Today on World Blood Donor Day, Facebook announced that more than 100 million people have signed up for Facebook’s Local Blood Donations feature, which allows people to sign up for notifications from nearby blood banks about donation opportunities.

In the first two months after its US launch in June 2019, the Blood Donations feature increased donations from first-time blood donors at partner sites by 19%.

In Brazil and India, the share of donors at blood banks who said that they were influenced by a Facebook notification to donate blood increased from 0% to 14% in the first year.

Since the first launched the Blood Donations feature in India in 2017, they have expanded to 37 countries — including Egypt, which was launched last year in partnership with the Ministry of Health and National Blood Transfusion Service and, today it is being rolled out in Tunisia in partnership with the Ministry of Health and the Centre National De Transfusion Sanguine (CNTS).

Facebook also introduced a way for people to discover nearby blood donation events through the Blood Donations feature. Now blood donation centers can share their donation opportunities via Facebook Events, making them easily seen by people who have signed up to receive blood donation notifications. People can RSVP to blood donation events and share with their friends.

To commemorate World Blood Donor Day — which was founded by the World Health Organization to thank blood donors and to raise awareness of the need for regular blood donations — Facebook hosted the Global Forum on Blood Donations with their partners on June 10. 

Global health leaders, blood donation experts, and young blood donor advocates from around the world came together to discuss innovative strategies to inspire young people to donate.