Gratitudes for planning and organizing a blood donation camp and for making it possible for blood donors to give the gift of life. Thanks for opening the doors of sharing, with your colleagues, neighbours and friends, to make the blood donation camps a success — we know it's a lot of planning, creativity,hard work and also for bringing closer many first time donors, who may have never attempted to give blood without your efforts.We believe most people have good intentions on donating blood and it is our mission to make it convenient.
Start Organizing - Step I
Make a list of the population to be solicited and estimate the participation level.
If you have done previous blood drives, obtain a participation list from the blood center if available.
Inform the Bloodindex coordinator/webmaster on the date and location for the drive for to add your blood-camp details in bloodindex.
Tour the site to check traffic flow, space requirements, restroom access, and telephone services. Talk to concerned personnel on the site about specific arrangements for the drive: i.e. special parking requirements and building access.
Collect posters, flyers, bulletin inserts, pledge cards, news releases, and needed supplies from your coordinator.
Get a Team Together - Step II
Contact your organization members with goals and plans for their required support.
Notify organization members and donors of the upcoming drive and ask for their support.
Organize captains to publicize the drive and recruit donors. There should be one captain for every 25 members.
Put up action plan and task list for the captains and members including the medical, paramedical, technical.
Training -Step III
Hold team kick off meeting. Establish specific goals for each captain. This will help each captain to be more focused and efficient.
Hand out list of your organization's members to each captain at the kick off meeting. It is important to stress each captain's goal.
Start Scheduling Appointments -Step IV
Have captains make personal visits to organization members.
As with every major event, take it granted for a 20% cancellation rate. In theory, if you plan having 200 donors, recruit 250 people.
Schedule appointments for donors based on their stated time preference, but keep the schedule level, cutting back at meal times.
Have captains forward appointment lists to the individual who will have the master copy.
Inform the attentees of the camp on the location, date and time of their appointment.
Give frequent updates to all captains.
Make arrangements - Step V
Reconfirm room reservation for the drive. Make sure there is a working telephone at the site.
Remind security that the blood drive staff will be entering the building the day of the drive.
Reminder of the donation should be sent to all donors
Last minute details - Step VI
Captains should remind donors of their appointments. This is the last reminder to the members and donors.
Clear reserved room of excess furniture.
Provide 5-6 foot tables and 30 chairs for the donor center.
Post signs directing donors to the blood drive.
Check the working condition for the Blood Center equipments and other equipments.
Day of the Drive - Step VI
The coordinators should be at the site about 60 minutes before the first donor walksin for donation and to handle any last-minute enquiries.
Assign someone to make reminder calls to scheduled donors who are not present at their scheduled time.
Notify building management when the last appointment is finished and you plan of packing up.
Additional Tips
Ask people to donate personally. Inform them know how important it is to donate and how important they are for donating.
You may get as creative as you like. Some offer momentos for the team that has put the best show. Some companies have prizes for the employee who encouraged and convinced most people to donate.
Remember that you can only request - the rest is up to the individual. There will always be those who do not wish to commit and will choose to donate when it suits best for them personally.
Summary of important points:
Ensure members of the donation camp to get the word out locally.
Confirm site arrangements and check that the blood team has access to the building.
Appoint members who have the time and desire to participate.
Hold meetings to distribute materials and educate volunteers on the process.
Promote the blood drive using available resources.
Recruit donors personally and provide periodic progress reports to camp management personnel.
plan who will be donating at your camp and make arrangements for their needs. Provide baby-sitters and face
painters to entertain children so parents of young children can donate easily.
If possible offer pick-up and drop service so that elderly and disabled can participate.
Be creative and wrap your drive around a theme or concept.
Schedule donors in an efficient way to lower rate of "walk-ins" and "no-shows"
Staffing for your blood drive is based on the number of expected donors.
Send reminder calls and cards to scheduled donors and make reminder calls.
Encourage and motivate donors to register as bloodindex Donor/Receiver community, wherein they can use this for to donate and receive blood, Post/View your visions as blogs, participate the discussion forum, Post/View technical reports & Articles or research papers on clinical areas, etc...
Say "thank-you" to blood captains and to all donors.
