Co-design with community partners in blood donor recruitment: A global assessment

Blood services need to increase representativeness of donors from ethnically diverse communities, yet evidence-based recruitment strategies remain scarce. Co-design with community partners is a promising approach to developing culturally resonant materials, but the extent of its use globally remains unknown.

We surveyed transfusion professionals registered with the Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies (AABB) and the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT). Respondents reported recruitment methods in general use and ranked their perceived effectiveness. We then examined the adoption of co-design specifically for ethnically diverse donor recruitment, including attitudes, barriers, and evaluation.

Of 170 respondents across four regions (Europe, North America, South-East-Asia, Rest-of-the-World), 94% reported that their institution actively recruited blood donors, and 51% identified they had a critical need for ethnically diverse supplies. Co-design was used by 33% of active recruiters, ranking seventh of 11 methods. Among those stating a critical need: 73% had developed ethnically tailored materials, 38% had used co-design, 13% co-designed videos, and 11% evaluated co-designed video effectiveness. Attitudes were favorable regardless of critical-need status, with 82%-89% endorsing bespoke videos as effective. Barriers were predominantly resource-based: funding (54%-57%), media-production expertise (29%-35%), and co-design expertise (24%-36%).

Co-design for ethnically diverse donor recruitment is underused, revealing a belief-practice gap: attitudes are favorable, but adoption is low. Barriers are resource-based rather than attitudinal, and evaluation is rare. Wider adoption depends on building organizational capacity: funding, co-design expertise, and embedding evaluation from the outset.