Bonus tips
Add a personal connection to the template – how have blood products or the act of donation affected you personally?
Recognize that templates are best used for general, organization-wide appeals. For your closest contacts, consider sending more personalized messages to key individuals
Introducing the Drive – best sent from Senior Management (if possible)
Send: Beginning of publicity campaign, approx. 3-4 weeks before drive date
Subject line: You’re invited.
I am very pleased to announce that we’re partnering with ImpactLife on [drive date] to hold our own blood drive. Personally, I feel great pride in knowing that [host organization] is becoming a part in what ImpactLife does to strengthen our local community by providing safe and ready access to life-saving blood products.
Over the next few days, you’ll be receiving more information from [name of blood drive coordinator], who is leading the blood drive for us. If you have any questions, please contact [first name of coordinator] at [coordinator phone number and/or email address].
I’m looking forward to donating blood and I hope you’ll join in the mission too. [Senior manager #1], [Senior manager #2], and [Senior manager #3] have all signed up to donate and we want you by our sides on [drive date].
Thank you for all that you continue to do to make [host organization] the best place to [teach/work/learn/etc.]. Now, contact [name of blood drive coordinator], sign up to donate or volunteer, and let’s add saving lives to the agenda on [drive date].
[Senior management signature]
Mission Spotlight #1
Send: Halfway to drive date (approx. 2-3 weeks before drive)
Subject line: Let’s talk numbers.
We all receive way too many emails every day. Recent research suggests that over 200 billion emails are sent every day, each one of us receiving an average of 110 or so. So why does this one email matter?
Because this one saves lives. Or at least – it could. It’s all up to you.
One donation equals…
45 minutes from sign in through refreshments
5-10 minutes of actual donation time. (No seriously, just 5-10 minutes).
3 or 4 blood components from each whole blood donation
1 good deed to feel great about.
Make this email count. Sign up for donating at our blood drive on [drive date] any time between [start time] and [end time] by responding to this email. It’ll be the easiest life (or lives!) you’ve ever saved.
[blood drive coordinator signature]
Mission Spotlight #2
Send: Week before drive
Subject line: Will you give?
38% of the population is eligible to donate blood. Fewer than 10% actually do.
This is a problem. Every day, many Americans depend on blood donations from generous volunteer donors for critical components of their medical care…it is truly the most personal natural resource
As you know, next week [host organization] is hosting a blood drive in partnership with ImpactLife. From [drive start time] to [drive end time] in the [drive location], friends and colleagues will gather and take about an hour out of their day to donate blood.
It’s easy to rationalize that someone else will fill the need, but when more than 41,000 blood donations are needed every day, each and every donation helps ensure that when someone in our community needs blood in an emergency, we will have some to give them. YOUR ten minutes in the donation chair matters to your community.
Save lives by making the commitment today: to donate yourself, and to ask your friends, colleagues, and loved ones to donate with you. There’s cookies – and the feel-good buzz of saving up to four lives – waiting for you on the other side.
[signature]
Thank you! (sent by senior management or drive coordinator)
Send: As soon as drive data is available (approx. 1 week after drive)
Subject line: We did it!
Thank you to everyone that donated at [host organization]’s [very first/second/14th/etc.] blood drive. We really stepped up for partnership with ImpactLife. I’m so proud to say that, as an organization we saw these numbers:
- [number of donors] [host organization] employees, friends, and families showed up to donate blood
- [Participation rate]% of [host organization] employees donated blood
- [number of units collected] pints of blood collected
These totals are truly something to celebrate and I am so thankful to each and every one of you who made our success possible. Thank you for all that you do to continue to make [host organization] the best place to [teach/work/learn/etc.] Together, we have had many accomplishments and I, for one, am thrilled to be able to add saving lives to the list.
Thanks again!
[signature]