McDonald's and UNICEF launch World Children's Day.

While the well-known orange boxes of the "Trick or Treat for UNICEF" program will still be in the hands of millions of costumed children, another recognizable painted face, Ronald McDonald, will extend the reach of the program to November 20. That day will be designated "McDonald's World Children's Day" with special events associated with it at restaurants around the world.

McDonald's will help raise money for UNICEF making the orange trick-or-treat boxes available at the thousands of restaurants in the United States as well as nearly a dozen countries. November 20 was chosen to commemorate the U.N. adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.

Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) will also be a beneficiary of the projects and will help coordinate fundraising in the countries that aren't part of the program with UNICEF.

"The idea here was to take a step from where we've been," said Jack Greenberg, McDonald's chairman and CEO, "to try to do something that makes a bigger statement and does raise more money."

Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF, said World Children's Day would bring increased awareness about kids' issues here and around the globe.

RMHC is "doing a different kind of fundraising in each country," Greenberg said. "It's different country by country." As such, it's nearly impossible to predict how much the one-day effort will raise globally, and Greenberg declined to estimate.

"In the United States, which is one of the countries where the efforts of McDonalds will be devoted to UNICEF, last year with all our effort, 5 million boxes around the U.S., raised $4 million," Bellamy said. She and Greenberg don't expect a linear correlation. "At a minimum (we should) double what we raised in the U.S.," Bellamy said.

In the more than 100 other countries that won't be part of the program with UNICEF, McDonald's and RMHC will still conduct events in conjunction with World Children's Day. The local charities will such events support will be chosen by "RMHC boards and outside public citizens," he said.

The funds raised through this year's program would go toward eradicating polio, Greenberg said. He added that the program could "make UNICEF a household name again."

Like most cause related marketing programs, the partners will evaluate the relationship after World Children's Day to determine whether and how they wish to determine whether and how they wish to proceed further. "(I have a ) strong prejudice for wanting to do this annually," Greenberg said. "We'd love to make World Children's Day an annual event."