I Want Your Blood

At the risk of being oppor­tunis­tic, I’d like to take a minute to remind every­one about the Red Cross’ des­per­ate need for blood dur­ing emer­gen­cies like hur­ri­cane Irene.

Remem­ber, blood only lasts a short time once col­lected and there’s no syn­thetic sub­sti­tute. So, with­out your reg­u­lar dona­tions, as a com­mu­nity we would be in a real jam.

I’d also like to remind you of the unique char­ity event I’m run­ning — Bleed for Your Cause™, where we donate money in your name to a cause of your choice after you donate blood. It’s our lit­tle way of moti­vat­ing you to get out there and give the gift of life.

You can par­tic­i­pate in this event in two ways:

As a spon­sor. This very impor­tant role helps fund this event. Each $20 (tax deductible) dona­tion gives us the oppor­tu­nity to sup­port another blood donor. 75% of your spon­sor­ship goes to the cause cho­sen by the blood donor. The remain­ing 25% helps fund our char­i­ta­ble mis­sion. The entire dona­tion is tax deductible. Where’s Your Heart? Foun­da­tion, the orga­ni­za­tion I founded to run events like this has been approved by the IRS as a non-profit orga­ni­za­tion (also known as a 501c3 organization).

As a blood donor. As I said ear­lier, there’s no syn­thetic replace­ment for your blood. Find a dona­tion cen­ter at the Red Cross site, then head over to the Bleed for Your Cause donate page to let us know that you’ve donated. Thanks in advance, this is very impor­tant work.

Isn’t this great? If you hate nee­dles or don’t meet the require­ments for donat­ing blood you can still participate!

You don’t need to be here in the US to par­tic­i­pate, but if you donate blood out­side of the US you do need to pick a US char­ity as we’re lim­ited by where we can donate money by the IRS. Check out this site to help you find a US based char­ity that works in your coun­try for the cause you’d like to sup­port. We’ve already had par­tic­i­pa­tion in 3 coun­tries (a prior event had par­tic­i­pa­tion from 13 coun­tries — let’s beat that record!)

Please, retweet and share this arti­cle to help get the word out.