How to Host a Blood Drive
Hosting a blood drive is much like hosting any other event excluding the fact that you will need to educate not only yourself, but other people who are interested in donating.
1. Create an event timeline and have a basic idea of when you would want to host the blood drive. Give yourself at least 2 months in advance to plan.
2. Find a contact from the Red Cross or go to The Coordinator's Toolkit on the Red Cross website.
3. When you have contact with a representative from the Red Cross, you will discuss how many people you will advertise the blood drive to and from that, determine how many people you believe will sign up for the event. With this in mind, you will create a goal with your Red Cross representative.
4. After you have an idea of when the drive will be, where it will be held, and who you will target, you will need a team. Preferably about 10 people or less for every 50 expected donors.
5. Advertise your event! Your Red Cross contact will provide you will wristbands and flyers to post around so people will know how to sign up, where to go, and when to go there.
6. When you get prospective donors to contact you, create a spreadsheet and organize their appointed times to show up. In schools, it is especially important to do this so that teachers will know who will be absent from their class. Generally this is a necessary step because there will be times when people come in all at once and the wait time will be unbearable. It will be best to create time slots.
7. Before the event, do not forget to remind those who have signed up how to prepare for their donations. Below you will see a snippet of my email to my prospective donors the night before the blood drive.
"Thank you all for signing up for tomorrow's blood drive! Below you will find your time to show up to the drama studio. Unfortunately, I couldn't give everyone the times they requested. Remember to eat a healthy breakfast and stay hydrated..."
8. Host your event and make sure everyone in your team plays a role. The roles can alternate and someone should be in charge of registration and someone else could be in charge of making sure anyone who has donated returns to whichever class or place they need to be. You will also need to have calm people to help comfort everyone who may be afraid or have gotten sick after their donation.
9. When all is done, thank your donors and pat yourself on your back! Your event would not have been successful without them and they could not have been able to help save lives without your initiative to host the event.
1. Create an event timeline and have a basic idea of when you would want to host the blood drive. Give yourself at least 2 months in advance to plan.
2. Find a contact from the Red Cross or go to The Coordinator's Toolkit on the Red Cross website.
3. When you have contact with a representative from the Red Cross, you will discuss how many people you will advertise the blood drive to and from that, determine how many people you believe will sign up for the event. With this in mind, you will create a goal with your Red Cross representative.
4. After you have an idea of when the drive will be, where it will be held, and who you will target, you will need a team. Preferably about 10 people or less for every 50 expected donors.
5. Advertise your event! Your Red Cross contact will provide you will wristbands and flyers to post around so people will know how to sign up, where to go, and when to go there.
6. When you get prospective donors to contact you, create a spreadsheet and organize their appointed times to show up. In schools, it is especially important to do this so that teachers will know who will be absent from their class. Generally this is a necessary step because there will be times when people come in all at once and the wait time will be unbearable. It will be best to create time slots.
7. Before the event, do not forget to remind those who have signed up how to prepare for their donations. Below you will see a snippet of my email to my prospective donors the night before the blood drive.
"Thank you all for signing up for tomorrow's blood drive! Below you will find your time to show up to the drama studio. Unfortunately, I couldn't give everyone the times they requested. Remember to eat a healthy breakfast and stay hydrated..."
8. Host your event and make sure everyone in your team plays a role. The roles can alternate and someone should be in charge of registration and someone else could be in charge of making sure anyone who has donated returns to whichever class or place they need to be. You will also need to have calm people to help comfort everyone who may be afraid or have gotten sick after their donation.
9. When all is done, thank your donors and pat yourself on your back! Your event would not have been successful without them and they could not have been able to help save lives without your initiative to host the event.