How to Host a Live Marrow Donor Drive

To Set Up: Contact a Marrow Donor Program or Recruitment Group
• Choose a Location
• Drives usually last 4 hours
Cost to host a drive: $0

1. Choose a Donor Program to Partner With
You can set up donor drives with National Recruitment Groups like Be The Match or DKMS. If you have local recruitment groups like the AADP you can also contact them for help. Either way all you have to do is let them know that you would like to set up a drive and preferably that you already have a location to do so.

They will let you know when they can send a coordinator to run a drive and will usually help with things like providing flyers the day of and sending out a press release to local media if warranted.

2. Choose a Location for Your Drive
Your first live drive(s) will usually be amongst people who personally know and care about the patient. They will rally together and create drives at the patient's place of employment, church or any group or organization the patient is part of.

3. If Needed, Recruit Volunteers
Some programs will provide volunteers for your drive, other times you may be asked to help provide them. When people say "Let me know if there's anything I can to do to help" start a list. Once you set your drive date contact those people to see if they would be available to help the day of.

4. Publicity
Remember that setting up the drive is only the first half, publicity is vital to ensure a good turnout. A live drive can be open to the public or set up for a select group of people. Either way all drives need to be publicized and promoted using a variety of methods.

5. Be Prepared
• Make sure you have enough volunteers
• Make sure volunteers know when and where to arrive, where to park, how to dress and what they need to say when they break the ice as they approach people to let them know about the drive.

Extra things you can do to make a live drive more effective are things like:

• Create large signs to hold up during the drive
• Create packets of business cards or fancier post cards to hand out to passers by.
• Provide Volunteers with Matching t-shirts