Practices Aimed at the Blood Donors Recruitment and Retention in St. Petersburg

“ When we are looking for some ideas, we naturally get acquainted with all the trends, foreign experience, try to understand what is now relevant” (10 respondent, non-profit organization)

Также организатор отмечает, что они изучают не только рекламу, посвященную донорству, но также обращают внимание на социальную рекламу других волонтерских организаций:

“We watch not the only donor, we watch all social advertising. Because there are some nuances that can be used, because a lot of interesting advertising is done there by Greenpeace, or on animal rights, or on women's rights, and so on.” (10 respondent, non-profit organization)

This marketing approach to creating the necessary practice is typical for specialized organizations. They adopt some practice and try to implement it in modern Russian realities. Undoubtedly, social advertising is borrowed selectively, and actors try to optimize it in accordance with the ideas of active and potential donors in St. Petersburg.

“Here, of course, we rely primarily on our experience and our taste. But we work with professional agencies.” (10 respondent, non-profit organization)

The respondent also shows that there is no clear and rigorous system for evaluating effectiveness. The promotion, the social advertising they used, was rated as effective because of the great attention. There were many reviews on it, both positive and negative (“It was successful, hype, we grabbed both of this and negative, and positive. ” 10 respondent, non-profit organization).

Thus, relevant and modern ways of creating practices for attracting and retaining donors are communicating with donors and using different information channels, analyzing the target audience, reading and studying not scientific international materials about the practices which other countries use.

3.2 Strategies for recruiting and retaining blood donors

All of the above methods allow developing different types of strategies. There are several strategies that were mentioned in the interviews. They are related to visualization, information, clarification, incentive, reminders and communication (relationship in social group, leadership, involvement). These strategies have the forms by which they are implemented. These forms can relate to several strategies at once. For example, a social advertisement is a video or a poster that tries to convey some information, it can act both in the role of informing about an event, and demonstrate important aspects of blood donation, refute myths. Overall, it means that social advertising is a form of visual, explanatory, and informational strategies.

Strategies and their forms may vary depending on what they are focused on, they are designed to attract potential new donors or to retain experienced ones. The difference in these strategies is because of the fact that motivations of these types of donors can be different (Bednall & Bove, 2011), and that is why approaches to them can differ.

To begin with, the practices of recruiting and retaining will be considered as a whole. Almost all the organizing respondents noted that their main form of information and recruiting was social networks. Organizers of Donor Day in commercial organizations used corporate mail, which reported all the necessary information (date, place, recommendations, list of documents):

“We send everyone information on corporate mail so that we spend the day of the donor. Such a detailed announcement about who can participate and so on” (5 respondent, commercial organization)

Stakeholders from Universities use social networks VKontakte and Instagram, where they firstly inform about the event, provide all the necessary data in order to participate in the action, answer all questions, talk in detail about the compensation system and then remind participants of the event before it has started.

“These are information posts, because it does not matter because everyone is using VKontakte, Instagram they are watching stories. The whole information system works more ” (4 respondent, university)

“ We post announcements and support, tell something about donation, we develop some kind of content plan, according to which we post publications in order to attract as many people as possible.” (6 respondent, university)

Also, actors organize various educational games on the topic of donation during the campaign for students. The organizers consider that the practice of narrating personal stories of donors is successful to attract and retain blood donors.

“ In the intervals of the actions we have more of such entertaining and informative content - we talk about donors of others who donate and talk about some interesting facts” (6 respondent, university)

Some organizers prefer to show by their example that the blood donation procedure is important and not dangerous:

“I believe that the leaders who motivate, it doesn't matter if this project or some team, a leader should show a lot with their example and if it's not so, well, even for circumstances independent of a leader, it's probably not good, it's difficult to motivate others without participating.” (1 respondent, commercial organization)

“the best way is a personal example.” (2 respondent, non-profit organization)

In these quotes, various strategies can be traced. For example, the use of active members of groups, in this case, leaders who, by their example, showed “how you need to do.” At the same time, it can be assumed that if experienced donors decided to organize Donor Day in the company, then perhaps those who became the donor for the first time could feel the influence of subjective norms (Smith, Matthews & Fiddler, 2013). Leveraging social networks, when fellow-workers have strong interpersonal ties, can be seen in the company of respondent 8. According to interview the team in the company is friendly and including experienced blood donors who decided to organize this event.

Another strategy is similar to provoking one of the motivations and reasons for donors to start donating blood - “donation for the company”, when a person begins his/her donor career owing to their friend, who decided to become a donor. Such a situation as “donation for a company” is a strong enough intention to donate, because a potential donor is affected by a subjective norm (for example, if a friend believes that it's good, then I think so), which provokes the intention to “donate blood for the company”, which in turn affects behavior. Moreover, the intention to donate blood can be affected by the fact that potential donors at the time of donation will be in a place they know and with people they know, which means they will feel safe:

“ here are such cases when people are simply afraid for the first time that they donate blood, because they don't know what's going on there, don't know what to do there, there I'll say something wrong, do something wrong and just it's more comfortable to hand over with friends” (2 respondent, non-profit organization)

The sense of belonging to a particular social group is important for donors, according to actors. This is due to the fact that donors may face misunderstanding and condemnation from relatives, colleagues, friends:

“When people come to us, they understand that they have a community like them. They can ask something here about diet, and about inquiries, and colleagues to complain about the employer who does not let go. And this is very important for them.” (2 respondent, non-profit organization)

That is why the organizers are trying to organize the process of blood donation as comfortable as possible. In addition, they subsequently create communities and chats in which they communicate with donors and sometimes support them, thereby donors develop a social identity. This practice is focused on donor retention:

“We are trying to create a community where a person can come, complain, and we will keep them, to communicate with other donors, they will support him/her and keep” (2 respondent, non-profit organization)

Joint photos of donors after blood donation and their publishing on social networks contribute to the formation of identity and group affiliation, so most informants reported this form of retention:

“We have a photo department that takes every exit and then uploads the photos” ( 6 respondent, university)

“And it was very nice when they reposted in Podslushano, I asked to repost the photos of our guys and everyone writes that “Wow! Class! I didn't think that my photo would be here.”” (3 respondent, university)

Photos on social networks are also a practice of attracting potential donors, for example, when they see their acquaintances among the blood donors:

“ after the blood is donated, we take a general photo and send it to everyone, we thank those who participated, but this is post-motivation, I would say.” ( 1 respondent, commercial organization)

“ I think it also motivates when you see that your friend has donated blood, and something was written about him in a group” ( 6 respondent, university)

In addition, in the opinion of a specialist from a non-profit organization, photos, and videos that depict the blood collection procedure can develop a habit and dispel myths that exist about blood donation:

“... many people who have not yet become donors, they are afraid of this whole procedure, they don't understand it and they have a lot of myths. They periodically see someone who donate blood and are already starting to get used to it.” (2 respondent, non-profit organization)

Rewards and compensation is another way to attract and retain blood donors. Actors use different methods of promotion. Donors can receive additional payments, bonuses upon entering, various souvenirs (hoodies, caps, notebooks, etc.). These rewards are a form of social approval, so donors feel their usefulness and importance. Souvenirs can also act as reminders.

“ We have donors, who donate, and then they write the year with these pens. So this is also a way to attract and retain.” (6 respondent, university)

“This is an encouraging story - because there are people who refuse it and we understand it perfectly. It is encouraging, firstly, and secondly memorable. That is, we leave a person with some kind of dot, looking at which he catches his eye and remembers that he participated.” (10 respondent, non-profit organization)

According to the top quote, it is clear that some donors refuse souvenirs. The organizer of the non-governmental organization explained it this way:

“Someone just says, “give it to someone who needs it. I just don't need it.” Someone just passes by and does not explain at all. People usually say, “Thank you, I don't need it. I did everything I wanted ”” (10 respondent, non-profit organization)

However, it can be assumed that donors who refuse remuneration have a sense of strong reciprocity when the donor has a great desire to help for free (Ferguson, 2015).

In addition to souvenirs, donors can have financial benefits. For example, to receive additional payments or privilege when transferring to a university on a budgetary basis or entering:

“ it is needed for characteristics, when a person applies for a scholarship or for a transfer from paid to budget, then all this is taken into account.” (4 respondent, university)

“# university name # also pays financial assistance to these students. 3000 minus 13.3% taxes.” (6 respondent, university)

Organizers claim that practices of retention to become regular donors should have another approach

“a person is already in this system, and she/he once donated blood, then you can talk with them a little differently, to say that you need to go to another level, take help steps for regular donors” (10 respondent, non-profit organization)

Accordingly, in order to help the donor become regular, some actors are developing ways to remind donors of the ability to donate blood. The organizer of donor actions at the university created a conversation for those who wanted to donate blood on a regular basis.

“ Yes, we have a group chat with the most active people who donate blood regularly, so those who don't get tired of reminders join this conversation.” (3 respondent, university)

There are traditional practices that the organizers use without any specific purpose. This is typical of commercial organizations:

“ I don't know about the posters, for example, personally I probably don't really think that it is just as effective” (5 respondent, commercial organization)

“We do nothing, I only remind.” (7 respondent, commercial organization)

They perform these actions because it is familiar, mundane. Despite the fact that no one called the organization a routine activity, they apparently do it according to the usual pattern and rarely.

Thus, to increase the number of donors, it is necessary to reproduce all practices, strategies for attracting and retaining donors.

“We try to use different ones. We do social advertising, and work on social networks, work with the media, and work with students. Directly with community, let's say so. It seems to me that the complex is important here, that is, you need to use an integrated approach” (10 respondent, non-profit organization)

Summing up, forms of attracting blood donors are information posts on social networks, banners, and posters in the organization's premises, personal stories, and photos of donors and acquaintances, renumeration . The strategy that is used to retain donors is the formation of regularity through the forming of a donor cell and a sense of belonging to a social group, using reminders of donation.

3.3 Comparison of donor and organizer attitudes towards attracting and retaining practices

This section will show a comparison of the opinions of donors and organizers about the methods that are used to attract and retain; comparing donor motivations with organizers' ideas about motivations.

To begin with, a comparison of opinions about practices and their effectiveness will be analyzed. Contradictory opinions about the need and benefits of cash payments exist among donors and organizers. There are those who believe that this is an integral part of the process of blood donation and payments need to be increased, others believe that this is unnecessary. But at the same time, almost everyone claims that despite their personal attitude to this practice, donors will donate blood to a lesser extent without material compensation.

“As for the payment # university name #, I believe that this is not necessary. But it's great to agitate people so that they become regular, and thanks to this, after graduating from university, people don't forget that they are donors” (6 respondent, university)

“I think that such measures as money and a day off should definitely be left, because then, of course, not a huge part will leave, but still some people will leave <...> I believe that the financial, especially in our country, the financial component decides a lot” (1 respondent, experienced donor, female)

“ If you need more donors, really more donors, it's just that everyone has a capitalistic mindset, just increase an amount of money and you will have an insane amount of donors” (2 respondent, experienced donor, male)

In general, both donors and organizers have similar opinions about the practices used, they are all important because each of them affects different groups of the population. For example, all the information that is on social networks is most often accessible only to young people, while older people who do not use social networks with the same frequency will learn about blood donation through advertisement, posters and banners.

Effective practices include those that have a positive effect on the intention to donate blood through social approval and subjective norms. This practice and its manifestations were designated by the actors and described above. Respondent donors in their interviews repeatedly mentioned the fact that they began to donate blood due to acquaintances, relatives who became or were already blood donors. Respondents saw that there was nothing dangerous and they had a desire to try. In addition, many respondents were affected by the attitudes of medical staff towards them during the blood collection process. They noted that the staff was polite and neat, the nurses talked about the donation and gave advice to donors. All these factors contributed to the fact that donors felt support, their fear disappeared and there was a desire to donate blood further. Thus, these actions entailed the formation of a regular donation.

“All give advice about how to do it, they explain everything and due to this I felt disposition. The doctors had a normal attitude towards donors. And it was nice. After the ending of the procedure, there was more some kind of euphoria, that you did it, class, very cool. At that moment, there was a desire to come again.” (7 respondent, experienced donor, female)

“I talked with friends, they were engaged in blood donation, and I thought that it's really possible to help just people, and at the same time, it will not disappear from me, and at the same time it's also a health benefit, since it's also useful to donate blood to myself.” (12 respondent, experienced donor, male)

“Probably I was about 16 years old. My dad just started to donate blood then. He needed to donate because of work. I thought, why not.” (20 respondent, experienced donor, female)

The organizers confirm the words of the donors, saying that they had no problems with the medical staff:

“ we had a very good team of medics, very competent and calm, they explained everything to everyone” (respondent 8, commercial organization)

Many organizers believe that paid donation is of interest to older people, while young donors are not interested in material remuneration, and it is not the main motivator. However, donors themselves have repeatedly said in their interviews that the main, first motivator for blood donation was material compensation.

“Usually, the loudest people who believe that they should get a lot of money for blood donation and various benefits here and there, it is clear that this point of view also has a place to be, but these are also people of a certain age who are from those Soviet years and consider that they were cheated, offended and generally no one care about them.” (2 respondent, non-profit organization)

The topic of motivation is quite voluminous, therefore, the organizers could not describe all the possible motivators of the donors. Despite this, there are some aspects that none of the actors mentioned. For example, some donors described their cause of donation as “the Bible even says:“ you must love others as yourself ”” (3 respondent, first-time donor, male).

The organizers are trying to attract donors to donate blood and form their habit in different ways. For example, motivating factors are used to participate in a donor campaign and to continue a donor career, such as additional charity and the provision of the opportunity to go for blood donations centrally in any month.

“For some employees, this also seemed to be quite a motivating factor, because not only I help when I donate blood, I'm also able to give money to charity ” (8 respondent, commercial organization)

“It motivates people, these monthly trips, to donate blood regularly. In this way, we show people that let's not be afraid. Donation is normal.” (6 respondent, university)

As can be seen from the quotes mentioned above, some increase in payment to motivate donors. It is worth noting that this works since the university's' organizes go to the blood transfusion center every month because there are a lot of people who want to donate blood. At the same time, there are organizations where donors give compensation, which they get after the blood donation, to charity. Perhaps this difference is due to the fact that the system needs new donors, these are students, they do not always have the opportunity to donate blood. That is why the university organizes such frequent donor actions, and pays extra money for this, in order to develop a habit among students and provide the system with donors. In commercial organizations, donors were motivated by an additional charity event. A similar practice is called charitable incentivization and has been described by Ferguson (2015).

In the context of voluntary and non-remunerated donation (Follea, 2016), when blood donation is unpaid, organizations use different methods of attraction in order to motivate potential and active donors to donate blood. Some actors pay extra to donors, others attract by a charity, possibly suggesting that colleagues may be impure altruists (Ferguson, 2015).

To sum up, organizers rule out barriers that often prevent donors from continuing to donate blood. In this case, barriers are a lack of time, an inconvenient territorial location.

In order to understand the success of a practice, it is necessary to evaluate its effectiveness. The question of how the effectiveness of the practice is evaluated was asked to actors who use and create retention and recruitment practices. It is worth noting that the organizers of events dedicated to blood donation belong to different levels of involvement in the process, because of this the methods of assessment may be different. For those responsible for organizing Donor Day in companies, neither the effectiveness of the practices nor the evaluation of the effectiveness is of particular importance. This is due to the fact that the focus of the company and its specialization are aimed at a different kind of activity. Blood donation is a way of satisfying “... the need for corporate social responsibility.” (1 respondent, commercial organization). Respondents organizers said that this is done for employees so that they understand that the company cares not only about its income but also about the well-being of its employees and the city. Based on the interview, all the actors interviewed evaluated the effectiveness of various practices and forms by quantitative criteria. In other words, they looked at the number of participants in the action or the number of people who studied the provided material (“coverage, let's say, informational, with traffic to the site, group and the number of materials published in the media” ( 10 respondents, non-profit organization)). The latter method of evaluating effectiveness cannot be considered correct since it is not known how many people decided to donate blood as a result.

Summing up, the system for evaluating the effectiveness of the practices being conducted has not yet been properly established, so the organizers found it difficult to answer this question. All currently available methods of estimation are inaccurate, due to difficulties in obtaining reliable data in full. In addition, the overall effectiveness of all practices used, rather than specific ones, is assessed. Undoubtedly, this is worth paying attention to that understanding of how specific a particular practice is effective can change approaches to recruiting and retaining donors in general.

It is important to note that donors and organizers have roughly similar perceptions regarding existing practices. Modern organizers of blood donation events understand donor desires, their motives, and possible barriers. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the organizers themselves are donors or have always wanted to be, which means they can study the system on the other hand, from the donor's side and understand what needs to be changed.

3.4 Necessary changes and innovations in the blood donation system. Actual problems and obstacles in the production of social actions

This part will describe practices that, according to donors and organizers, need to be introduced and implemented. To understand the relevance of the proposed changes, it is necessary to identify the main difficulties that donors face.

Donors have identified the following difficulties and barriers that they have encountered: social, organizational difficulties, and medical. Medical barriers are related to the respondent's fears and his / her health. The different perceptions of blood donation between the respondent and his social environment is an example of social difficulties. These include any conflicts that have influenced or could affect the donor's attitude to the blood donation process. Interviewees said that employers do not support their initiatives, because by the law they will have to provide days off, but they can't always do it and in every possible way discourage employees from donating blood. Sometimes such actions lead to the fact that the employee quits because he/she is trying to change their views and civic engagement.

“In February, I got a new job, it was not very encouraged. Well, the moment was that I say: “I want to donate blood,” they are: “It's not accepted here.” I say: “What it means that is not accepted? This is my civic position, I believe I am doing a good deed. ” They are: “Well, I don't know, the trial period will end, and donate.” So, there I did not finish the trial period” (2 respondent, experienced donor, male)

Only one respondent-organizer spoke about this problem with the difficulties of providing days off under the law. Informant faced this when he/she invited employees of other companies to join the donors' action:

“somewhere in half of the cases we came across a slight desire on the part of representatives of other companies, because someone needed to coordinate this with the administration, because all the same, these were two additional days, not all managers, let's say, have positive feelings about the fact that their employees get additional days here” (8 respondent, commercial organisation)

There is a slightly opposite situation when the employer gave permission, but the donor was unable to donate blood due to inappropriate health indicators, for example, due to reduced hemoglobin. The difficulty in this case is that the donor does not receive a certificate exempting him/her from work on the day of the proposed donation.

Returning to conflicts with the social environment because of the desire to be a member of a donor social group, it is worth mentioning the importance of the role of parents in this situation. Respondents shared in their interviews that parents do not always support this initiative of their children. Parents' concerns are related to outdated views on the blood collection procedure. They believe that blood donation will harm their baby, for example, that he/she will be infected with AIDS during a donation.

“I have a very diametrically opposite perception of the world with my mom and family. For example, the problem is that since my parents, they are Soviet people, my mother said, “Are you a fool? What kind of donation? Do you need AIDS, some kind of disease? ” and all that. And against this background, most likely, such a certain fear developed” (2 respondent, experienced donor, male)

The organizers attribute this point of view to groups of people who lived in Soviet times, when such problems could exist. Now all the instruments are single-use and sterile, so the chance of becoming infected with something is almost zero, the donors themselves say the same thing:

“ they told me everything in detail how it happens, that they disinfect it, here the gloves change on new, it comes in here, it goes there and somehow you trust people” (1 respondent, experienced donor, female)

The next social difficulty is interaction with medical personnel. Donors have different types of conflicts with nurses and doctors, because of which the donor may lose motivation to donate blood in the future. For example, cases of rudeness on the part of medical workers often happen:

“ mm doctors, I remember every time they shouted at me, only because my blood was flowing slowly <...> such boorish people, oh, I remembered them and don't even want to go , to be honest” (5 respondent, first-time. male)

Relatively to the situation described above, the organizers, on the contrary, said that the situation of impolite attitude to the donor by the medical staff is quite rare because now everyone is aimed at retaining the donors.

Organizational difficulties usually are due to the fact that donors encounter problems when moving to another medical center, their donations may be lost and not get into the data of another blood bank. The lack of a single database is a problem that some organizers talked about as well.

“During the transferring to another clinic, another blood donation center. One or two donations may be lost.” (2 respondent, experienced donor, male)

Organizers, as well as donors, have limitations and difficulties in the performance of their work: organization and involvement. This aspect also needs to be considered, because these restrictions may affect the practice of recruiting and retaining donors.

Respondents' organizational difficulties are associated, for example, with a lack of resources, a limited amount of time for implementation, and problems with interaction with different administrative departments.

“ in Russia, the organizers have approximately the same conditions, but there are very few resources and therefore it is necessary to agree with everyone and spent a lot of time on it.” (2 respondent, non-profit organization)

“ The first difficulty is that, for example, we do not have the financial ability.” (10 respondent, non-profit organization)

Some organizers have encountered a hostile attitude towards the practice of blood donation from the university administration. The administration has banned the dissemination of any information related to this activity, so it is difficult for an autonomous, individual organizer to take full advantage of all possible practices of attracting donors. For example, hanging information posters and photographs of university donor students are forbidden, certificates of exemption from studies are not accepted by some teachers.As a collateral activity, it requires resources that the organizations on the basis of which it is conducted cannot provide.

“ The schedule is very difficult and if there would have been some understanding, support from the university” (3 respondent, university)

“ You can't hang it in hostels. I hung a poster from the donor fund “How to become a donor”, there is a step-by-step direct instruction, it hung only one day.” (3 respondent, university)

It is also problematic to allocate premises for the action:

“... it seemed impossible to occupy all the meeting rooms, the same meeting rooms, so I had to call and negotiate for another date ” (1 respondent, commercial organization)

“ whether this room will remain accessible, I don't know if it will be unavailable, then there may already be difficulties where to conduct this action” (8 respondent, university)

“ we lost a permanent place in the # university name #.” (6 respondent, university)

But the main difficulty faced by all respondents organizers, is the restrictions on the number of donors that can participate. In other words, medical staff has boundaries in terms of the number of donors. That is why organizations faced both a shortage of donors and a surplus. In addition, not all potential donors who apply for participation will be donors.

“On the first day we waited 100 people. Today we expect 70 people, but in fact yesterday 40 people came, of whom only 25 donated blood. That is, it is very small.” (9 respondent, university)

“We usually record about 120 people, but you understand, the girls don't remember about critical days, then people come who have tattoos, piercings, and so on. Here it's just this whole deferral, probably 50 people weed out” (4 respondent, university)

Based on the interviews, it is obvious that the system requires modifications and the introduction of additional screening so that potential and active donors possess information in advance about whether they can be donors or not. The same information must be known to the organizers and medical workers in order to properly allocate resources.

Now, based on the data obtained from the interview, what improvements blood donation participants prefer to see will consider.

In order to avoid social difficulties, problems in understanding by the environment, attention should be paid to creating educational approaches that will be used in schools. A strategy aimed at informing adolescents and their parents will help to avoid misunderstandings and myths regarding blood donation. Also, information should not only describe the importance of blood donation and its safety but also explain what needs to be done in order to donate blood, provide step-by-step instructions.

“ information for children who are closer to 18 years that donation is not scary, that donation is needed, it saves people's life.” (1 respondent, experienced donor, female)

“ 8-9 years old. I already thought about what donation is. How to help people and, in general, well, already knew something.” (9 respondent, experienced donor, female)

“the first point that I would do, I would show how open the whole system is, in principle, what people expect and fully step by step. That is, if a person comes, then what is his next and the next step will be waiting for him” (12 respondent, experienced donor, male)

Such informing of citizens should be carried out not only through schools and universities but also through media and television. The same educational approaches can be applied in various television programs dedicated to health, for example. These resources may be used to disseminate social advertising. Social advertising, as mentioned above, combines a set of strategies, which means it can be useful. The population of St. Petersburg and Russia as a whole has a general lack of knowledge about the safety and importance of blood donation, so the realization of these strategies is necessary.

“I see any kind of social advertising, but about blood donation I only saw once in the subway and that, it's some kind of drop and in order to understand what this means, I had to go up and read. I believe that we can calmly promote social advertising on TV” (1 respondent, experienced donor, female)

“To attract people you need to make very good advertising. <...> organizations that deal with visual processing win the tender, and there it is very scary and this is a minus. To convey to people that donating blood is important, first of all, you need to invest in a good designer, so that there is a good visual design” (3 respondent, first-time donor, male)

Social networks have a great influence on the audience in the modern world, therefore this resource must also be used to educate and attract people to blood donation. For example, attract bloggers who have a large audience and influence.

“we would also like to reach out to some major bloggers who would also say that there is such a problem and it's great to be a donor, I don't know, maybe they would affect employers who don't allow blood donation or even dismiss or don't are hiring” (2 respondent, non-profit organization)

“That is, I took up for more information, because now all young people are with phones, the children also are on the phones and tablets.” (4 respondent, university)

The organizers are aware of the problem, therefore, to solve it, the formation of public opinion through bloggers and influential figures is necessary.

Hospitals have their own social pages on which they can post relevant information on the deficiency of certain blood groups. This information is useful for donors because on its basis they can understand whether they need to go to donate blood or medical staff will not accept them [donors], because their type of blood is enough. The problem is that hospitals do not update information, thus creating inconvenience to both donors and organizers.

“The development of social networks in hospitals, because some are not conducted or are conducted very poorly and are not involved ” (6 respondent, university)

The reminder system is one of the most important points in strategies for attracting and retaining. Organizing systematic reminders for all donors is difficult. However, the high effectiveness of this particular strategy has been discussed in many research papers. In order to become permanent, a donor needs to be reminded of his / her ability to donate blood. An important factor in the formation of regularity is to obtain information that the blood of the donor helped someone. That is why the organizers are trying to implement such a system, but do not have financial opportunity.

“If we had the opportunity, let's say, to introduce a donor warning system and reminder donors at the level of medical institutions that they need to come again or that their blood has been transfused to a patient, we would probably have implemented this story. Because it motivational really works” (10 respondent, non-profit organization)

Also, in order to avoid conflicts with employers, administrative staff at universities, it is necessary to create a unified system or program at the state level that will motivate organizations to engage in blood donation and help organize such actions.

“With some companies, both state and private, to try to build some kind of arrangement of agreements so that, I don't know, conditionally, at least once a year each company there makes an announcement inside its company so that the medics come to them, for example, or organizes donations outside the office with those who want” (1 respondent, commercial organization)

The main goal of all these practices is to ensure that blood donation is approved by society.

“The ideal system is when we have a community where not only blood donors actively communicate and help each other, but also when the organizers of donor actions and the blood centers come there. They are ready to come, answer questions, do something. In general, we are now trying to move in this direction. <...> We still want to come to such a model, such an attitude in our society, when the donation will be really socially encouraged” (2 respondent, non-profit organization)

To sum up, identifying the barriers and difficulties faced by donors and organizers, it was possible to determine the trajectory that will help improve the blood donation system. All necessary practices were identified by the respondents themselves, who are included in the process. Thus, an approximate list of practices which should be implemented for the successful operation of the blood donation system, in the opinion of blood donors and stakeholders, was determined.

* Formation of public opinion through bloggers and influential figures;

* Demystification and reduction of uncertainty by training potential donors to the age of consent and informing the social environment;

* Creation of a donor notification system;

* Establishment of work with managers, administration of organizations;

* Introducing alterations and additional screenin



Conclusion

The purpose of this research was to highlight the current practices of attracting and retaining blood donors in St. Petersburg, which are used by the stakeholders responsible for the organization of blood donation and donors 'recruitment process attracting and retaining blood donors, and methods for their formation. In the formation of some practices, the theory of planned behavior is traced when organizers influence the intentions of potential donors with the help subjectives norms and beliefs. The success of such practices is confirmed if the donor's intention became an action, namely, led the donor to donate blood.

The actions that the organizers take to attract and retain and donors for altruism are social actions. Initially, it was assumed that almost all practices would be a rational-purposeful action because it represents an action that is based on scientific beliefs. As a result, it was noticed that actors use value-ration actions to achieve their goals. Many respondent-organizers created and used practices based on their experience and understanding of how the practice should be presented. Also, some stakeholders formed the tactics of attracting and retaining based on traditional, familiar practices. Traditional actions are manifested in the very decision to hold Donor Day as well. Some organizers conduct a donor event due to the fact that this is embedded in the system. Accordingly, they had the goal of organizing blood donation, rather than attracting people to this activity.

Respondents-organizers recruit donors through social networks, information posts, and hold them, forming social community and rallying blood donors together. The formation of social identity and group membership helps donors continue to donate blood and cope with various difficulties. The practices of attracting and retaining differ, however, organizers rarely use them. The separation of recruiting and retention practices is not usual for organizers in commercial establishments. It is worth noting that some organizers, perhaps without suspecting it, used such practices as charitable incentivization and leveraging social networks.

Non-profit organizations specializing in recruiting and retaining donors develop practices in accordance with the demand for donors. For example, if statistics show that the blood donor population is becoming obsolete, it means that you need to engage in attracting new young blood donors.

Attitudes towards practices among donors and organizers converge in many ways. Most likely this is due to the fact that some organizers donate blood themselves and look at these practices as well. Since the respondents have a similar attitude to the practices, they accordingly have similar measures to improve the blood donation system. All the suggestions put forward by them formed one picture, which undoubtedly could change the population's ideas about blood donation and improve statistics.

Practices that are recognized as potentially effective imply coordinated work, interaction with other institutions and organizations. Also, creating successful practices requires financial costs and communication with new social actors, such as bloggers. However, perhaps blood donation events would be more successful if the organizers use the opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of their practices.



Bibliography

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2. Australian Red Cross Lifeblood. (2020). General Blood Statistics | Australian Red Cross Lifeblood. Retrieved from https://www.donateblood.com.au/general-statistics

3. Ajzen, I. (2011). The theory of planned behaviour: reactions and reflections.

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7. Carver, A., Chell, K., Davison, T. E., & Masser, B. M. (2018). What motivates men to donate blood? A systematic review of the evidence. Vox Sanguinis, 113(3), 205-219. https://doi.org/10.1111/vox.12625

8. Carter, M. C., Wilson, J., Redpath, G. S., Hayes, P., & Mitchell, C. (2011). Donor recruitment in the 21st century: challenges and lessons learned in the first decade. Transfusion and Apheresis Science, 45(1), 31-43

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Appendix

Appendix 1

SCOPUS Search query



Appendix 2

Organizers



Appendix 3

Blood donors



Appendix 4

Guide for organizers

Гайд

Соц.демографический

1. Расскажите, пожалуйста, немного о себе (кем работаете? что входит в ваши обязанности? вы занимаетесь привлечением доноров? это одна из ваших главных обязанностей?)

2. Вы были когда-нибудь донором? (почему? сколько раз сдавали? почему прекратили?)

Опыт

Университеты и коммерческие организации НКО, фонды

1. Как давно занимаетесь организацией мероприятий/акций/программ по привлечению к донорству?

2. Расскажите пожалуйста про методы привлечения? Как эти методы разрабатываются или как решают, что именно такой следует применить? Какой можете назвать самым эффективным, и наоборот? какой чаще всего используется? Почему?

3. А есть разница между привлечением новых доноров и удержанием старых? Какие подходы для кого используются? С чем это связано? А для них по отдельности какие методы эффективнее?

4. Сколько раз, получается, за этот период вы организовывали это мероприятие?

5. Если сравнить ваш первый опыт в организации этого дня и последний, который у вас был, есть какая-то разница? (эмоции, стратегии, сложности)

1. Как давно занимаетесь организацией мероприятий/акций/программ по привлечению к донорству?

2. Как часто вы организовываете различные мероприятия на эту тему? Ходите ли вы в школы с лекциями и тд? Где обычно проходят данные мероприятия, акции?

3. Расскажите пожалуйста про методы привлечения? Как эти методы разрабатываются или как решают, что именно такой следует применить? Какой можете назвать самым эффективным, и наоборот? Какой чаще всего используется? почему?

4. А есть разница между привлечением новых доноров и удержанием старых? Какие подходы для кого используются? С чем это связано? А для них по отдельности какие методы эффективнее?

5. Если сравнить ваш первый опыт в организации этого дня и последний, который у вас был, есть какая-то разница? (эмоции, стратегии, сложности)

Организация

Университеты и коммерческие организации НКО, фонды

1. Почему решили заниматься организацией дня донора? Это было какое-то указание администрации?

2. Как вы относитесь к процессу организации и в целом к дню донора? Считаете ли вы это чем-то рутинным?

3. Как вы определяете день, когда это будет проводиться?

4. Расскажите, пожалуйста, как происходит подготовка к этому дню? Попробуйте поэтапно, рассказать, что вы делаете? За сколько дней, недель или, может быть, месяцев она начинается?

1.Как проходит организация мероприятий? Надо ли это с кем-то согласовывать помимо непосредственно тех, для кого это проводится? (Вкратце описание системы, с чего начинают и тд)

2.Бывает такое, чтобы вам дали указ от администрации района, города и тд о том, что нужно провести определенное количество мероприятий или что необходимо, чтобы в этом месяце крови сдало столько-то человек? А внутренние установки есть какие-то?

3.Как вы относитесь к процессу организации всех этих мероприятий? считаете ли вы это чем-то рутинным?

4.Давайте представим, что вам необходимо организовать какое-то мероприятие (допустим самое популярное мероприятие, которое чаще всего приходится организовывать). Во-первых, сколько времени вам потребуется на организацию? В чем заключается подготовка, что вы будете делать?

Взаимодействие со студентами/коллегами/волонтерами

1. Кто обычно выступает в роли помощников?

2. Что входит в круг ваших обязанностей, а что делают остальные?

3. Как вы решаете, кто именно будет помогать вам в организации? Есть ли какой-то отбор или просто по желанию?

? Если по желанию, то как вам кажется, с чем может быть связано такое желание? Вам когда-нибудь волонтеры об этом рассказывали?

4. А вообще студентам/коллегам/волонтерам за помощь в организации платят что-то или может быть есть какие-то особенные «плюшки», например, волонтеры: оплачивают обед, коллеги: какие-нибудь бонусы к зарплате, студенты: освобождение от пар?

5. Бывали какие-нибудь сложности с «вызвавшимися» студентами/волонтерами/коллегами? В чем они проявлялись? Как боролись?

Привлечение

Университет, коммерческие организации НКО, фонды

1. Как рекламируется День Донора? Что вообще делают для привлечения студентов и преподавателей к донорству/работников? Так делали всегда? Какие еще методы использовались? Почему их меняли, с чем это было связано?

...