Find material to share and back up your drives

About our cause

Why DKMS needs help

Only one in four people with a blood cancer (and in need of a transplant) will find a matching blood stem cell donor within their own family.

Numbers behind our work

To date, DKMS has registered over 11 million potential blood stem cell donors worldwide.

So far, over 100,000 second chances at life have been provided by DKMS with a daily average of 21.

DKMS donors account for 40% of all worldwide unrelated blood stem cell donations.


Tips and tricks

Creating a virtual drive

Bring in your personality

To motivate others be sure to include your personal story letting people know why this cause is so important to you. Don't forget to include personal photos or videos.

Set a realistic goal

Be realistic with how many people you aim to register. Your goal will be displayed on your page and will encourage people to continue to sign up as you get closer to your goal.

Engage your family and friends

Make sure you share your drive with as many people as possible. Get friends, family and colleagues involved and ask them to share it on.

Social Media

Social media offers a great way to reach a wide audience. We have compiled a few tips for social media

General tips

• It is best to use the channel that is already familiar to you through your private use.

• Be creative, authentic and emotional.

• Post regularly every two or three days.

• Make sure you keep your followers up to date with how many people have registered and how close you are to your goal.

• Don't forget to thank your followers for supporting your virtual drive.

• Tag other people, people who are well known in the region, places near you and regional newspapers/radio stations. By doing so, you create even more attention, as more people notice your posts

• Tag us and/or mention us in all your posts and Stories to make sure we spot them! We can then engage with your posts, answer any questions and maybe even share them to our page. You can do this by typing ‘@’ and then our account handle:

Facebook: @dkmsafrica

Twitter: @dkms-africa

Instagram: @dkms-africa

Facebook

Create a profile with a powerful name and explain who is behind it

https://www.facebook.com/pages/create/?ref_type=universal_creation_hub

• Name of the page: Title of the online registration event, e.g. “Luca wants to live!”

• Category: e.g. charity, non-profit

• Select profile image and header image.


Sharing Content

Share content regularly. Photos and videos are the most popular.

• Be creative and use GIFs or the survey option.

• Before the end of the online registration event, remind your followers to return their swab kits.

• Infotainment: Educates the followers on the topic of stem cell donation.


Facebook events

You can create an event and invite your Facebook friends to attend the event. If you make it a public event, your friends can also invite their friends, so you’ll reach even more people. You can also invite your contacts to the event even if they are not on Facebook.

Instagram

Download the app and create a profile

• Username: Title of the online registration event

• Profile information: Short description about you and link to the online registration event

(for Instagram there is only the option to link from the app)


Shares content regularly. Only photos or videos can be posted on Instagram (format: square).

• Use the story function regularly (portrait mode). The videos that are uploaded here are visible for 24 hours.

– Tip: Save important stories in the highlights section of your profile. To do this, you must first activate the story archive function.

– Be creative and use GIFs or the survey tools in the story, such as the survey question button, to find out what the followers are interested in.

• Remind your followers again towards the end of the online registration event to return their sets in time!

• For advanced users: Instagram-live streams.

– With prior announcement (by post or in a story) you can talk to your followers in a sort of live chat and answer questions directly.

This way you build up a close relationship.

• Infotainment: Educates the followers on the topic of stem cell donation:

– Did you know that...?

– Procedure from registration to donation: On our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/TheSunflowerFundpartneredbyDKMS) you will find many videos explaining both the registration and the donation process. You are welcome to share these videos and explain them. Uses digital templates that are easy to share and contain all information.

Social Media
If you don't want to share personal photos that’s no problem we have a range of images you can use in our image library.
Every 27 seconds, someone somewhere in the world is diagnosed with blood cancer.
Graphic with a yellow background with text reading "Did you know? Once registered, you remain on the registry and are available for patient searches until just before your 61st birthday"
Graphic on a blue background showing a pregnant lady with the text "Did you know? If you receive a blood transfusion after giving birth you can still become a blood stem cell donor."
Video libary
Videos are a great way of motivating people to register, simply copy the URL for a video you want to use and attach it to your drive.