Swedish blood donors receive SMS when their blood saves lives

One of the greatest barriers to people making donations of any kind is that it’s not always transparent where the resource goes and who it helps. Have you ever given money to charity and wondered what became of it? The same can be said of blood donations; whilst you know it’s going to help a patient, you don’t know who or when.While on the whole, blood donations in high-income countries have increased 25% over the past 10 years, there is currently a steady decline in new donors.Stockholm-based blood service, Blodcentralen, found a simple and effective way to encourage donors to continue helping—they inform them via SMS when their blood has been used to treat a patient.The automated text message service thanks the donor when they give blood, and proceeds to update them every time their blood is given to a patient. Imagine checking your phone and seeing that you’re currently saving a life, whilst sitting at work? The program, now three years old, has seen an overwhelmingly positive response. It’s also generated plenty of social media buzz.“We get a lot of visibility in social media and traditional media thanks to the SMS. But above all we believe it makes our donors come back to us, and donate again,” Krolina Blom Wiberg, the communications manager at the Stockholm blood service told The Independent.There’s no telling what kind of amazing difference this kind of SMS scheme could make in Australia. Where currently, according to the ABC, one in three Australians will need a blood transfusion during their lifetime, whilst only one in 30 are regularly donating.Donating blood takes minutes, and your body will replace the blood volume within 48 hours, so donors really have nothing to lose. Creative and innovative schemes like the SMS notifications for donors are a great way to encourage this important effort. So hopefully we’ll see similar schemes pick up in Australia, where we really need it!If you want to learn more about using SMS to encourage donations of all kinds, give us a call today on 1300 764 946 or leave a comment below!