How to Increase Blood Donations

The lives of up to three people can be saved with a single one-pint blood donation. According to the American Cancer Society, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved any substitute for blood, and what blood substitutes do exist are experimental and rarely used. When blood banks are especially low on blood, they do all that they can to increase blood donations. Contests, giveaways, competitions and other strategies are used by blood banks in order to increase donations.

Instructions

How to Increase Blood Donations

• 1

  Inform the public of the necessity of blood donations. Posters, billboards and ads on television and other electronic media are effective at reaching the public. Many people do not understand that by donating a pint of their blood they can literally save lives. Informing the public of this fact may make people more apt to donate their blood.

• 2

  Ensure that donating blood is convenient for donors. People live incredibly busy lives, and often have good intentions, such as donating blood, but have a hard time scheduling it into their days. Making blood donation convenient increases the likelihood of donors finding time to donate blood. Scheduling blood drives at places of employment, places of worship and malls are great ways of reaching donors because these are places where they are already going to be.

• 3

  Provide incentives for people to donate their blood. Providing an entry into a drawing or giving away a pair of movie tickets is a great way of enticing people that are on the fence about donating blood to take the plunge and donate. However, be certain to check into the laws in your state before having a lottery or raffle since each state has its own laws governing lotteries.

• 4

  Start a competition against a blood bank in another city, and announce that competition to the public. Both the blood banks and the public will be motivated to win the competition, leading to increased efforts in acquiring blood by the blood banks and an increased willingness to donate blood by the public.