Takes All Types: Social Networks Give Blood Drives A Hand

Last month, social networking took on a role that makes people like me feel less guilty about spending valuable time on Facebook. Takes All Types, a project devoted to increasing the pool of available blood donors, premiered an application on the networking site which will notify registered users of blood drives in their area. Just fill out the registration form along with your blood type, and the app will contact you via e-mail, phone, fax, RSS feed or a text message whenever your blood is needed.


"Today, our blood supply comes from a pool comprising 2%-5% of the population," says Ben Bergman, who, along with fellow innovator Richie Hecker, grew the idea out of a desire to use the crowd sourcing potential of Facebook for good instead of evil, "and the typical donor is a male between the ages of 40 and 50." Their goal now is to harness the ever-growing social network to attract a new generation of donors and increase the blood supplies available to hospitals.

The project aims to tackle several problems that keep blood perpetually in short supply. Aside from increasing the donor pool, live notifications of blood drives will reduce the need to store blood. According to America's Blood Centers, blood is stored for up to 42 days, meaning a resupply is necessary once every five or six weeks. Directing notifications to people of specific blood types also has the potential to increase donations from the rare groups, such as people who have Type O- blood, who are universal donors but can only receive from other Type O- donors.

While Facebook is the first platform, TAT does plan to roll out similar initiatives for other sites such as MySpace, iVillage and LinkedIn. The MySpace effort is currently in the final stages of development and should be ready within a few weeks, according to Bergman. They also plan to reduce the number of volunteers and increase the number of professionals to support the database of donors as it grows, as well as the applications themselves. Also on the agenda is the ability for users to schedule blood drives in their own communities.

If you want to help, you can do so by registering with the app, spreading the word, or donating to TAT, which is a registered non-profit organization. Anyone interested in joining the effort can reach the Facebook app here. If you want to help but don't use Facebook, you can visit the TAT Website to find out about other ways to promote this cause.