I used to donate with the Red Cross, and from them got a pin and a few coupons (the biggest coupon was for a free pie from some restaurant or another). Now I donate with United Blood Services, and have gotten a t-shirt and free cholesterol tests from them (they give the cholesterol test with every donation, not just frequent donors). In either case, I’ve always gotten cookies and juice, and occasionally something like pizza (though I think that comes from the blood drive sponsor, not the blood bank itself).
Oh, and I also get to lose a pint of blood each time, too, which is also a benefit for me. I’ve got a medical condition for which the standard treatment is actually blood-letting (the blood’s still safe to use).
I used to get t-shirts pretty regularly - I have well over a dozen of them from various blood donations over the years. They used to do the occasional Baskin-Robbins “pint for a pint” coupon but it’s been a while. (Of course, the local B-R closed a couple years back so that might have something to do with it.) Also sometimes a coupon for a free sandwich at McDonalds.
Now they have a points system where you get 100 pts per donation and after you save them up then you can go online and redeem them for loot.
I’ve never gotten anything more than a cookie and a juice but that’s not why I go. I must say, though, a $40 Best Buy card would get me there more often!
I usually just get juice, snacks and a sticker. But they did give me a beanie baby the first time I donated, and a key ring with my blood type on it the time after that.
Nope, and I like it that way. Though once I did get a tshirt for donating 5 times in one year. I’ve been donating for 20 years now, at least 2-3 times a year except for one year after each of my three tattoos. I just calculated it out and I’ve given between 4-5 gallons of blood!
Haven’t donated in years (never do a mad cow, the effects linger), but I used to get juice and a snack and the occasional pin or t-shirt (I always tried to get them to dribble some blood all over the shirt, but they too stodgy).
When I donated in Humbolt county in the 80’s they offered you a beer.
I answered both “just cookies and juice” and “something else”
Most of the time my local Red Cross just has snacks, sometimes they also have a thing where you put your name in for a raffle.
But once a year in the early summer they have the “Pint for a Pint” campaign. If you donate, you can get a “pint” of something from a local business:
A coupon for a free pint of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream
A pint of Bove’s pasta sauce
A pint glass from magic Hat brewery.
And others. I’ve done it a couple years now and I’ve gotten the pint glass both times…it seems like the best of the options…if only it were full!
It’s actually a nice glass…just like a regular Magic Hat pint glass, with their logo, and then it also has the Red Cross logo, and says “Pint for a Pint 2010” or whatever the current year is.
Edit: And I’m upset that my Red Cross place doesn’t seem to do the pins…I don’t even know how many gallons I’m at…not that many, I have a habit of forgetting to go and only get in maybe four times a year…so I’ve been donating for about ten years, so that’s forty pints…five gallons?
I get a sheet every month with a list of local blood drives and the “goodies” associated with each one. Free shirt, coupons, small gift cards.
The most convenient place for me to go is the local VFW, so I just go there regardless of whether or not they are giving something away. I stopped taking the t-shirts because they are too small, and the workers seem really upset when I don’t take a shirt. They’re like “well, why don’t you give it to a friend?” and I say “my friends should just donate!”
One of the workers told me once that drives with incentives - be it a t-shirt or a little coupon - get tons more donations than ones without. Even though the incentives are lame.
I get a tremendous feeling of having done something good when I donate, and that’s enough incentive for me.
hmm. methinks indiana needs to take a page from your workplace. since i’m a b-negative donor, they’re after me all the time to donate both whole and platelet, which i do regularly.
while i don’t really care one way or the other about the incentives, since i donate because it’s a way to give something back to the community, other people might, and therefore be willing to donate more often. indiana is forever short of blood supply, we’re told.
Looks like for now I’m the only one who gets cash. I get € 20 per pint (or 480 ml to be exact). It’s not billed as a payment but as a recognition of the time you spend there.
Not too coincidentally, the blood center is close to the downtown campus of the university and a good part of the donors are students who probably need the money.
When I started donating (before AIDS became a widespread concern), the rules were pretty lax. These days the blood center mostly relies on repeat donors (you don’t get reimbursed for the first donation) and they only use your blood after your next donation. This alleviates the fear that people would lie to get the cash.
I also donated in Austin, TX for a coffe mug per gallon.
Ours will give away T-shirts, or oil change or restaurant coupons, or entering your name in a raffle for Red Sox tickets. Occasionally nothing at all. I make sure to always donate when they’re raffling the Sox tix, but otherwise I don’t care.
I recently hit the 20 gallon mark…I donate platelets (Apheresis). They’re not alowed to pay or otherwise incentivize, as that may draw the wrong crowd. If you donate plasma, you can get paid, since the product can be post-donation sterilized. Platelets and whole blood would be destroyed if you cooked it after.
I get the snack, just to make sure I can walk out under my own power…but that’s not why I do it. I can lterally save someone’s life…several people, actually, just by sitting in a recliner for an hour or so every couple of weeks reading a book. How cool is that? I don’t want a t-shirt…I want to be a hero.
When I did apheresis I got a free taxi ride! I didn’t have transportation at the time and they sent a car for me! I would gladly do that again. Oh, and they gave me a little pin for that too.
Oh yay! Love those two smiles. I started donating platelets after my father had received several transfusions of them (22 years ago, now). I looked at those little bags and thought, “they gotta come from someone!” I need to get back in the habit.
I get juice and cookies, and on Wednesdays, pizza (I usually go on Wednesdays). I get points that can be used for something or other (I’ve never actually used mine), and usually a little gift or a gift certificate for a local business. So far I’ve gotten a little box of Sees candy, a free burger and fries from a local place, and a free pint of ice cream.
Also, every single person I interact with there thanks me at least once, and sometimes more than that. It’s almost embarrassing how often they say it.
All that’s nice, but the real reason I donate is my dad’s example. He donates like clockwork, and has for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid and asked him why he did it, he said “Because I can. We all need to do what we can to help each other out.”
I can’t donate at the moment because of international travel that made me ineligible for a year.
