All I ever got was a cup of tea and a couple of ginger biscuits.
I got an umbrella last time!
I don’t usually check for rewards. I find that sometimes there are rewards, sometimes there aren’t. Sometimes they run out sooner than expected.
Something surprising to me in the Econlib article is “Whereas Americans can donate 104 times a year, many Europeans are limited to less than 30 times.”
Can Americans really donate twice a week? I am in the UK and I can only donate once every 12 weeks, the reason given for this is “After a donation, most people’s haemoglobin levels are back to normal after 12 weeks. We ask you to wait at least 12 weeks between donations to make sure we don’t risk lowering your haemoglobin levels over the long term.” I would expect some variation between countries but either the UK is being excessive cautious or most regular donars in the US are liable to get severe anemia.
2nd question “How often can I give blood”
Americans can donate plasma 104 times a year; whole blood is generally every 8 weeks (and max of 6 times per year). Platelets are every two weeks with a max of 24 times per year.
Those are the Red Cross numbers I am familiar with. It can vary state-to-state as well - some states have a 72-hour exclusion period for platelet donations after taking aspirin, for some it is 48 hours.
Back when I was able to donate platelets the donation place would occasionally give out things to donors. I never got a gift card, but I do remember getting an umbrella once.
When I was in college in the early 70s a friends used to occasionally donate blood so he could get the $25 for beer and cigarette money. I never tried to do that, so I have no idea where he went or how it worked.
I’m donate whole blood or double red three or four times a year. It’s to an outfit called Vitalent. I accumulate points which I think can be redeemed for something or other but I’ve never looked. In the past they’d give out tshirts which I decided and a few times coupons for a local car wash which I would use.
Edit: I just checked and I had enough points for a $100 Amazon gift card! Holy shit.
Well, other than my “gifts” were juice and cookies, same for me. I haven’t donated for a number of years. Some health issues, plus there’s no donor site convenient to me now. The Red Cross used to come to my company HQ quarterly, and I gave every time. Then, I was a platelet donor for a number of years. All I got there was the free movies. Oh, once I donated at the Westwood Village Red Cross, and they gave Mrs. Field’s cookies when those were all the rage (white chocolate macadamia – yum).
Since I retired (11 years) I haven’t donated. Is this when these rewards started? Because I’ve never seen them.
Am I donating blood wrong? I usually just leave jars of it in those “little free libraries.”
It’s going to vary wildly by location
Well, obviously. But I’ve donated at half a dozen different sites and never seen “gifts.” I’m assuming it’s because they’re relatively newish.
No. At least not here. Until this morning I’ve never bothered with them though
I guess by newish I’m estimating around 20 years. Were they around longer than that?
They wouldn’t even let me have a hot drink the first time (for a good reason - some people experience fainting or dizziness and if you don’t know you’re not one of those people, you might spill a hot drink on yourself)
In that case, I’m not sure. They had t-shirts and coupons for ice cream shops but I don’t think accumulating points to get prizes.
Yes it’s been at least some 20, 25 years since little items have been given away. As stated earlier it’s going to vary wildly by location. For Stanford Blood Center, they’ve been giving prizes of some sort for over 25 years, including t-shirts, movie tickets, ice cream coupons, tickets to their sporting events, and others. They went to a points accumulation system maybe over 15 years ago. And then over and above those points they’ve given away other occasional items.
One of my favorite items is a self-adhesive little sliding plastic cover for my laptop camera. It’s about ½” high x 1” wide. Simple and effective.
I usually donate the points back. I certainly don’t need more t-shirts.
I can confirm this. I just looked, and sure enough, the American Red Cross sent me an email about a week after my last donation telling me I could click a link to claim my gift card or to “donate” it (i.e. forgo it). They add the note that “Contributing gifts back to the Red Cross further supports our lifesaving mission.”
They then tell you that: “Once you click ‘claim gift,’ you can expect to receive an email from us containing your Reward Link within 14 business days.”
I think I miss one or the other email more often than not and never claim or redeem my gift card.
The last time I donated to the Stanford Blood Center was about 15 years ago, and they didn’t have the points system then. You got something after your eighth donation.
But I got a prize better than a T-shirt - my life. The last time I donated I get rejected for a racy pulse. I had a check up just a week before, and figured it was because I had too much Mountain Dew at lunch. I went to my doctor to get clearance to donate - and discovered I had AFib. Still here, but I might not be if I hadn’t been a blood donor.
Can’t donate now because of my blood thinners, but I donated for about 40 years.
Yeah, I have afib, too, so I can’t donate any more either.
Turns out this is not quite true:
The total “blood product” category is indeed 1.8% of US exports. It’s just that it includes a bunch of stuff that probably doesn’t contain human blood, or at least that doesn’t constitute the dominant component.
Nevertheless, over 0.5% is still straight human blood components (plasma and otherwise). It’s still a several-billion-dollar export.