learn about the awareness days that align with your cause.

The United Nations keeps an online calendar of its observances. For a list of popular awareness days in the UK, check out this website. For a list of popular awareness days in the United States, check out this website. (Did you know Elephant Awareness Day happens every August!?)

Make the most of awareness days by encouraging donors to give at certain points of the year, and you’ll be positioned to reap the rewards in donor engagement and donations.