Building A Winning Relationship - FINAL

Editor's Notes

• #2: Liz: I have been in donor recruitment with the Community Blood Center for 2 ½ years, working in our blood centers largest geographical territory and working in seven different counties. And I am very excited to be attending my 2nd ADRP Conference! KELLI: I started working at the Community Blood Center eleven years ago as a donor recruiter. I was in that position for 4 years and then transitioned into our centers marrow program taking on a similar task but only more frequently using the word “marrow” instead of “blood”. Oh my how things have changed in the past 7 years. I am thrilled to be attending my very first ADRP conference with all of you!
• #3: Liz: Getting to know the audience activity. It’s late in the afternoon, so let’s get you all out of your seats and stretch out a little bit. Everybody stand up! If you have been in the blood banking industry for at least 1 full year remain standing. 5 years, 10 years, 15 years and finally 20 years! Okay, if you are still standing will you please share with us how long you have been in blood banking…we have a small gift for you (the longest tenured). Now, by a quick show of hands – how many of you have an active partnership with Be The Match? And if you don’t mind sharing, which blood center are you with? By the end of our presentation we hope you’ll all have the tools necessary to build a winning relationship with your blood center and a Be The Match program!
• #4: Liz: As we were preparing for this presentation, and reflecting back on our partnership, a few people came to mind. Play video… Liz: All of the people in this video inspire us and motivate us. They are why we do the work we do!
• #5: Kelli: We are going to concentrate on three main objectives during our presentation today. This illustration points out those three objectives and the importance of each one. The WHY is the core of our presentation –When we focus on why we do what we do, it helps us define clarity or a clear and transparent path. It’s the core of our HOW, which assists in creating discipline and maintaining focus in our daily work, and our WHAT that gives us consistency in what we are trying to achieve.
• #6: Kelli: When we start to understand WHY the impact of a relationship between a blood center and Be The Match is important and what it offers the community, I think there are three main points we need to consider… First, its important to recognize the history of both programs and how each works to meet the constant needs of hospitals and patients in need. We’ll also spend some time discussing the constant needs of both programs and how some of those needs are met with education, brand awareness, PR and recognition opportunities.
• #7: KELLI: The Community Blood Center has been providing an ample, safe and reliable supply of blood products since 1955, when doctors in Kaukauna and St. Elizabeth’s Hospital understood the local need for a blood center and tasked the community with developing such a resource. During the first year, the blood center collected and distributed over 1,500 blood donations, with the first local transfusion going to a patient from Kimberly, Wisconsin on June 4th, 1955. Today, the Community Blood Center collects more than 60,000 blood donations annually to ensure that every patient receives the life sustaining, blood transfusion they need.
• #8: KELLI: The Community Blood Center had been working with volunteer blood donors, providing products for patients for 24 years when the very first unrelated marrow transplant was performed. When their 10-year-old daughter Laura was diagnosed with leukemia, Dr. Robert Graves, and his wife Sherry were ready to do anything they could to save her. Desperate to save her life they turned to alternative treatment options and agreed to try the first ever bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor. Laura received her transplant in 1979. And it worked. The success of the treatment inspired the Graves to give other families the same hope for a cure. Thanks to Dr. Graves, other patient families, doctors, congressional support and funding from the U.S. Navy, a national registry of volunteers willing to donate bone marrow was born. Many people wondered who would step forward to donate marrow. Well guess who did?? Yes, blood donors!!! More than 10,000 people joined and from this The National Marrow Program was created! So here we are 37 years later – the registry has grown to more than 27 million people and our blood centers story continues, as we appreciate the history and incredible people impacted by the efforts of blood donors, marrow donors, recipients, their families and those community members who want to support the mission of saving lives!
• #9: Kelli: The needs of both efforts is constant! * Each year, 12,000 patients search Be The Match registry in hopes of finding the donor who could save their life. * Only 30 percent of those patients have a donor in their family, 70 percent depend on us. Every 2 seconds someone in the US needs blood and… * 1 out of every 7 patients entering the hospital will receive blood products… Those numbers are alarming, and Mira, who is pictured in the middle of our circle graph, makes up each and every one of the statistics…this little girls life was saved because of blood donors and marrow donors who stepped up! You’ll hear more about Mira and her story coming up in a few minutes…
• #10: Because of patient needs like Mira’s and so many others, together we can fill all of the tiny little squares that make up this large question mark… – the answer to our question WHY? becomes clear…
• #11: It’s because of people like Jonathan & Brett – our heroic marrow and blood donors who’ve saved many lives with their dedication! It’s because of recipients like Mira – this little girl fought hard to win her battle with a rare autoimmune disease. She lives everyday in pure delight and thankfulness for all blood donors and her marrow donor, Christian. It’s because of other recipients like, Emily – who shares her gifts of being a mom and teacher because of blood donors and her marrow donor, Ross, who gave her the chance to have HOPE and LIFE. Its also because all of our amazing supporters like Molly, a young college student who has saved many lives with her continued support for blood and marrow donation! She’s creating a movement on her college campus – one that hundreds of people are encouraged by! And, our WHY is clearly defined by those currently in need, It’s because of Harish, a patient, who is desperately searching for a match and is willing to share his story with others so that more people have a chance to be the Dad and Husband they’ve always wanted to be…
• #12: Kelli: We must meet the need! Education starts first! Sharing our WHY! This equation helps explain it best….Our relationships, our care and concern for the people we work with, such as donors, recipients and community supporters PLUS the need for new and committed blood and marrow donors EQUALS new opportunities for unique events and involvement in the community! One of our greatest examples of this is on the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh campus – Here are pictures from our educational table during a volunteer fair. We spend a lot of time promoting blood donation and marrow donation on our college campuses. Just a few weeks ago we hosted our third annual Get in the Game blood and marrow registration event. We registered over 200 new marrow donors and 33 blood donors, with 17 being first time blood donors. Not only do we have reach with a very large group of students, we also have the ability to educate and recruit young / committed donors together! For Be The Match these are the two most important characteristics of a registry member – 90% of the time physicians choose donors between the ages of 18-44. For blood donors, this is an important target audience to educate and get young/healthy donors on a regular donation schedule! This annual event has also given us the opportunity to share some incredible stories of heroism with students at such a critical time in their lives! Just a few weeks ago we received some really fantastic news in a blog post that was shared with thousands of people – it was from the mom of ten year old Phoenix who received bone marrow from UW-Oshkosh’s starting quarterback, Brett Kasper. Brett joined the registry last year during our 2nd annual GET IN THE GAME event. His experience encouraged his teammates and coach to do everything possible to raise awareness for our program and encourage people to join the registry and donate blood. SHOW PROMO VIDEO HERE!!! Other examples we’ve found opportunity to educate others is annual blood drive events, health fairs social media (sharing stories of patient survivorship and donor commitment), in fact one of our most liked facebook posts was from a young mom who received blood and bone marrow from volunteer donors. Her post simply thanked everyone on our page for their commitment and it received hundreds of likes on FB. It was a great way for us to educate others about the work we do!
• #13: Kelli: With education also comes the opportunity for brand awareness and recognition. Seven years ago when I first started with Be The Match, I would attend health fairs and blood drives and people would come to my table assuming I was a dating service. People would say things like, “Find me a match” or “ Are you a match maker ” All great questions, but with completely different hopes and thoughts in mind! It was funny the first few times and then I began to get very irritated! I knew that I needed to strategically get the Be The Match logo and messaging aligned with the messages of HOPE and LIFE. That’s when I started adding BTM and CBC logos together on almost everything I created or posted in the community! Recently we’ve created brochures and table clothes to help us keep a consistent message. This has already helped people identify the importance of this partnership and also helped meet the need. A couple other examples we wanted to share of brand awareness and recognition are pictured here. Every year our blood center and BTM program partners with Emily’s Ninjas and their annual golf outing. Emily received a bone marrow transplant a few years ago from her donor Ross. Money raised from the event supports the local recruitment, retention and recognition of BTM donors. Each year our CEO, John and his wife Lea and a couple of their friends golf! It’s a wonderful way for our organization to support Emily, and her family while also creating brand awareness for our organization! I am thankful for the participation and support from John each and every year! We’ve also had the wonderful opportunity of working with some pretty awesome students at UWO who are also a part of our BTMOC chapter! These 12 incredible students have taken BTM and CBC under their wing and represent both programs at homecoming events, volunteer fairs and so much more! Every example we’ve used through out the discussion of our first objective WHY, has been because of a a person/group of people who’ve been inspired by our work and now want to give back! We have an unlimited number of ways to educate and share brand awareness through relationships we’ve made with donor/recipients and supporters. These people help me identify my WHY statement – READ IT ALOUD…Now, its your turn…we’d like to know what your WHY statement is.
• #14: Kelli: Thank you everyone for participating in this activity. We are hoping that your WHY statement will bring clarity to your everyday work and serve as a good reminder of WHY you do what you do. Hang why statements on the front wall.
• #15: Liz: Now that we’ve focused on the core, the why, let’s take a closer look at how we work together to make an impact in our local communities.
• #16: Liz: Let’s take a look at the structure of our blood center’s donor services side of the organization. It all starts at the top with our president and CEO. From there it goes down to our Chief Operating Officer and our VP of donor services. And from there it goes down to our direct recruitment teams (for Be The Match registry members, blood donor recruitment) and our Be The Match Donor Center coordinator who is responsible for setting up the bone marrow donations of the ‘matches!’ We are so lucky to have the continued support and active participation from our Senior Leadership team. Day in and day out they have our backs and are always there to help us brainstorm ideas for growth, problem solve tricky situations and most importantly to share feedback. For us this happens through quarterly meetings – where we share our current ‘projects’, our areas of improvement and data/results from the previous quarter. We also have the opportunity to continually update all blood center staff on Be The Match happenings through a variety of outlets: Employee forum held quarterly Newsletter released monthly Sharing recipient info done routinely Without the support from the top down our partnership would not succeed and we not be able to achieve our goals and meet the needs of local hospitals and patients in need.
• #17: Liz: Our yearly collection goal for 2016 is just over 51,000 red blood cell units. 56% of that (nearly 29,000 units) will come from our mobile collections department. As you can see here in the map and the highlighted yellow areas, we work primarily in Northeast Wisconsin and the Northwoods. Our recruitment team consists of five donor recruiters who work out in the field, to set up blood drives in the community, and nearly 20 telerecruiters who help us fill the schedule at our four fixed site centers. I work in our ‘southern’ territory which covers parts of seven different counties and is goaled to collect just under 7,000 units of lifesaving blood this year! Kelli: I am one of two Community Engagement Specialists in Wisconsin. My territory consists of mid Wisconsin to Northern Wisconsin as shown here in green. My BTM colleague and I have a great working relationship and discuss events in overlapping areas. I partner with about 60% of our blood centers College/University blood drive events. Just recently, we’ve been working to establish joined events at high school blood drives as well.
• #18: Kelli: * ALRIGHT Stop, collaborate and listen! Do we have any other Vanilla Ice fans out there… One thing that I feel fortunate for is the Collaborative efforts of entire BM and blood donor recruitment departments. On a routine basis, we share resources such as new leads, coordinator contacts, patient/donor stories, events with each other. Here are more pictures from our event a few weeks ago. The success of the event wouldn’t happen without a collaborative approach. I invite Liz to all of the football team meetings, she shares information about the blood drive and ways for the players to get involved. We also attend events on campus together and find ways to partner in other ways. Be The Match will send leads from patients or family members who are searching for a match and if they lead is within our service area, I am always super excited because there is an opportunity to support that family by doing a blood drive. We’ve had a number of very successful benefit blood/marrow events. Barrett Benefit being one of those events.
• #19: Liz: Now that we have all figured out the why’s and how’s of this collaboration let’s shift our focus on to what is needed to make a successful partnership. The list that you see up here is a pretty simple list, in fact as donor recruiters most of us likely do these things on a regular basis. Well, when you combine your regular recruitment efforts with the partnership of Be The Match the rewards are increased exponentially! Let’s take a closer look at each of these topics.
• #20: Liz: I think it is safe to say that we would all agree on the need to maintain a mission focused approach. And here is how we do it… The Community Blood Center recently launched a rebrand effort that allows us to focus more on the donors and patients and share their stories. Our entire fleet of mobiles is currently being re-wrapped to included photos of these donors and recipients, and we are sharing their stories on our website. All of promotional materials (brochures, etc.) also include similar photos of our supporters. As you can Mira is a huge advocate for the blood center and Be The Match – let’s watch her story (play video). Because of Mira and Tanya, the Community Blood Center now has an additional advocate as a Board of Directors member, who is willing to go out into the community and share her story.
• #21: Liz: Not only are Mira and Tanya able to help us promote the Community Blood Center and Be The Match in the community but the entire 2015 WIAC Conference Champion UW-Oshkosh Titan Football team AND their booster club (League of Titans) are also adding a presence in the communities we serve. Three years ago we started a partnership with Titan Football, League of Titans, Be The Match On Campus and The Community Blood Center featuring a BRAND NEW Camaro. So far this partnership has helped Raise over $10,000 for Be The Match foundation. The Camaro proudly displays both the Community Blood Center and Be The Match logos and can be seen all over our service area. It went to all special event blood drives during summer, all UWO football games and all home Green Bay Packers games until the raffle winner announced at the Titans homecoming football game in mid-October. Play promo video. By working with Be The Match our blood center has been able to extend into new territories. By venturing out we are also able to form new relationships with the friends and families of recipients which allowed us to recruit additional donors and create added awareness of patient needs. Our symbiotic relationship has also allowed us to make connections with new accounts within our service area. Kelli and I recently worked together for a benefit for a recent high school graduate who lost his battle with cancer. With the help of his family, friends, and community members we registered 35 blood donors (23 FTD) and 12 new registry members. These donors and registry members have made a commitment to save lives and are willing to step up and donate when needed. Not only has this partnership allowed us to be more visible in the community and extend our reach but it has allowed us to recruit more donors and increase commitment.
• #22: Kelli: Joining the registry is pretty simple, fill out the form and do a mouth cheek swab! Our ultimate goal is to have every person that joins the registry, say YES to donate when called for a patient in need. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen! One way that we as a center have been able to stay connected and offer a local perspective to a national registry is by utilizing the information gathered on the BTM donor registration forms. As you can see each form lists a series of questions (Show actual form in hand). This information is entered into the national database and is available for contracted centers to utilize. In three years, our center has made 930 dials to new registry members who have marked YES to being contacted for blood/apheresis donations. Of those calls, 21 appointments were scheduled. It is an effective way to create new call lists for recruiting blood donors at no cost. And it also gives us one more way to reach out and thank a new registry member from our local community – reconfirming their commitment to the registry and patients in need! We’ve also created a unique Labor Day calling program. We’ve had head coach for UWOshkosh Pat Cerroni and Brett Kasper – quarterback and donor do recordings asking lapsed blood donors to come and give the gift of life on Labor Day. If they are willing to schedule and present to donate, they are then entered into our Camaro raffle, which you saw a few minutes ago. 10 percent of every raffle ticket sold, supports Be The Match. We’ve found great success in the program and had a couple of raffle winners as well! Last year, we sent the recorded voicemail to 1,133 platelet donors about the Camaro and scheduled 10 donors for Labor Day.    In 2014, we offered raffle tickets to whole blood donors and platelet donors.  We got so many call ins that we filled the whole blood schedule for Labor Day and were trying to convert whole blood donors to platelets so they could still be in the raffle. 
• #23: Liz: Gain support from Senior Leadership It’s simple, talk with them, share your concerns and struggles and allow them to use their expertise to help you succeed. Collaborative approach to BTM/blood center events 21 events in the last year 1,364 of units 270 first time donors 288 new registry members Resource sharing (donors/patients/recipients) Be sure to take advantage of any and all leads that comes your way – you never know what might come from it Utilize BTM registration forms and “I’m interested” for blood donor recruitment Out of our current calling programs we’ve had over 50 donors schedule appointments, often at critical times of need. Without these check boxes, we may have never had the contact information for these donors. BTM Rep to attend college blood drives events to educate and recruit 6 university/college partnerships 241 blood donors recruited, 101 FTD 261 marrow donors recruited Brand awareness – collateral, media, events … We’ve use these steps for success and because of that, we are able to share Emily’s story.
• #24: Kelli: Four years ago I received a call from an Elementary school principal that one of their teachers needed a bone marrow transplant and they were willing to do whatever it took to get more people added to the registry to help Emily or someone just like Emily! That day, I registered more than 50 people…I never had the chance to meet Emily during this time but the conversations between people that loved, cared and were praying for her was all I needed – from these conversations, I felt like I knew her my whole life! I also knew Emily needed a miracle!! – A few weeks after the drive event, I was at a Leukemia/Lymphoma Light the Night event. I heard Emily’s name announced over the loud speaker. She was there and her team of Ninjas were there too…they were doing the walk to raise awareness and in doing it in Emily’s honor! Emily shared her story with hundreds of other people, she was ill, weak and scared. But her smile shined! Just a few months ago, Emily stood on the podium, healthy, strong and in full recovery, at our blood centers annual donor recognition ceremony! She shared her story with hundreds of blood donors and thanked everyone for the gift of life given during each and every blood donation. She also thanked her marrow donor Ross. It was a powerful night and one that I am so thankful for – Emily and all patients that we help is my WHY – her smile empowers me and reminds me that every day is a good day! Emily says, “read her quote here”.
• #25: Liz: We would like to send you home with a small reminder of why we all do the work that we do, for patients in need like Mira. Group Discussion/Q & A: Does any one have any questions? If you would like more information on Be The Match or how to set up a partnership like ours, please feel free to stop up and ask us!