The Red Cross’s New Blood Donor App Lets You Find Blood Drives And Schedule Donations, Then Reap The Rewards

It’s been said that all charitable acts are, at their core, selfish – that while giving your time or money to people who need it is noble in and of itself, the motivation is to make yourself feel better. That doesn’t mean that charity is bad, and it’s certainly something to be encouraged no matter the circumstance. But understanding human motivation can help drive people to do even more positive things. Where is this rambling preamble going? To the Play Store, where you can download the new Red Cross Blood Donor app for free.

  

As you’d expect, Blood Donor by The Red Cross shows you times and locations for local blood drives, and you can schedule an appointment so that you never have to wait on the technicians who have to gather medical information from walk-ins. Once you’ve donated and entered your info, the Blood Donor app will track how much you’ve given and when. In some cases it can even tell you when the blood you’ve donated has made its way to its final hospital destination. If there’s a shortage of your blood type in the local area, the app can alert you for some extra motivation to donate.

 

But that’s not the end of things. After you’ve donated, you can indulge in a little self-congratulation with a selfie, apply a few basic filters, and spread the good news on a social network. Foursquare-style badges are available for frequent donors. If you want to get really competitive about it, you can join or create local “teams” to dominate the gamified scoreboard of blood donors. The Blood Donor app also has a database of local retailers who offer sales and discounts to people who have donated. So go ahead and use that half price froyo coupon  – you’ve earned it.

Blood Donor by The Red Cross is a free download, but unfortunately it requires Android 4.0.3 or later.