alen is a child who loves being active and playing sports; he just wants to be a child like any other. However, Jalen was born with sickle cell disease (SCD), a disease of the blood that requires regular blood transfusions.

Jalen’s story is just one of the many stories highlighted on the American Red Cross website of people who survive or have survived thanks to blood donors.

Last fall, the American Red Cross posted they are facing a national blood shortage. The reasons, their website explains, are many.

What does this have to do with the self-storage industry? Red Cross blood drives are an excellent way to reach out and give back to the community, according to Stacie Maxwell, vice president of marketing and training for Universal Storage Group in Atlanta, Ga. “It’s really a good event to do, very simple,” she says. “The Red Cross does most of the set up and work; we just help with traffic flow.”

Some events, such as the blood drives, serve a dual purpose. “We may do a blood drive as one of our days of service to the community,” says Maxwell. “We always have a good traffic flow for those.”

Of course, the effort assists the community first and foremost, but also achieves what other less serious events do–getting people on the property and maybe putting the facility at the top of people’s minds. “Hosting is great for generating traffic,” she says. “Just creating an event that shows we care, but if it’s set up properly, we can also show off the property as people are waiting.”

Maxwell says the company has one property in Florida that sets up several successful blood drives every year. “Events have proved to be phenomenal marketing for the property,” says Maxwell. “They have all kinds of events all summer long on the property and they’re all very successful. Some of those events are blood drives.”

USG’s events are all well-publicized.

Todd Amsdell, president/CEO of Compass Self Storage in Cleveland, Ohio, says his company has rarely conducted blood drives on their properties. “We had an employee who had a relative that needed blood, and the event was very successful,” says Amsdell. That event wasn’t publicized to the community, but he says, “That might be a good publicity tool for the property.”

As described in Jalen’s story, there are many reasons a person in the community may need blood. “Patients undergoing cancer treatments often require blood or platelet transfusions during their treatments. In fact, nearly half of all platelet donations are given to patients undergoing cancer treatments—a disease all too familiar to millions of Americans and their families. Approximately two-thirds of all children diagnosed with cancer will require a blood transfusion at some point during their treatment,” the Red Cross said in a statement.

Some of the patients who need blood may require up to 100 units per year. The American Red Cross supplies 40 percent of the nation’s blood supply.

The Red Cross says there are many reasons for the current shortage, “There are several reasons for the drop in donor turnout—one of the busiest travel seasons on record, back-to-school activities—and back-to-back months of almost constant climate-driven disasters. The Red Cross is working with hospitals around the clock to meet the blood needs of patients but can’t do it alone. The need for blood is constant. Every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood—an often-invisible emergency that the rest of the world doesn’t see.”

• Work with your Red Cross representative throughout the process.
• Set the date well in advance, avoiding scheduling conflicts with other major events in your area.
• Select a location, preferably a large, open room with space to ensure donor interviews are conducted in a private and confidential manner. If your facility doesn’t have a large separate enclosed space, such as a conference room, it can be an outdoor event, just space the tables and chairs far enough apart so donors can feel their privacy is secure. Maxwell says it’s best to have people moving through different areas of the property so they can see the amenities the property has to offer.
• Recruit volunteers to help sign up donors. You’ll also want volunteers to help the day of the drive to ensure it goes smoothly.
• Recruit donors with the help of your volunteers. Recruiting is most effective when done face to face, and you can reach more people by spreading the effort among your team than doing it alone. Publicize the drive through your community contacts and email lists.
• Sign up donors using the Red Cross online scheduling system; this will help you keep track of your signups and offer donor reminders and thank you email templates.
• Engage community partners to supply donor incentives, thank you gifts, and treats such as extra cookies or pizzas for your donors and volunteers. Maxwell says they always offer a prize drawing. Once someone has won the prize, this can be used as publicity on social media.

• The facility will need to provide chairs, which Maxwell says can be rented, as well as a few tables. The Red Cross will bring some tables and chairs, but it is helpful to supplement what they bring.
• Arrive early to meet the Red Cross team; they will arrive up to two hours prior to the first appointment to set up.
• As Maxwell points out, their staff assists at the refreshment and prize tables, as well as helping with traffic flow onto the facility.
• Send reminders or make calls to scheduled donors, especially those who miss their appointments.
• Manage the volunteer schedule so the registration and refreshments areas are always covered.