9 Ideas for Your Nonprofit’s Fall Content Calendar

Fall content sets the tone for your nonprofit’s end-of-year campaigns. It needs to engage your audience as you build up to the culmination of the season and start of your winter content: Giving Tuesday. By leveraging the holidays and festive events of autumn, you can find creative ways to connect with your supporters.

If you’re looking for ideas on how to tap into the season’s trends, our resource titled The Seasonal LinkedIn Content Calendar for Impactful Fundraising offers a go-to guide for all major cause awareness days, holidays, and giving days in the United States and globally.

Below, we’ll show you how to translate those seasonal themes into material for your fall content calendar. The following nine ideas aim to jump-start your planning for autumn-themed messaging to inspire donors to give throughout September, October, and November—and into the winter.

1. Give Summer a Farewell

September 22 is the first day of autumn. Use this transition into fall to look back on your nonprofit’s summer highlights.

Similar to the “Throwback Thursday” social media trend of sharing nostalgic photos from previous events, you can join your followers in saying goodbye to summer by reflecting on the past season with content such as:

• Photos from events you hosted over the summer
• Impact data on how many people you served over the summer
• Volunteer or intern stories during the summer months

2. Promote a Virtual Book Club

Fall is a great time to cozy up with a book, which may be why September is National Literacy Month, October is National Book Month, and November is National Novel Writing Month. A fun way to connect with your supporters while leveraging these awareness months is to highlight books related to your nonprofit’s mission.

Look for both nonfiction and fiction titles with themes that highlight your cause. Then, present them through your social media to supporters early in the month. As people read the books, post discussion questions throughout the month to promote engagement with your content and a sense of community around your mission.

3. Share a Recipe

There are several opportunities in the fall to center your content around food, including National Food Bank Day in September, World Food Day in October, and Thanksgiving in November. These holidays and awareness days are obviously beneficial for nonprofit food banks, community gardens, or other food-related causes to leverage. However, nonprofits focused on other topics can also let them drive their content calendars.

Since fall is known for its comfort foods and family recipes, have your staff share some of their favorites with supporters through your social media and newsletter. You can also ask your supporters to share their favorites with you to add an interactive component. In addition, if your nonprofit is a food bank or community garden, you can also highlight easy recipes people can make from some of your most common donations, produce, or ingredients.

However, if your nonprofit’s focus isn’t food-related, you can still take the opportunity to highlight food banks and other resources in your local area too. Nonprofits are stronger together, and your audience may appreciate seeing how you collaborate with other causes.

4. Thank a Teacher

October 5 is World Teachers’ Day and if your nonprofit’s mission focuses on that topic, lean into the material. Share highlights of your work that show how you support teachers, global education, or other related activities.

However, even if your nonprofit’s cause isn’t directly related to education, you can still leverage this day to produce relevant, timely content. For example, you can:

• Have staff share stories about their favorite teachers or other mentors who led them to their current role with your nonprofit
• Highlight your internship program or other ways you connect staff to mentors and continued education
• Partner with a local school or teacher to organize field trips or other activities related to your cause to share with your supporters

5. Highlight LGBTQ Contributions to Your Field

October is LGBT History Month. This is an excellent opportunity to dig into the history of your cause and identify some of the leaders from your field who identify as LGBTQ. For example, an environmental nonprofit could create a series of posts highlighting conservationists throughout history, such as Dr. Clyde Wahrhaftig, an American geologist, professor, environmentalist, and LGBTQ+ leader.

Representation matters as does sharing content centered on LGBTQ people who have significantly impacted your mission throughout the years to honor their legacy and help inspire the next generation of leaders.

6. Lean Into Halloween

After multiple pandemic years of Halloween events being canceled or altered, people are excited for the spooky event to come back in full force.

Welcome the return to this haunted annual trend with some Halloween-themed content. For example:

• Share photos of your staff in their Halloween costumes
• Update your logo or profile photo temporarily to incorporate Halloween decorations
• Carve pumpkins with your logo and share those photos in your October newsletter

Halloween is a chance to have a little fun with your supporters and show your nonprofit’s personality.

Fall is also a time when the days get shorter, which can be challenging for many people, including your supporters. Consider ways to use the Halloween aesthetic to let supporters “glow in the dark” with you. For example, you can use Halloween week to:

• Share highlights and good news from your nonprofit’s work
• Highlight tips from your staff on how they self-care and remember to “glow in the dark”
• Encourage supporters to share and tag you in their “glow in the dark” moments and tips to reshare

To set these posts apart, you can opt to use some bioluminescent (think fireflies) design styles or filters to brand the effort and evoke a jack-o’-lantern feeling.

7. Salute Veterans

November 11 is Veterans Day in the United States. You can use this day to create content that highlights veterans on your staff, profiles donors or volunteers who are veterans, and shows any ways your nonprofit provides services to veterans.

Remembering to thank veterans through your different communication channels on Veterans Day lets your supporters who are veterans and veterans’ family members know that you appreciate their service and continued assistance to causes like yours.

In addition, if you want to add a giving component to the holiday, you can encourage supporters to donate in honor of their favorite veteran.

8. Promote Kindness

November 13 is World Kindness Day, an excellent opportunity to create some feel-good content for your supporters. Nourishing these kinds of good vibes going into the holiday season can put people in a more giving mood.

Try using the stories feature on Instagram to share an ongoing thread of kind acts throughout the day. You can post some that happen to your staff, volunteers, or the people you serve. In addition, you can also ask your followers to share their moments of kindness on social media and tag you in their posts. This provides an opportunity to reshare their posts to your stories and increase your interactions with supporters.

9. Express Your Gratitude

Thanksgiving comes in late November, right before Giving Tuesday and the rest of the holiday giving season. It’s a great time to express gratitude for what your supporters and team have allowed you to accomplish throughout the year. By demonstrating how grateful you are in your fall content, you can nurture donor relationships in a way that encourages them to keep that attitude of gratitude going through continued support.

Consider starting a “Thankful Thursdays” theme throughout November where you highlight a new person, accomplishment, or another part of your nonprofit for which you’re grateful.

Heading toward Thanksgiving, supporters may also reflect on what they’re grateful for, including the relationships in their lives. Show solidarity with them by creating content highlighting some of the friendships or partnerships resulting from your work or even bestie pairs within your staff. Ask your supporters to share theirs too. This can foster a sense of community and authenticity between you and your donors.

Leverage Seasonal Trends to Get Creative With Your Nonprofit Fall Content Calendar

Each autumn month has a variety of cause awareness days and months, holidays, and other festive themes. Use these to drive your seasonal content and connect more deeply with your audience heading into end-of-year giving campaigns.

As November heads into winter and we reach the rapid series of Thanksgiving, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday, be prepared to increase the volume of your content. You can also check out the winter section of our resource The Seasonal LinkedIn Content Calendar for Impactful Fundraising for additional seasonal content ideas to drive your content calendar for the chilly season ahead.