Resources

An investment in human and material resources for an effective donor education, motivation and recruitment campaign will produce the following long term benefits for the service:

1. an adequate supply of blood, because of an increase in the no. of voluntary non-remunerated donors who give blood regularly.
2. safer blood, because regular, voluntary non-remunerated donors are well motivated, receive continuing education about risk behaviour and are regularly screened.

These resources include:

1. staff and volunteers
2. educational material
3. finance

Staff and volunteers: A national or regional blood transfusion service may have a designated blood donor promotions officer or donor recruitment organizer who is responsible for organizing the donor education, motivation and recruitment programme.
In smaller centers and hospital blood banks, these functions are undertaken by blood bank staff, particularly nurses or senior lab technical staff.
In many countries, the national Red Cross and other NGOs play a major role in recruitment of voluntary donors.
It is also important to promote the participation of individual volunteer motivators, such as community leaders, teachers, social workers and other influential people in the community. They should be encouraged to use their particular skills, experience, position and contacts to reach potential donors.

Educational materials: such as leaflets, posters, films and videos play an important part in donor recruitment campaign.

Funds are required to cover:

1. Staff costs
2. The costs of preparing and distributing educational materials.
3. The costs of holding meetings to educate public, including transport and refreshments.

It is therefore important to try to find additional sources of funding from the community to supplement one’s own resources.

1. Charitable organizations such as the Rotary club, Lions club or religious organizations may be willing to undertake fund raising activities.
2. Industrial or commercial companies may agree to support a programme because it will provide good publicity.
3. Companies supplying blood banks with equipment or consumables may also be willing to donate funding to assist in the expansion of the education programme.
   
   h4. Donor call up

Where a panel of regular voluntary donors has been established and there is an efficient donor records system, it should be easy to identify donors who are due to give another donation and who therefore need to be contacted and asked to attend the clinic.

Monitoring and evaluation

Indicators of effectiveness include:

1. Increase in the total number of voluntary non-paid donors
2. Decrease in the number of permanently excluded donors
3. Increase in the number of regular donors
4. Increase in the number of organizations and/or communities involved in motivating voluntary blood donation.

Dr. Deepika Chatterjee