With Halloween being on a Sunday this year, why not partner with your local theater on Halloween weekend and have a community blood drive.

Saw 3D® will open October 29, 2010 and what a creative way to incorporate some fun into your blood drive.

Blood centers traditionally use Halloween as a great way to promote the blood center. It allows you to let your hair down and enjoy the day wit h your donors.

Have your staff dress out in a special promotion t-shirts or as their favorite Halloween character. Serve some fun red punch and maybe some different Halloween themed cookies.

Also ask your theater to donate tickets, special discount and/or refreshments to all donors who donate blood during that weekend.

And don’t forget to get your local media involved.

If your blood center sponsored a special “Eclipse”  theme blood drive earlier this summer when the new “Twilight” saga  was released, those donors are prime for the sticking so why not pull up a list and invite them to come back and donate if they haven’t already.

We have used so many taglines over the years; Drain Your Vein, We’re Out For Blood, Blood Shortages Suck and so many more. This year we simply want to say this “Fang-Tastic Blood Donor” http://www.donorgifts.com/item.php?id=A-10-0125 check out this designs and more designs on www.donorgifts.com

Happy Halloween!!!

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”.

Many high schools and colleges have decided to put a spin on their blood drive t-shirts and turn it into an “I bleed” t-shirt supporting their local school colors.  You can have the competition between 2 different schools or you can do up to as many schools as you want.  We have often found that t-shirts with specific names and schools listed on the shirts have made a huge impact when it comes time to donate.  Putting something on the t-shirt that really speaks to the donor, is guaranteed to drive the results of the blood drive higher than the last drive.  It’s a shirt that people will want to wear and it often creates a conversation when you wear it to the grocery, spirit days or just out on a walk.

Check out our website and see the different ways we have made the blood drives a lot more interesting when it comes to getting donors in the door.   Once you have the competition and have your coordinators really work to get the word out about the drive, you can then reward the winning schools/top schools with a plaque, pizza party or just a nice note saying “Thank you.”

For more design ideas please visit www.DonorGifts.com or contact your rep for more information!

It may still be hot outside, but it’s time to start ordering those winter donor gifts! We have a variety of polar fleece items available that would give your donors a much needed warm feeling during the cold winter months.

Embroidering fleece items will add an effective edge to your winter recruitment campaigns. Fleece is one of the most favored fabrics for the winter wardrobe and is appreciated for its warmth and durability. When thinking about fleece, most will picture just a jacket, but there is so much more apparel to choose from like hats, gloves, blankets and scarves. It appeals to all ages and both genders with the variety or styles, colors, and sizes to fit everyone and their needs.

Even though fleece is a very affordable fabric, it has a great quality to it. The material is hard-wearing, easy to maintain and lasts well, which means that your embroidered logo will stand the test of time and prolong your advertising campaign for months or even years to come, which makes fleece a good promotional investment.

Year after year, some of our best blood center clients plan their way to an “appeal free” holiday season!

Run a donor query for the zip codes surrounding all donor centers and community blood drives that asks the following questions…
1. Who will be eligible to give whole blood by December 1?
2. Who has already given in one of those locations 2 or more times this year?

For that group, do a high-impact direct mailing. The centerpiece of the mailing is a letter from the CEO which carries a simple, powerful message… “You are one of our best donors. If you will give one more time in early December, you will help prevent a holiday blood shortage. To thank you for your holiday gift to the community, our staff will present you with our Limited Edition Holiday Ornament, as pictured below.”

This simple promotion not only bolsters your blood supply for the holidays – it boosts your annual donor frequency numbers by getting your best donors to pop-in before year end!

I know that high school blood drives are definitely on the blood drive calendars for this fall and they are a sure way to recruit new blood donors. But what about the elementary and middle schools in your area? Of course, I know they can’t donate but the faculty, parents and the community can come out and support these drives. It’s a simple way to fill in blood drives to the holes on your calendar. Children are some of the best recruiters in the world and introducing the community blood program to them is also a great educational tool.
If you don’t already have an elementary blood donor program in place at your blood center, this 2010-2011 school year would be a great time to start.

As a former recruiter, I spent many of my days rallying up the troops at the local elementary schools.
I would start by contacting the principal(s) to set up a day for the blood drive.

After that, I would schedule a day with the school(s) to see when I could come and speak with the children.

I preferred a pep rally setting where I would have our blood drop mascot accompany me so that he could meet the students. After a short presentation to the students on how they can help save lives by recruiting an adult to come to donate at the blood drive, I would tell them what neat gift they would get for being “HEROES”. Gift Ideas varied from pencils to t-shirts. Fortunately, this school year we have one of the most popular items available in the market, BANDZ. These are exciting youngsters all over the place. We also have t-shirts to compliment the bands. If the BANDZ are not your thing, we have plenty of gifts that children would love.

And the last thing, make this a FUN event so the kids, faculty and parents will be ready to host another blood drive next time around.

If you would like to discuss this more, please contact me at roz@donorgifts.com or call me at 317-575-3358.

Also those of you who would like to share your ideas, please do so by chiming in and your name will be entered into a drawing for a one week rental of ½ Pint, our blood drop mascot.

6 weeks….that’s how long it took my local Starbucks to re-stock their acrylic tumblers and they sold out within a few days.  You may be thinking what exactly does this have to do with donor gifts?  Because you can now offer these same tumblers (that people REALLY want) to your donors and sponsors!  This is one of the coolest products to hit the market in a while.  This is an item that people are willing to pay a lot of money for.  This is something that they will line up to donate at your blood center to get for free!

 These tumblers are a sure hit with every demographic, from high schools and colleges to church groups.  Donors would use it every day, in the car, home or office, your logo prominently displayed.

As you consider your next recognition item, consider this hot, new tumbler from OmniSource and give donors something useful  that they don’t have to go to Starbucks for.

Do you want your platelet donors to give like clockwork? Maybe once a month, every month? Then just ask!

We worked with one blood center in Alabama to develop a Platelet Donor of the Month Club that they called Apheresis All-Stars. Donors were asked to commit to donating platelets once every month for 12 months. Once they made the commitment, the donors received a thank you mailer which included a pack of gum with 12 pieces (of course) along with the message, “Thanks for sticking with us.”

It proved to be a lighthearted way to express appreciation for their all-star commitment to 12 donations.

What are you doing to show your apheresis donors how much you appreciate their commitment?

Marsh Regional Blood Center is Kingsport, TN is joining forces with its local movie theater to help save lives this summer.

On the night that “Eclipse”, the 3^rd movie from “The Twilight Saga”  is released they will be hosting a blood drive between the two showings.

Don Campbell, Director of the blood center says that their partnership with the theater has been successful in the past.

The theater even offers refreshments and special seating to all blood donors who donate or show to donate blood that evening.

Now that’s a way to incorporate some fun at the blood drive and save lives while doing it.

So if you have a space to fill on your blood drive calendar this summer why not contact your local movie theater and create this partnership for life.

We had a great turn out for the Opening Ceremonies of the Exhibit Hall tonight at ADRP in Seattle!

On behalf of the entire OmniSource Marketing / DonorGifts.com team, thanks to all who stopped by our booth–to be entered into our drawing for iPads!

If you’re not in Seattle–don’t despair!

You can enter our BloodBlog drawing for an iPad… just by reply to my other thread… “Chime In -How will you bolster your Summer Blood Supply?”