I’ve been a regular blood donor. But I’ve had a simple routine - I donated at work. It was good because I didn’t have to think about the schedule, I got a break from work, plus we usually got free brownies.
But I’ve retired now. I like to continue donating blood, but I’d prefer to do it by some system that makes it as simple as possible for me. And free brownies would be a plus.
If you still live near to your old workplace then maybe you could ask whoever administers the donation program there if you can still donate?
Failing that, contact your local Red Cross.
I hope you get some other answers than your old job and the Red Cross. I too would like to donate but I won’t give to Red Cross and my old job didn’t have a donation site (I am also retired). So here’s hoping someone comes up with something EASY for us!
This makes me curious. If it’s not my business feel free to say so but I’d like to hear your reasoning, mostly because I do give to them (and Memorial Blood Centers, whichever has a drive nearest me when I’m due, but usually the Cross because they seem to be way closer more often) and do not know of any particular reason why I shouldn’t.
I donate regularly enough that both of the above organizations started sending postcards in the mail a month or so in advance of upcoming drives at local high schools, banks, churches, whatever. You could probably request to be notified via email or whatever of upcoming drives within X distance from your house. Barring that you could find a local or semi-local center and stop in when you’ve got time and are in the area. You probably won’t go precisely every 56 days but so what? You’re still awesome.
Oh, and if you have a college around you, especially one that has a nursing program, call them up. They seem to run drives fairly often.
Google around. I don’t know where you’re located, so this Blood Bankmight be too far away. I give to Delta Blood Bank, which serves a five county area in the northern central valley of California. But the drill at Delta is probably similar to most blood banks.
You have to stay on-site for twenty minutes after donating. During that time you get your juice and cookies. Water, soda, and crackers are also available. (I’m jealous about the brownies.) While you’re noshing, you’ll be given a post card to address to yourself. As soon as you can donate again, they’ll mail it. If you’re a type they’re low on, they’ll also phone. They make it easy for donors.
Does the Red Cross have a mobile Blood Bank where you are? It does here, and it moves around the suburbs on a regular basis, setting up in town halls, church halls etc. to allow people to donate, without having to make their way to one of the major donation centres.
I know that we have donated at the military hospital, but we are a military family. I am not sure if you can donate directly at a hospital, but I vaguely remember in Norfolk VA that there was some company that you donated blood fractionals and got paid for it. Would you consider something like that? Hm, http://www.nationalplasmacenters.com/ seems to only be in NY, Ca and FLA.
This. A colleague of mine retired a few years ago, and shows up at our workplace to donate when a blood drive is happening.
In my neck of the woods, we’re crawling with Red Cross blood drives. They send me a flyer once a month with local drives for the month. The flyer also tells you what incentives are at each spot, if you’re in to that. T-shirts, coupons, etc.
My local VFW had a drive every 56 days, so I just went to theirs. It made it easy for me because I knew they wouldn’t have another drive before my “time”.
The VFW seems to have stopped hosting, so now I just keep my “I can donate again on…” sticker on the fridge next to the flyer, and go when I can.
Every location I’ve been to has free drinks and pre-packaged cookies. But it seems to me that businesses with drives open to the public (such as Best Buy) do not have homemade treats, nor did the VFW. The only big “spreads” I’ve seen with really good treats afterwards have been at a church and a school.
One more voice in the chorus of 
at the part I marked …
OP, does Googling “blood drive donation XYZ” (where XYZ is your location) bring up any information?
I’m also curious about this, if you don’t mind sharing the info.
I’d recommend Googling “blood donation” and your location. That should get you a list of local blood banks/drives.
I just recently started donating blood, it’s to a local group who comes to my work. I have a friend who hates this group, but local Red Cross seems to make it as difficult as possible to donate to them. So I’m still doing it at work. But I’d be interested in other folks’ experience with RC.
ETA: damn I’m slow sometimes!
It was really only convenient because it was at work. Now that I’m not working anymore it’s no better than anywhere else. Except maybe for the brownies.
It sounds like the best idea is to make some calls and get put on a mailing list for someplace local that has a regular schedule.
The main reasons I don’t give to the Red Cross are: their history of mismanagement of donations, their inadequate response to disasters, and reports from many former military personnel about their uselessness in times of need. I don’t think I want to be a lot more specific as these are mainly anecdotal, but I would suggest that those of you who think they are a good charity to ask anyone you know who has served in the armed forces or lived through a disaster how much help they got from the Red Cross.
Redtail23, if you donate at your place of work, that donation goes to Red Cross, doesn’t it?
I did donate in the past to the USC hospital but it is quite a long drive for me. Guess I should just stop whining and drive over there…or call up the local hospitals and ask if they have donation centers and if the blood goes into the Red Cross pool or stays local.
Fair enough, thanks for the response, kayT.
I specifically donate to the Indiana Blood Center so I know my donation stays local.
Nope. There’s a competing organization here. They collect & process their own donations. They’re listed as non-profit, but my friend claims that they make lots of cash selling blood out of state where prices are higher, creating a constant shortfall here, which is then made up by the Red Cross.
There’s a Red Cross center down the street, but they apparently don’t do blood donations there. When I looked for somewhere to donate to RC, it was going to be a real PITA to try to give them my blood.
This other place shows up at work every couple of months in an RV and has appts scheduled. Doing a regular donation, I can be in & out in about 20 minutes.
If they’re not scheduled here at work, they call and ask me to come in, although I haven’t done that so far.
No brownies, though. 
Is it still possible to get paid for donating? I thought there was a new law enacted (or a process rule from the NIH maybe?) about that a few years back . . .
It’s interesting to me that you have several donation places to choose from. Here, only Héma-Québec is authorized to collect blood, and I think it’s Canadian Blood Services in the rest of the country. The Canadian Red Cross does not collect blood. I think the centralization is a result of various tainted blood scandals (HIV and HepC).
Follow this procedure:
Drink some gasoline, some nitroglycerin, some gun powder, and some uranium 238.
Shake well
Swallow a lit match
Everyone will be amazed and astonished. The problem is you can only do it once.
I too donate at the Indiana Blood Center…but I donate platelets. It takes a little longer, but I always get snacks. You can also donate every two weeks, if you’re so inclined. I simply wait until they call me and tell me that I am matched with someone…it ends up to be about once a month or so. Working on gallon #20…next donation Thursday morning.
Easy Peasy Pumpkin Squeezy.