We’re here to help you kick-start the year

With the start of a new year comes the opportunity to have even more of a lifesaving impact for the patients who are counting on your Partners for Life (PFL) team.

Thanks to the efforts of PFL champions and team members, who together contribute more than 300,000 units of blood and plasma every year, we can deliver on our promise to help every patient, match every need and serve every Canadian. 

As part of our commitment to help champions like you manage your PFL team, we will be introducing some new resources to the Partners for Life media portal this year. We are also updating your team’s membership lists, so you may see some changes to your member numbers in the coming months. We’re doing this to ensure you’re communicating with active members who are ready to step up and donate.  

Here are some other quick tips to make 2024 a successful year for your PFL team: 

• Set a goal! Pledging as a team to reach a certain number of blood, platelet and plasma donations in 2024 can be a great motivator for existing members and can also encourage others to join your team. Consider setting a pledge goal, then tracking and communicating your progress throughout the year. 
• Plan ahead. You and your fellow PFL members can donate blood approximately every three months, and you can give even more often if you’re donating plasma. Consider working with your local representative to set up recurring donation dates for your team throughout 2024.  
• Explore corporate matching. Did you know some employers match volunteer hours with a financial donation? In some cases, eligible volunteer hours may include time spent supporting patients through your PFL team — both in and out of the donor chair! You can easily find out whether your impact as a champion could be doubled through matching — just search our online search tool available on blood.ca to discover the matching opportunities offered by your employer. 
• Engage new and lapsed members. With the evolution of donor eligibility criteria, including the recent change to criteria related to the outbreak of ‘mad cow’ disease , thousands may now be eligible to join your PFL team, even if they couldn’t do so before. Make sure new and lapsed donors know not to count themselves out!

For support or to follow up on any of these tips, email us at pfl@blood.ca and ask to be connected with your local Canadian Blood Services representative, or check out the Partners for Life media portal for resources.