 we are so glad that you are here today with us. We have another great episode of the nonprofit show and so I say let's get started. We're really excited today because unless the clue of the Red Cross logo and banners behind Camille Ridley didn't give it away, we're going to be talking about the Red Cross and specifically blood drives and how nonprofits can kind of get involved what that might look like and so it's going to be a great conversation. As we're opening up, you know Camille, I think there are a lot of opportunities that have been missed in a lot of opportunities that need to be reformed on how we work together so we want to stop and take a moment to thank all of our presenting sponsors without you. We would not be here talking about this amazing process that the Red Cross is involved in and that our nonprofits across the country can be involved in. I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. Hey, where's the nonprofit nerd? I think the nonprofit nerd truth be told, Jared Ransom is on a beach in Hawaii. Who knew? Who knew you could do that? Hey, we will have her back with us next week but more importantly, we have Camille Ridley back with us. We were talking in the chitty chat chat that it's been about a year since you were on with us and when you were on with us we were really in the depths of the pandemic so we were talking about different things. Now we are moving forward with this rebound recovery, whatever you want to call it and so things are starting to kind of percolate and so we thought wow let's get Camille back in here and kind of see what the Red Cross is up to and how maybe we can be engaged but first and foremost we think we know who the Red Cross is Camille, we don't. So tell us, give us that oh, I don't know the atmosphere that surrounds the Red Cross. Okay, well we're busy. Okay, well so the American Red Cross, what we do is we prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing, by mobilizing the power of volunteers who are through the roof amazing and the generosity of our donors. We do have, I really want to share this, we do have seven universal principles as we're talking about the international reach of our organization and those are humanity first, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity and universality. These are really key to us and it really speaks to the fact that we have the desire, the dedication and to be with, to meet our American public, our national or international public at the time of their darkest hours. We do a lot of work out there and we do have five lines of service starting with I think the the line that most people are familiar with and that's our disaster response and right now as I'm sure you're hearing across all media sources, the heightened level of our western wildfire activity right now. We have along the southern coast, we every year about this time through, about the fall through the end of the year, we're in high hurricane season. We've had tornadoes in the Midwestern part of the country and then there's also all kinds of weather patterns that can be anomalies and just very strange and different and so we're responding to those. The largest disaster efforts that we respond to on a daily basis across the nation and about 60 percent of our response time is dedicated to this and that is home fires. I mean who would have ever thought that home fires are such an elevated disaster across the nation but they are and yeah it's huge, it's huge and so that is where a lot of effort takes place and it's amazing the type of resources that we do have available for that and I do want to mention and I should have backed up and mentioned this that given the COVID-19 pandemic the Red Cross has continued to be able to activate our services both virtually and in person but we're doing it safely with appropriate PPE practices and we do have a mass requirement and so just so you're aware we are following best practices and holding true to that. So we've got that first line of service. We have training services so if you've happened to be CPR certified it's likely not guaranteed but likely that the American Red Cross helped to provide that training for you. So our training services are misuse from babysitter training, that CPR training, recertification for CPR and so much more so we are continuing to keep that activated. Again some of it's virtual, some of it's in person, some of it's a hybrid but we're still available to make sure that we are continuing that effort as well. Another line of service that we have that is also near and dear to our heart is services to the Armed Forces. We're able to help active members, families, children, veterans and we do it by a variety of ways. Now I could go into what each of these lines of services dives into. I'll save that because I encourage you to go to the redcross.org website and you can really get some detail on what we're doing in all of these lines of services because there's so much behind it. I'm sorry go ahead. Yeah we also have our international services so we're able to connect families that may have been displaced by international warfare if you will and even locally and so we're able to provide a multitude of resources. As I'm sure you've heard with the border crisis and support we have an opportunity to work with organizations down along the border and other places around the globe to provide essential goods, water, which is big, blankets. I mean you wouldn't think why would a blanket be so important but when you are displaced and looking for safe shelter that's a prime resource that we're able to provide end masks of course right now with the pandemic but that's really that sectioned in that shelf and then we have our biomedical services arm of the organization and that's where we'll talk later about the importance of the blood supply, how the red cross plugs into that and and so much more. You know I was involved in in a very small part doing some volunteer work during one of the big migration crises in 11 of order state and there was just this influx of hundreds and hundreds of people and there was a very large nonprofit that was engaging trying to help in all this as there were many nonprofits and somebody was like and this is in the nonprofit sector somebody was like call the red cross we need cops and I'll be damned within a very short period of time this massive truck pulled up and they started offloading cops that had blankets I don't think I want to say they had small pillows I could be wrong but it was it was like the most amazing thing to witness as a I was just a volunteer I mean I wasn't involved in anything other than very minimally but to see that the other nonprofits knew call the red cross it was just it was absolutely fascinating so Bravo and I appreciate you sharing that that bigger picture yeah but today we want to talk about the connection to blood drives so many nonprofits have been isolated and we're looking to you know regain a community perspective blood drives are a great way for nonprofits to work with your nonprofit I mean can you kind of talk about how that might work a little yes absolutely and I do want to open with the summer months are the time where we have we need blood the most crucial of all times of year there's a multitude of reason why blood donations go down vacation I mean there's there's a lot of different things that happen there and so we are in a time of blood shortage supply shortage and that is pretty predictable year after year summer months are difficult and so we keep blood drives going we have hundreds of blood drives happening maybe even into the thousands throughout the nation on a regular basis and they're crucial because every two seconds someone in the US needs a blood transfusion every two seconds and the the red cross is the largest supplier of blood across the nation and so right now we provide 40% of that resource and we're we're growing that as well so we we are a key player in the blood banking industry and blood supply and so we are very much looking for any kind of support in donating blood you can go on to redcrossblood.org to plug in your zip code it'll give you a list of all the blood drives that are happening you can go online and register very simply with just a few mouse clicks you could also which is really snazzy download for free either through the apple store itunes store or google play and that is our free red cross blood donor app it's really it's really nice because you'll be able to look at any kind of FAQs that are on there that site you can get registered as a blood donor you can do your pre-screen before even stepping into the donor site that you go to and it also tracks your blood they don't get into very personal information but after you've donated blood it will tell you your blood is on its way to a hospital or to a center in california or texas and so that is like like the icing on the cake it's really neat to see um so i encourage you to download that app and and dial in and find out where you can give blood now if you're not qualified to give blood just simply sharing the good word about the importance of blood donation is all we could ask for uh so there's that in a brief i love it and i love that you just said sharing the word because one of the things that i really want you to educate us on is the concept of blood supply and diversity we've been speaking so much about diversity um in our sector with our teams with our donors in all this stuff which is a really important discussion but the biomedical implications of this we're not hearing about it yes well and this is a great question and i get really excited talking about this because the Red Cross is in a four-year informational and recruitment campaign to undiversify in the blood supply the Red Cross has has always committed to diversity and inclusiveness but right now we're really ramping up our efforts to go out and first educate people on blood donation and diversity and how you know building that trust building that rapport and so we can get people in to come and donate blood and so we are on that four year track and why is it so important because right now 86.3% of the blood that is collected comes from Caucasian donors then we've got 4.9% of the blood that we collect coming from our Latino and Hispanic communities and then we've got 3.6% of our our blood supply coming from black Americans and so based on those numbers you can see we really want to increase the diversity and not just based on culture we are looking at all populations of that are that exist right now and so you know based on the the elders and youth and so much you know the lbgtq communities we are we really want to diversify on all spectrums out there and so it's really exciting to see the work that's being done we do have internally and across the nation workforce groups that are helping to like kind of segment that out and so as an example right now I sit on the sickle cell and we'll talk about sickle cell here in just a moment the sickle cell workforce committee and we are helping to and this is for employee engagement so if we're out there you know sharing this information we want to make sure we're practicing this on the inside and so there are tools that we are creating right now a playbook of sorts to help get our employees internally excited and engaged specifically in the sickle cell but again we segment this out so there are other populations in groups that have their workforce groups coming together and working to build out so that we can just really get as much support internal external and beyond and so there's a lot happening with that and so as far as sickle cell disease yeah also really large and active campaign because with sickle cell a hundred thousand black Americans are living with the disease and this is something that is a trait so if you have two parents that have what's called the sickle cell trait when you are conceived and born then you are much likelier to have sickle cell disease it doesn't guarantee you will or excuse me it does guarantee you will so with your two your two parents now with sickle cell that is a painful disease that causes anemia different body pains and it's something that does not have a cure for it at this moment in time it does require monthly blood transfusions and in order to get those blood transfusions in order to match donors it really requires blood that comes from sickle cell trait donors and and so with that it's hard to find matches and right now 50% of the blood that we collect can be a qualifying match for for sickle cell patients but that's another 50% that we're leaving out and so you can imagine how how devastating that is not having enough blood and so but I do want to retract you do not have to have the sickle cell trait to be able to find a match for the blood for those patients but it definitely is is more we find more of a match when the blood in general comes from our black american donors sure that makes sense yes the genetic tracking of it to that blood supply yes how are you doing this i mean and are you are you doing this in communities of color or are you trying just to do it nationally so that everybody can understand or what is how are you going about this that's a great question where we do we are going out to the general public so we've really ramped up our marketing efforts around this initiative because it really starts with education first but you don't know you don't know and so we have a variety of campaigns that are going out the door and june has been a pretty special month because we started out on june 3rd with the celebration of dr charles drew dr charles drew's birthday who is who was dr charles drew well we call him the father of the blood banking industry and he was an african-american doctor who came up with the blood collection processes and equipment that falls around that so we were able to celebrate him and there's information on our website about who he is he was tremendous so historical and the red cross definitely holds him near and dear to the to the family and then we had june team that just got kicked off the ground so june 19th and and june 19th was also world sickle cell donor day as well and so june was a great month to really be able to to get these messages about diversifying blood out to the community but it doesn't just rotate around one month this is this is daily this is weekly monthly and yearly and so it but it was a nice way to be able to start to really get out there and educate and the red cross has created many positions across the nation and they've done quite a bit of surveying to find out where do we want to position our relationship managers around blood diversity and so they've added quite a few positions for staff members who will go out there and have that intentional focus in mind and educating again recruiting and building goodwill and partnerships to host more blood drives in black american communities and and that's that's a big effort that we have under hand well it's that leads me to my next question and point for discussion and that is how can the nonprofit sector walk this journey with you i mean we we're looking for things all the time that do community outreach that get beyond ourselves that teach philanthropy that teach community building yeah you know all of these things we all know about this if you're watching an nonprofit show you understand this concept but sometimes i think we look a scans at who we're going to partner with we can become philanthropic snobs we can be like oh they're too political oh we compete with them for dollars we don't want to lose donors i mean there's there's all of this bizarre stuff going on in the background but with the red cross how would we as a nonprofit move forward and try and and join on some type of drive that is a great question i'm glad you asked that today the red cross we have so many partnerships out there in the community i'll quickly highlight one from our disaster services arm and that is what the salvation army as an example we partner with them they help us during these crucial disasters to help with food resources and others because we'd like to say we can do it all right but we really can't so it takes a lot of people to come together in community and so as it relates to nonprofits and blood drives we are really welcome um these nonprofits and we have a laundry list of them that um have to be the host so the host sites um that's where they can really plug in um because part of you know diversifying and getting out there and being able to expand our operations is having a location to go to now we do have a mobile bus that we use but you can imagine we have smaller beds which mean we can only collect smaller amounts there can be mechanical issues and then booking issues so the spaces is really key and so we we are regularly sharing information about upcoming blood drives and we have these nonprofits who we work with who will help to circulate the information to their employees they'll do employee challenges um and they may even select a day or a couple a day that could be quarterly where they um as a host of the blood drives or a supporter of blood drives really message that out internally and we've seen so much wonderful support not only from um additional nonprofit um partners but from corporate and individuals uh so it's really about saying hey we raise our hand we encourage blood donation it's not a requirement if you can't do it just help us circulate the information yeah I love that attitude I think we that's such a great thing in um you know throughout the the nonprofit sector to be able to say to say you know if you can't directly impact with us can you share the information I love that I think that's like so powerful yeah yeah good job Camille I'm really excited about that now let's talk turkey if you are a nonprofit and you're looking at this and you're like yeah we need to get our organization involved and we want to kind of figure out how we can collaborate on a drive or whatever how do we do that that's a great question I'll put it simply put if you go to redcross.org you can go in there and in the menu tab you it says ways to support and you can donate financially and just so you're aware you can host the space but if you want to be a financial host of the space and the blood drive itself those go for thirty nine hundred dollars that includes our marketing that includes our equipment our staff time it's a it's a significantly low cost to be able to do that but granted you don't necessarily have to be a financial donor we are looking for partners with space and and bringing in your groups of people to to a blood drive so if you want to raise your hand to do that you can find information on how to host a blood drive on redcross.org and we'll have a team member based on your location get back to you the next way is to raise your hand to sign up to donate blood if you are able and in third if you're not and really this can apply all the way around and in that rotation is to share about the importance of donating blood given that every two seconds someone needs a blood transfusion we're all just you know an incident away from needing that to happen and take place so keeping that as front of mind and knowing that importance is truly important and as I mentioned earlier there is that Red Cross blood donor app but I'd also like to mention outside of blood we are always looking for volunteers and we need volunteers in all lines of service and with the blood supply shortage and when we are in our peak seasons we always need volunteers to help with the check-in process and and be on site or help with the behind the scenes administration so please sign up to be a volunteer we have a nice simple application you can fill out on our website and it's based on your interests of support and our volunteer services team they are tremendous in being able to take the information you're plugging in and matching you with an opportunity that is meaningful right we're not going to have you filing papers and doing those sorts of activities we really have a lot of really great and very specific projects and work that you can do and the training program I mean it goes on for days you can learn so much and that's free of cost and just as one of the benefits that we provide to our volunteers so it's very well put together well you know it's so interesting when you mentioned the training I'm thinking back about the times you know I'm sure I did the babysitting training through the records and I know CPR and I had completely forgotten about that about how that would engage you know into our communities really interesting and so powerful Camille that you would kind of bring this conversation around to us especially now I think it's been such a cool thing to reconnect with you because this is that time when we are kind of coming out of our caves and we're looking around and we're saying okay you know what should we be doing and you know the biomedical discussion right there because we've had a biomedical crisis it just is like so much more difficult to discuss because we have an innate fear of all these topics about blood and medical things and being close to people and you know it's like wow what an incredible time to be engaged it is and I've got to say with the blood drives because I am located here in Arizona and in my territory is Arizona New Mexico but at our chapter house location in central Phoenix where I go in from time to time for supplies and such we have had so many blood drives happening there and it has been so neat and really inspiring to see so many people despite the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic coming out to donate blood but it is a very safe process again we're following those PPE practices but it just really warms my heart to see a parking lot full of individuals who are coming to donate blood and so despite all of the challenges in the odds people really are real humanitarians and they're coming out to help their fellow Americans and it's a beautiful thing to witness I must say well what a lovely representative you are of the organization and you know the American Red Cross is I think one of those things that every American can be proud of yes the trajectory of what it has done and how it is done and the whole thing on the house fires yes yeah it blows my mind and we see on the news every night there's a house fire and all these different ways that the American Red Cross is getting involved in our communities is so powerful here's Camille's information and check out redcross.org so many ways for our nonprofits to get involved and really an exciting time for us to as in the nonprofit sector to be looking at ways that we can engage. Again I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. Here at Ransom the Nonprofit Nerd will be rejoining us next week and so we wish her a happy birthday and good vacation. Again we want to thank I know can you believe it summer vacations summer birthdays that's what it's all about. We want to thank all of our presenting sponsors who join us each and every episode 300 plus episodes going strong without you I always say this but we would not be here so we're so appreciative. We've also launched another show called Fundraising Events TV really interesting just about the event business and the event side of fundraising and that is hosted by Jason Champion. Wow a great episode Camille you got me going for the day I'm really excited and I'm proud to know you keep up the great work and we'll have you back again. Okay Julia thank you so much to you in the nonprofit show. Jared happy birthday thank you as well and it's always a pleasure. Well it's been lovely as we like to remind everyone stay well so you can do well. We'll see you back here tomorrow everybody bye.