Weather happens, and we all know those blood drives get cancelled.  Especially high schools and when will we be able to reschedule them again?  Perhaps it will take some extra motivation….

One terrific idea is to schedule quick media sponsored events and blood drives to replace those that have been cancelled due to weather or other unforeseen happenings.  When you offer a gift to donors, especially a nice one like a long sleeve tee, it will make your jobs easier to reschedule those high school drives in early January to catch up.  Also, the media and sponsors will be more likely to help with recruiting and promotion if there is an exciting donor gift to share.

We all know that the holidays themselves create a decrease in blood donor availability and then perhaps an inadequate blood supply in mid-January.  Usually we do a good job in planning up and to the holidays, then things tend to slow down.  Get ahead of the blood needs and use a great promotional gift to secure that your January calendar is booked up.

The Holiday season is a great time of year to remember and recognize those volunteers who are actively involved in the scheduling of blood drives, recruiting blood donors and working as volunteers during the blood collection hours either in the fixed sites or on mobile drives.

Even though we are diligent in offering verbal appreciation to these folks, a gift and written note will be more effective.

A few ideas may include:

• A Blood Center coffee mug filled with packets of tea, hot chocolate or cappuccino mix with a personal thank you note.
• One of the Blood Center’s t-shirts or caps tied with a ribbon and personal note.
• A nice writing pen with the Blood Center logo inscribed on it.
• A custom designed Holiday ornament.

Each of these gifts  are small tokens of your gratitude and appreciation, but will serve you well in the future.  Your volunteers will remember your thoughtfulness and kindness and be willing to help out more than ever.

10. Standing on street corners in all kinds of weather and traffic putting up “blood drive” signs.

9. Driving  all over the area to meet with “blood drive chairpeople”

8. Eating at all the fast food restaurants on the way to blood drives.

7. Coming up with the “right convincing words” to enlist adequate numbers of blood donors to assure an adequate blood supply.

6. Always having a full trunk of goodies for advertising and thank-you gifts.

5. Holding teenagers hands through their first blood donation.

4. Having the opportunity to educate people about the need for blood and how to overcome their “fear”.

3. Choosing recognition gifts for blood drive chairpeople.

2. Meeting some of the nicest, most generous people in the world.

And the #1……

Going to work everyday knowing that you are in a job to “save lives”

Even when most types of blood are adequate, the supply of type O, ad, especially O negative are barely at a minimal level.

What then to do?  How do we keep up with the high demand of Type O red cells?

For any recruitment strategy to be successful, careful planning and monitoring needs to happen.  The following may be idea projects which will help to alleviate the shortages:

• Direct Mail Piece  — This needs to be a very personal plea for the type needed.  Perhaps a theme such as “O How We Need You”.
• Urgent Telerecruitment campaign  — This could follow-up the direct mail piece to regular donors.  Again the message delivered to donors must be sincere, personal and passionate.
• Development of a O Donor Club – -Everyone wants to feel needed and special and this may be accomplished with O donors made to feel part of a very important life-saving campaign.  Members of the club could be given special recognition gifts to help elevate the feeling of importance and self worth.  Gifts such as t-shirts, caps, other apparel also help the public and prospective donors become more aware of the need.
• Media Blitz –Having a strong emphasis on recruiting new type O donors.  Recognizable, attractive donor gifts are excellent motivators for those reluctant to join.
• Special O drives –these can be held at almost any venue…high school, colleges, malls, businesses, churches and community centers.
• Special “O Days” in fixed site centers.  Maybe give away a special “Type O” gift and special food….how about doughnuts (shaped like O’s,little boxes of Cheerios or Oreos?
• Special recognition for first time O donors…..A little extra thank-you gift…..a personal thank you letter explaining the extra need for O donors.
• Presenting type specific stickers to donors to make them feel special.

O strategies need to be carried out on a regular planned basis to avoid last minute, “O my, what to do”  Perhaps each quarter a new focus and a new gift for those special “O Donors”.

For years blood centers have struggled to develop effective strategies for first-time donor retention.  In many centers, the rate of first-time donors who never return is as great as 50%.  Typically, first time donors require more time and attention when recruiting and processing than return donors. This then results in higher costs for education, advertising, donor screening and collection labor time for the blood center.

Research in Blood Donor Motivation tells us that donors want to be involved, but in order to stay involved as a donor, their intrinsic needs should be met.  These include:

• providing a safe welcoming environment
• understanding the need for blood
• understanding how their donation helps
• feeling valuable
• elevating self-worth
• Made to feel individually special
• Feeling like a partner with the blood center

One very effective tactic has found to be follow-up with the donor after the donation is made.  Sometimes this can be done personally through a phone call, but this becomes very labor intensive for blood bank personnel.

Another way to make a good impression and grab the donor’s attention is for them to receive a gift in the mail with a profound personal message reinforcing the importance of their recent donation and how their return visits will be even more valuable to the community.

Depending on budgets (and as more and more centers recognize and evaluate the value of regular donors, this budget number increases), gift packages may be customized. An effective package may include gift items such as a t-shirt, hero necklace, drink tumbler, can koozie, key chain or other personalized donor gifts.

These gifts imprinted with the blood donor center logo not only provide recognition for the donor, but publicity and community awareness for the blood center.

Planning campaigns and promotional events on an annual basis will ensure successful recruitment activities.  Gifts and promotional materials will be on hand and budget will be timely and maximized.When planning for the upcoming year, we would review the effectiveness of past campaigns, research ideas on Donorgifts.com and The Blood Blog.

Keeping a list of ideas and promotions from colleagues will be a handy reference.  Each campaign must be given enough notice for proper marketing and donor anticipation. Advance planning and a schedule for executing the promotional campaign is essential to outstanding results.