Takes All Types: Use Facebook, donate blood, save a life

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Social Software, web 2.0

Takes All Types: Use Facebook, donate blood, save a life

by Brad Linder Mar 10th 2008

You might turn to Facebook to see what your friends are up to, organize a party, or just waste some time. But a non-profit group has decided to try to leverage the social networking site for another cause: to find blood donors.

Despite the fact that thousands of people give blood every day, there are constantly shortages of blood. People keep getting sick and injured, and donated blood has a limited shelf life. So the Red Cross and other organizations regularly reach out to news organizations to get the word out that there's a need for more donations. But the non-profit group Takes All Types wants to send the message out via Facebook.

If you sign up, Takes All Types will send you a Facebook alert when your blood type is needed in your area. You'll also be prompted to give blood regularly, and you can opt to receive notifications by phone, fax, email, or SMS as well. Overall, this seems like a great way to get the word out when there's a blood shortage, as you can directly target people who have already expressed an interest in donating blood.

[via New York Times]

Tags: blood, blood-donor, donation, facebook, takes-all-types

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