20 April, 2017

We’re developing a set of new guides offering charities a range of tips and ideas. One will be on volunteer recruitment.

It brought to mind the experience of one of our team who gave blood recently. A seasoned donor, commitments had meant she hadn’t been able to donate for close to a year.

You might not really see yourself as a ‘volunteer’ if you give blood but it does take motivation and commitment to queue up, lie in a reclining chair and eat biscuits with sweet tea (no, it really does!).

As she hadn’t given for a while, this may not be a new initiative but following a session donors now receive a text, not just of thanks, but to say which hospital the blood they have given has gone to.

Such a simple idea is incredibly powerful. Similar to the Blood and Transplant Service’s TV adverts of the ‘90s which featured famous faces thanking a person behind them at a football match or next to them on the bus, it gives a sense of the impact your action is having, it makes it real and creates a connection.

She’s now chomping at the bit for her next donation to see where it will go this time. And in communication terms, that’s job done.