Your Blood! Your Choice! Their Lifeline!

Every blood type matters, and every donor has the power to make a difference. Whether you're Rh-negative or Rh-positive, your donation can help patients in emergencies, surgeries, cancer treatment, and everyday medical care. Choose a blood center you trust, give when you can, and be someone’s lifeline!

  • Help Save Babies

    Blood donations can be critical for newborns and premature babies who need transfusions during their first days of life.

  • Be There in an Emergency

    Trauma and accident victims can need blood immediately. Donors help hospitals stay prepared when every minute counts.

  • Give Something Money Can't Make

    Blood can't simply be manufactured when hospitals run short. The supply depends on people choosing to donate.

FROM DISCOVERY TO LIFESAVING DONATIONS

The story of blood donation began with scientists trying to understand one of the most important substances in the human body. Early blood transfusions were dangerous because doctors did not yet understand that human blood comes in different types. That changed dramatically in 1900-1901, when physician Karl Landsteiner discovered the major ABO blood groups, helping explain why some transfusions succeeded while others caused deadly reactions.

Over the following decades, advances in blood typing, anticoagulants, refrigeration, sterile collection equipment, and blood banking transformed transfusion medicine. What had once been an experimental procedure became an essential part of modern healthcare. Later discoveries involving the Rh blood group system made matching donors and recipients even safer.

Today, donated blood supports everything from emergency trauma care and major surgery to cancer treatment, childbirth complications, severe anemia, and care for premature and critically ill babies. Blood cannot simply be manufactured on demand to replace the full function of donated human blood, which means hospitals continue to depend on people willing to give.

Every donation becomes part of a history stretching back more than a century. A history built on scientific discovery, volunteer donors, and the idea that something inside one person can help keep another person alive.

Our goal isn't to promote one organization, it's to get lifesaving Rh-negative blood to patients who need it.

We know not everyone in our community trusts the American Red Cross. There have been many documented controversies involving the organization over the years, and some members simply prefer to support independent or locally operated blood centers.

If you're eligible to donate, choose a reputable blood center that you personally trust. Options may include:

  • Independent nonprofit/community blood centers
  • Local or regional blood banks
  • Hospital-affiliated blood donation programs

Whenever possible, we encourage members to learn where their donation goes, how the organization operates, and how it supports patients and hospitals in their community.

Every blood type matters. O-positive, A-positive, B-positive, AB-positive and all Rh-negative blood types have important roles in patient care. Hospitals need a diverse and reliable supply of blood to support trauma patients, surgeries, cancer treatments, childbirth, chronic illnesses, and other medical emergencies.

O-negative blood has a special role in emergencies because O-negative red cells can be given when there isn't enough time to determine a patient's blood type. But that doesn't make other blood types less important. Matching patients with their own or another compatible blood type helps preserve O-negative supplies for situations where they're needed most.

You don't have to support a particular organization to support the mission.

Every type matters. Every donor matters. Donate where you trust. Donate local if you prefer. Just donate if you safely can.

Find A Blood CenAter!

Find A Blood Center!

Find a blood donation center near you. Explore independent and community blood centers across the country and choose where you want to donate.

America's Blood Centers