Eva-Maria Merz

Background: Blood services need to increase representativeness of donors from ethnically diverse communities, yet evidence‐based recruitment strategies remain scarce. Co‐design with community partners is a promising approach to developing culturally resonant materials, but the extent of its use globally remains unknown. Study Design and Methods: We surveyed transfusion professionals registered with the Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies (AABB) and the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT). Respondents reported recruitment methods in general use and ranked their perceived effectiveness. We then examined the adoption of co‐design specifically for ethnically diverse donor recruitment, including attitudes, barriers, and evaluation. Results: Of 170 respondents across four regions (Europe, North America, South‐East‐Asia, Rest‐of‐the‐World), 94% reported that their institution actively recruited blood donors, and 51% identified they had a critical need for ethnically diverse supplies. Co‐design was used by 33% of active recruiters, ranking seventh of 11 methods. Among those stating a critical need: 73% had developed ethnically tailored materials, 38% had used co‐design, 13% co‐designed videos, and 11% evaluated co‐designed video effectiveness. Attitudes were favorable regardless of critical‐need status, with 82%–89% endorsing bespoke videos as effective. Barriers were predominantly resource‐based: funding (54%–57%), media‐production expertise (29%–35%), and co‐design expertise (24%–36%). Discussion: Co‐design for ethnically diverse donor recruitment is underused, revealing a belief–practice gap: attitudes are favorable, but adoption is low. Barriers are resource‐based rather than attitudinal, and evaluation is rare. Wider adoption depends on building organizational capacity: funding, co‐design expertise, and embedding evaluation from the outset.

Background and Objectives: Donated plasma is required for the manufacture of plasma medicines, which are essential for prophylaxis and patient treatment. Because of social, geopolitical or economic challenges, this important raw material can become at risk of supply interruption, leading to a lack of essential products for patients. The plasma supply chain depends on the willingness of individuals to donate. To increase the number of donors and donations, collection institutes use various information, recruitment and retention strategies to increase individual willingness to repeatedly donate plasma. In this short report, we provide an overview of current (plasma) donor recruitment and retention strategies across 17 European countries. Materials and Methods: An online survey, consisting of questions on information, communication, recruitment and retention efforts, was sent to collection institutes via e‐mail. Between July and October 2023, 17 respondents replied to the survey on behalf of their organization. Results: The majority of organizations (10) were governmental or state public bodies, while 5 were non‐governmental or non‐state not‐for‐profit organizations and 2 were hospital‐based. All 17 organizations collect whole blood, 16 collect platelets, 12 collect plasma and 7 collect combinations of blood products. The majority (nine) indicated they do not collect enough to meet national demand and are thus (partially) dependent on plasma from other countries. Conclusion: While blood establishments currently employ a broad portfolio of strategies, varying and targeted content and different media and channels to reach their audiences, there is very limited data and knowledge available on the evaluation, effectiveness and impact of these strategies.

Prosocial behaviours are more commonly found among the higher educated. We examined to what extent genetic effects on prosocial behaviour captured by polygenic scores for educational attainment and cognitive performance can be detected. We apply a combination of an extended family approach using sibling fixed effects with polygenic scores to participants and their siblings in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. These models better capture shared environmental influences on prosocial behaviour. We find that those with a higher genetic propensity to spend more years in education were more likely to have engaged in forms of formal prosocial behaviours, that is, blood donation, charitable giving and volunteer work. We found no clear association between the polygenic score for educational attainment and informal helping. The polygenic score for educational attainment explained ∼2% of the variance in formal prosocial behaviour. The association was substantially reduced when the highest level of education respondents attained was taken into account. Shared environmental influences among siblings did not affect the association of cognitive performance with formal prosocial behaviour. Shared environmental influences were responsible for about one-quarter of the association between educational attainment and formal prosocial behaviour. While the polygenic score for educational attainment could explain as little as ∼2% of the variance in formal prosocial behaviour, including it in the model helps us to better understand the pathways of inter-generational transmission and direction of causality in the association between educational attainment and prosocial behaviour.

Background: Blood and plasma donations provide a unique opportunity for setting up a biobank. Remainders of donations can be stored together with questionnaire data to allow for longitudinal health research. Insight in the attitude and understanding of potential concerns of donors towards biobanking allows incorporating their perspective in the set-up of biobanks as such. Methods: In an online survey in July/August 2021 among 409 Dutch donors, we asked about their attitudes towards the collection and storage of remainders of donations, questionnaires, and DNA, and towards the storage period, data sharing and linkage, and feeding back results and outcomes. Results: The overall attitude of participating donors towards biobanking remainders of donations is very positive with 99% indicating willingness to provide their consent and 94% to fill out questionnaires. Most respondents (74%, n = 292/395) would agree to a long-term storage of 30 years. When asked about potential concerns, respondents mostly mentioned personal data security (30%), commercial use of data (11%) and misuse of data (5%). Also, 40% (n = 155/390) showed some hesitance towards the storage of DNA, including 28% (n = 111/390) who would give conditional consent if being informed on for instance DNA utilisation. Finally, the majority would like to receive feedback of research results, and indicated this to contribute to a greater likelihood of biobank participation. Conclusion: Our findings show high support among surveyed donors for the storage of donation remainders in a biobank, provided high data security standards and clear communication about data protection measures and usage of biobank data and materials.

Background: The Surinamese population in the Netherlands is an ethnically diverse group with a specific need for transfusion or transplantation due to a higher prevalence of diseases like beta-thalassaemia and sickle cell disease. This study explored the willingness of Surinamese individuals in the Netherlands to donate blood, stem cell, and live organ donation, and preferred information dissemination methods. Methods: A sequential, qualitative, exploratory study was conducted using an online questionnaire and a focus group to examine the willingness to donate living tissue. Participants were Surinamese individuals aged 18–55 residing in the Netherlands. The questionnaires were inductively thematically analysed. The results led to in-depth questioning and discussion among the focus group, which consisted of four men and four women. The session was recorded and transcribed verbatim for thematic analysis. Results: We identified ten themes across tissue types: 1) awareness of needs; 2) information and knowledge; 3) donation process; 4) cues to action; 5) attitude; 6) religion; 7) health challenges; 8) fear; 9) social cohesion and solidarity; 10) relationship with recipient. Willingness to donate blood was high, but they faced barriers, including registration challenges and limited access. Stem cell donation was seen as invasive. Living organ donation was considered only for emotionally close recipients. Participants were unaware of shortages and the importance of ethnic matching. They called for inclusive campaigns reflecting broader ethnic diversity, not just Suriname. Future strategies should simplify access to information, registration, and donation processes. Conclusion: Most participants were unfamiliar with living donations, and perceived barriers were key reasons for not donating. Emotional bonds and awareness of ethnic matching and shortages motivated willingness. Participants stressed the need for tailored, ethnic-specific campaigns to address barriers and misconceptions, emphasise ethnic matching, and highlight reliance on their communities for successful living donation.

Parents may, directly and indirectly, influence their children in developing prosocial behaviour. However, it is uncertain to what extent and how blood donor behaviour is transmitted from one generation to the next. We used linked data from the first wave of the Donor InSight Survey and the Dutch blood donor registry (n=23,037) to examine intergenerational transmission of blood-donor behaviour among blood donors in the Netherlands. We found that 38% of the Dutch donor population is part of a blood donor family (i.e., at least two generations of donors in the family). Additionally, our preregistered analyses revealed that three mechanisms are relevant for the transmission of donor behaviour from the parent to the child generation, namely parental blood-donor identity, the number of donations parents made, and the developmental period of the child during which parents donated. The outcomes of our study may be used by blood banks in designing their donor recruitment strategies towards families.

Donation of plasma, a blood component used to produce medicines, is not well known among the general population. This unfamiliarity, combined with considerable personal costs of plasma donation, that is, time and effort, and restrictive policies around donor compensation, poses a significant threat to plasma availability worldwide. Retention of existing plasma donors in particular poses challenges for plasma collection agencies. Loyalty programs, which reward returning donors, may contribute to donor retention. This study evaluates how plasma donors perceive and use a loyalty program and its effect on donation behavior. A total of 360 plasma donors participated in an online survey, and their answers were linked to their use of the loyalty program and donation behavior. Ten percent of survey participants had not registered for the program, mainly because they found it unnecessary to save for and receive rewards for donating. For users, we ran a Structural Equation Model (SEM) to estimate paths between perceptions (e.g., attitudes, expectations), use intention, actual use, and donation behavior. Results regarding perceptions were somewhat mixed, yet clear effects were observed for the path from intention to use the loyalty program to actual use of the program and to actual donation behavior. In conclusion, we find that online, easy‐to‐use loyalty programs give donors more control over whether to use their loyalty points and how and what to save for (as compared to the smaller gifts they would receive in standard milestone‐based appreciation programs) and can have a positive impact on their donation behavior and ultimately, on plasma availability.

In recent years, social media has become increasingly central to the communication strategies of non‐profit organizations. While the body of research on social media use in philanthropy is extensive and growing, it predominantly focuses on monetary donations. Studies examining the role of social media in facilitating non‐monetary contributions, such as blood product donations, remain fragmented and lack a comprehensive perspective. This study addresses this gap by exploring how European blood product collection institutions (short blood banks) use social media to engage with donors and non‐donors. Drawing on 22 interviews with communication specialists from 13 countries, we examine communication objectives, strategies, content types, performance measurement, and emerging trends and practices. We are contextualizing our findings within the broader intersections of non‐profit communication, medical communication, and donor behavior, and provide actionable insights for practitioners and a foundation to bridge academic research and practice. These findings are not only useful for blood banks but are broadly generalizable to other non‐profit contexts.