Donor Recruiter Job Description

A donor recruiter is a professional who for a nonprofit blood bank. She develops and contacts lists of individuals and corporations for the purpose to soliciting donations of blood. Coordinating all blood drives that are administered, she keeps detailed records of all participants and blood collected. Additionally, she may be required to specifically seek out donors with rare blood types, requesting and coordinating blood donations from them.

Job Responsibilities

A donor recruiter is responsible for coordinating all events and blood drives. Following both cold and warm leads, he contacts and solicits potential corporate and non-profit organizations to host blood drives. Working directly with his corporate contact, he arranges all aspects of the blood drive, including development of marketing materials, the hiring of phlebotomists and other volunteers and preparing the event space. He ensures each event brings a specific number of blood donors. This number is predetermined by his manager, based upon the needs and goals of the blood bank. The donor recruiter monitors and records all metrics around this quota, reporting them back to his manager. His primary goal is to ensure that the sponsoring organization has a pleasant experience, so that it will be willing to host future drives.

When blood supplies are low, specifically of rare blood types, the donor recruiter is charged with seeking out specific donors who match the blood bank's needs. He may initially comb through the records of past donors, soliciting those who have the specific blood type to donate again. He may also find new donors by reaching out to those in his contacts, essentially networking to find persons who meet his needs.

Job Opportunities

While many organizations procure volunteers to meet their donor recruiting needs, there are an abundance to blood banks that hire salaried employees, both full and part time, to perform these duties. Internet job boards that specialize in the advertisement of career opportunities within the social services and non-profit sectors such as idealist.org are excellent resources for those seeking to enter the field. Additionally, these opportunities are often advertised within newspaper classifieds. Many blood banks and other organization that collect blood post their hiring needs directly on their corporate websites. Prospective candidates may apply by contacting the human-resources staff of the organization for which they would like to work.

Qualitative Requirements

A donor recruiter must be an excellent communicator and must also possess the ability to gain credibility with others immediately, as she is essentially a salesperson, promoting the services of her organization. Organizational abilities are also of the utmost importance. The donor recruiter will be dealing with many people and planning a lot of events at once. It is imperative she perform all of her duties efficiently and seamlessly. Additionally, she must also have a keen understanding of how to meet quotas under specific deadlines.

Educational Requirements

While four-year degree is not necessarily required to become a donor recruiter, many organizations do have policies requiring all employees possess a bachelor's degree. More importantly, however, is that candidates possess professional experience and documented success within a sales or promotional function, as well as event planning. Additionally, the resources provided by the Association of Donor Recruitment Professionals allow those interested in the field to gain additional knowledge and education.

Average Compensation

SimplyHired.com says the average donor recruiter was earning $44,000 in 2009.

References

• SimplyHired.com
• Donor Recruiter Jobs at Indeed.com
• US Department of Labor -- Job Search Methods

Resources

• Association of Donor Recruitment Professionals
• GiveBloodNow.com