 In 1992, Sieghart established The Forward Prizes for Poetry to help raise the profile of contemporary poetry by new and established poets.In 1994, he founded National Poetry Day, a day of celebration of verse on the first Thursday of October which has become an established fixture in the cultural calendar.Events take place in schools, pubs, arts centres, bookshops, libraries, buses, trains and Women's Institutes, and the day is the focus for media attention for poetry.The Forward Arts Foundation

The Forward Arts Foundation (a registered charity) was set up in 1995 to administer the Forward Prizes and National Poetry Day.