Idea: Organ Donors Register Virtually

 
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  • Created on: 22 Sep 2011
  • Idea status: Lets do it now
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What it's all about

My main target is to get new organ donors to the organ donation register. I beleive getting new organ donors is one of the most important campaignes in the world. I think this because New organ donors to the register who give all their organs will save or profoundly change the lives of 5 people. Directly saving peoples lives or meaning they can live a normal life how can it be more important. I have been dropping leaflets and organising to setup displays in gps and other primary health care settings. This requires alot of organisation and takes alot of time to setup the display. I am looking for methods of getting donors through say social media, second world, forums entirely virtual areas and methods. I do not think much thought has been put into this by the official organ donation organisations and no other campaignes are getting donors entirely virtually. How could organ donors be persuaded virtually into pressing a link to send them to the organ donation regsiter site and to sign the register. I have thought of forum posting with a link or second world but I am not an advanced user in the internet or e campaiging I need ideas on how to get new organ donors to register using the internet entirely. Done in a virtual process. Please Help!

What's needed to make it a reality

If anyone has a campaigne similiar to this and experience of how to make it successful gaining new organ donors over the internet this would be an ideal response and great help. Remember each succesful organ donor to the register will save or profoundly change 5 lives.

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Comments

  • Avatar jkalyan 15:46, 23 September 2011 J49 Team Hey Dale,

    I’m Jyoti from the Junction49 helpdesk, here to try and turn your idea into a reality.

    Organ donation is definitely something that doesn’t always get the spotlight attention that it deserves, so your idea of bringing it to the virtual world will hopefully give it that.

    I don’t 100% know if I’ve totally got the drift of what the aim of your idea is so correct me if I’ve gone wrong.

    From what I understand, you are trying to encourage more people to become registered organ donors via directing them to the organ donation site.

    The site itself and the form one fills in do seem quite self-explanatory and simple. So, your issue will be how to direct people to the site rather than the actual process of registering online.

    A way to direct people to the site is very much by raising awareness about the benefits of organ registration, all related information and the ways in which it can be done by.

    On the organ donation website there is a page solely dedicated to ways in which to campaign and raise awareness of organ registration, including being able to order free promotional material. Here’s the link, I think this will give you much of the information you need http://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/ukt/campaigns/get_involved/get_involved.jsp . As you’ve mentioned many of the activities you have carried out already have been very time-consuming but maybe this link will help in some way.

    Virtually, by setting up pages on Facebook about online registration could be an idea. With this being sent to all your contacts they too can tthen forward it to their contacts and thus further the coverage. Another idea could be writing an email about your idea and sending it to organisations and companies in order for them to send to their mailing list.

    How about contacting the people at the Organ donor register and explain to them your idea and whether they could help in any way?

    Don’t forget to use Junction49’s resources to the fullest! Post your idea on the forum page with the link to redirect Junction49ers to the organ donation site.

    I hope I have helped in some way and again if I’ve gone wrong anywhere please tell me. If you have any other queries or problems, please do not hesitate to contact me.

    Jyoti
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  • Avatar Sarah 16:39, 05 October 2011 J49 Team Hi Dale,

    Great to chat with you earlier on the phone. I think there is definitely a lot of scope for your idea and hopefully I can offer some advice about how to get started.

    Having had a quick look at the organ donation website they have a section for e-campaigning: http://www.uktransplant.org.uk/ukt/campaigns/get_involved/email_campaign/email_campaign.jsp

    It looks like you should be able to get some e-resources from them which will help when marketing your campaign e.g. email signature etc...

    I know you said you're familiar with Facebook so getting a presence on there is a good start. You could begin with creating your own page as we have for Junction49. You can invite friends and organisations to 'like' the page. You can then use the page to add regular updates about your campaign and how it's going. Another thing you could do with Facebook is pay for adverts (I'll give you some funding links further down so you can cover the cost of this through funding). You can pay for a certain amount of adverts on Facebook, e.g. pay per view. You can determine who you want to target e.g. geographical area or age range.

    The other social networking site which I would recommend is Twitter. It might take a while to build up a following but is a great way to get your message out there electronically. You can start off my posting a few tweets about your campaign and then following people/organisations who you think would be interested. You can engage with them by 'tweeting' at them telling them about your campaign and you could ask them to retweet what you say too. Don't worry if you're not sure how that would work at the moment. I'd recommend signing up, choosing a name for your account and then just having a play around. You could begin by following @junction49 on Twitter and see how we use it to promote what we do.

    You might also be interested in a website called somewhereto_ which supports young people to find the space they need to run their projects. They may have some online space that you might be able to use to promote your project. Here's a link to their website as it's always worth an ask: http://www.somewhereto.com/

    In terms of doing other things online you could create a video as an engaging way to demonstrate the importance of organ donation. One of our Junction49ers has recently set up an organisation called Stitch and Patch and they could help you with an animation film. They do charge, but this could be something you could include in a funding bid. Here's a link to their website: http://wearestitchandpatch.com/ You can say I told you about them if you like.

    In terms of funding the best place to apply to would be O2 Think Big: http://www.o2thinkbig.co.uk/ They accept applications from young people aged 13-25 and will give you an initial £300 in funding followed by £2500 if the first bit of the project was a success. They also invite you on a training day prior to getting the money. You could maybe use this money to create a video or pay for online adverts to get the campaign up and running.

    Have you heard of Battlefront at all? One of the campaigns for this year is all about signing up to the organ donor register so you might be interested in checking out what they're doing: http://www.battlefront.co.uk/donors

    I hope that helps to get you started. Let me know if you have any questions. You can post on here and I'll reply etc.... You can also write diary entries to keep everyone updated with how it's all going.

    Speak to you soon,

    Sarah     Report Abuse
  • Avatar Dale Sencier 10:47, 25 October 2011 Thankyou for these ideas, sorry I taken so long to get back to you. I will be putting into action these ideas and seeing where they take me. I m thinking I could raise enough money through fundraising to buy a place on the univercity website for a link or gif image to the organ donor register. How much would this cost do you have any ideas. This would be because above all else the freshers stool for organ donation is the most succesful event for getting new donors. I would like to send a internal email to all students with a email promtoing the organ donor campaigne. Where would I start and who would I contact at the univercity to do this ? I would like to learn about e campainging specifically so I can put some of this knowledge back into this idea. I m sure I am going to have alot more questions for you guys I will update you when I have completed some already given. Report Abuse
  • Avatar Sarah 15:42, 26 October 2011 J49 Team Hi Dale,

    Not a problem at all, hopefully they'll help to get started with your e-campaigning. If you have any questions as you're going along, feel free to get in contact.

    I'm afraid I'm not too sure how much it would cost to advertise on university websites. You might have to contact the relevant university to find out.

    Sending out an internal email to all students about the campaign is a great idea. Are you at a university at the moment? You could maybe contact the school reps or school secretaries and see if they would be happy to send something out. You could also contact your volunteering department/society if you have one to see if they could help you out in anyway.

    Let us know how it's all going.

    Sarah     Report Abuse
  • Avatar Dale Sencier 19:34, 29 December 2011 Hello Sarah as instructed I just finsihed tweeting Junction49 campaigne. That was my first tweet. Do you know of anyone who could conduct the phone calls to the univercities maybe in a session where they contact all the potential univercity sites and ask for their participation. I am relucntant I have no previous experience and have not got a professional phone manner. I would prefer if someone with previous experience and professioanl manner would be able to contact and do any face to face or telephone conversations. Maybe I could fund this from my own money or funding I raise. Do you know of anyone who would do this?. Report Abuse
  • Avatar Sarah 16:02, 30 December 2011 J49 Team Hi Dale,

    Great to see that you're on Twitter, you'll have to write a description about your campaign on your profile and starting tweeting and following people. If you need any help with how to do it, just let me know.

    I'm not sure about anyone who could conduct the phone calls, but you could always advertise for a volunteer who could help you out. Once you've got some followers on Twitter you could always tweet it as a call to action to see if anyone is interested. I can tweet about it too. What do you hope to achieve from ringing round the universities? It might be worth building up a bit of presence online with your campaign first and then you can communicate to them what you've achieved so far.

    Sarah     Report Abuse
  • Avatar Dale Sencier 20:19, 23 January 2012 Hi Sarah I have read that freshers fares are the most succesful of any event for gaining new donors to the register. This is a stool setup on the day when other stools advertising student opportunites are shown, you may have heard of it. This is why I am targetting univercities. I am basically raising awareness of the organ donor register and how easy it is to join online mainly. I have not seen much organ donor campaiging online and definately nothing on univercity websites. If I could get a banner or advertisement on to there website or social media then this has the potential to tap into those who go online and highlight the link and how easier it is to join online. Also I could post on the forum reguarilly a link and answer questions. I could set up a hotmail account and facebook page with organ donor banners I could raise awareness through this which is supporting the campaigne. I do not know of anyone asking the univercties to put up organ donor posters on site so this is something I could do and I do not know of anyone who is sending an internal email to all students, why not?. My goal would be to raise awareness online through social media or promotion banners, forum posting or any other methods (which I hope you can help with) etc firstly univercities because they have the most succesful amounts of new donors siging up then I could move from this to social media generally. To answer your question I would contact all the univercities by phone just to ask them if I would have permission to send them posters, to ask if they would send a internal email and if I they would consider to put the organ donor banner onto their forums and social media and allow me to post the organ donor register form link on their forum. Any other ideas much appreciated! Look forward to your contact! Report Abuse
  • Avatar Sarah 12:21, 24 January 2012 J49 Team Hello Dale,

    It sounds like a really good plan that you have and hopefully you should really be able to kickstart your campaign. At the end of February it's Student Volunteering Week and this could be the best time to start your campaign. You could contact your university to see if you would be able to hold a stall. You can also add what you do to Volunteering England's website here: http://www.volunteering.org.uk/policy-and-campaigns/student-volunteering-week-2012/whats-happening/2177-student-volunteering-week-2012-form

    I hope that helps.

    Sarah     Report Abuse
  • Avatar Dale Sencier 21:46, 06 February 2012 Hi Sarah I have finished reading the campaign central and battlefront websites. I have taken alot from these sites on ecampaiging. They have general ideas on petitions, facebook, twitter a simple website. Where I could find email lists how much they cost for sending sms messages to mobile phones. I have a small facebook network where could I get more facebook users to add to my list then I could send a petition or email. Also email list prices and fundraisng for money to buy space on univercity website for gif banner. I would like to put gif banners onto the univercity site and also send them to univercities with there permision. Other ways to find someone who could help ringing around the univercities who is professional and how much it would cost I have looked into freelance virtual assistants. They would ask if the univerctiy would like to get involved by allowing internal donor email to be sent, a gif image on their website or facebook or if they would like paper leaflets and posters they could put up round their univercity or display walls also adverts on univercity websites. Who would you contact at the univercity as a first contact?. I am not a student at any of the univercties do you know who I would contact first. I am continuing to take leaflets to ambulance stations for paramedics to sign in their own time during breaks also. I am not sure I would need a website for this campaigne a petition is something I could do and send to another campaigne like Donnas dream to help. A email campaigne would also be a good idea. I would be unable to do a stall at the univercity at present. I am currently making a basic twitter profile. After reading the websites I know of of ways but I am still not sure as where to start do you have some more pointers on building a presence online? Report Abuse
  • Avatar Sarah 17:29, 07 February 2012 J49 Team Hi Dale,

    Sounds like you've been doing a lot of research into getting the campaign all set up which is great. I think your next step is probably to do some research into universities to find the best people/groups to contact about your idea. A first port of call might be to contact groups or societies associated with health i.e. Medics, St. John's Ambulance, British Red Cross as well as any charity/volunteering groups. I had a look for what exists at the University of Essex and they have a Charity society, a St. John's Ambulance society as well as a volunteering department called vTeam.
    http://www.essexstudent.com/activities/societies/list/a-z/

    You could contact them to see if they would be able to put posters up or send an email round to all of their contacts making them aware about your campaign. You mentioned Donna's Dream too. Perhaps you could get in contact with them to find out where/what campaigning they're doing and whether the work that you're doing can help. You don't want to start a petition unless you have a clear idea of where you want to send it. Do you know what the aim of your petition would be?

    To start building a presence on Twitter, here are a few tips to get you started:
    - write a short bio on your profile explaining what it is you are trying to achieve.
    - start following people who have similar interests e.g. Donna's Dream (they have a presence on Facebook and Twitter)
    - follow universities you might want to engage with.
    - if you want to connect with these people send @ messages. For instance if you wanted to send me a message on Twitter you'd do @junction49 Hello Sarah. You could send messages to universities telling them about your campaign+ask if they can help.
    - tweet interesting things about what you're doing/retweet interesting things others are doing.
    - respond to people who send you @replies

    I hope that makes sense, if you have particular questions about using Twitter just ask.

    Sarah
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  • Avatar Dale Sencier 15:11, 09 February 2012 Hi Sarah. The petition is an Idea maybe I could gather people to join a petition online and then give this to another campaigne like Donnas Dream who is raising signatures to get the national opt out option working for the organ donation campaigne. Obviously I will contact the Donnas dream campagine first. I may use the 10 downing street site to run a petition is this straight foward. Are there any other ways of setting up a pettion to gather names online I could consider. I will be working through these tasks and will update you on my progress. Thanks again. Report Abuse
  • Avatar Sarah 16:05, 09 February 2012 J49 Team Hi Dale,

    Aha, I see what you mean about the petition to opt out. I think going through the No.10 site to do it is definitely the best way and then if you can get more than 100,000 signatures within a year it will be debated in parliament. Speaking to Donna's Dream will be a good to place to begin to see what they've got planned and whether your campaign can support their petition. The ones online are all e-petitions so it would just be a case of promoting the link.

    Apparently you can't start a new petition if there's already one about the same thing as it will be rejected. Having had a quick look just now it looks like there is already one similar here: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/2044 You could always focus your campaign on supporting this one perhaps?

    Hope that helps,

    Sarah     Report Abuse
  • Avatar Sarah 12:43, 07 March 2012 J49 Team Hi Dale,

    How is everything going with the campaign? I just wanted to let you know that all the time you spend in setting up this campaign and promoting what you're doing you can record on www.vinspired.com. By recording your hours you can work towards receiving a vInspired award and they have 3 - v10, v50 and v100. To find out more, click here: http://www.junction49.co.uk/blog/91/get_recognised_with_a_vinspired_award/

    Sarah     Report Abuse
  • Avatar Dale Sencier 20:40, 08 April 2012 Hi Sarah its been a while since I last spoke to you I have been going over how to do the campaigne. I could give the petition link around with the organ donor registration link. I was thinking I could go round each univercties twitter site and leave a message on their student union sites and twitter areas. I could simply point out that freshers is the most succesful event for gathering new organ donors ever and regularilly bring up this point. Something I beleive to the best of my knowledge has not been promoted by the organ donation campaigne so far. I can simply write that I have been supplying local organisations with organ donor leaflets and that I want to promote the online organ donor link more widely and specifically to univercitiy websites because they are most succesful. I could make a facebook profile completely dedicated to the organ donation theme I could do this on twitter also other social media platforms. Using these I can post on the uni facebook twitter related discussion boards answer questiosn and drum support and interest in making new donors through the link online.I think I could promote this as uni students are very internet savy so would appreciate the link to the donor registration form. So these are two more factors very internet savy and succesful from freshers fare. I do not have many contacts for facebook none for twiter how could I get a large list of uni contacts or would this matter. I would raise this question with the union on twitter facebook and other to organise the delivery of the leaflets and ideas of what they could do with them. Shout till they listen. Also ask them if they would promote the link on their social media sites because of freshers succes as the main reason. I could ask them to put up the posters that I have seen this gap in promotion of the ogan donation campaigne put up posters anywhere they can in the uni I will arrange delivery of the Donor Leaflets materials . Do you think this is all a good idea and plan to start on. Firstly with the facebook and twitter profile.Please give any feedback. After revising I could use twitter to shout about why they have not been putting leaflets in univercites or promtoing the donor registration link more on their site. Report Abuse
  • Avatar Sarah 18:37, 10 April 2012 J49 Team Hi Dale,

    Good to hear from you. Did you ever hear anything back from the Donna's Dream?

    Sending messages via Twitter to relevant universities is a good idea, but it might be good to send it with a link to the organ donor registration link too. Before you starting tweeting at people, try to create a bit of a presence on Twitter first. Start following universities and other related places that you want to target or that are related to organ donation. Tweet about different things related to organ donation. You don't want to start just sending the same messages to lots of people as they may view it as spam and not pay very much attention. If you tweet universities along with a link you can ask them to retweet to their followers and that way you may be able to get people to sign up.

    Putting up posters sounds like a good idea too - getting students to do this would be a good idea. If you spend your time building up followers on Twitter and following others too you can then start tweeting people to see if they can put them up.

    I hope that makes sense.

    Let me know if you have any questions.

    Sarah

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  • Avatar Sarah 11:20, 01 May 2012 J49 Team Hi Dale,

    I just came across this link on Facebook and thought this would be perfect for you to get involved in for your idea and spread the word about signing up to the donor register. From 9th-15th July it's National Transplant Week and they also have an e-campaigning kit which you can email them to request. You can check it out here: www.organdonation.nhs.uk/ukt/campaigns/other_campaigns/detail.asp?id=9

    Hope that helps,

    Sarah
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  •   Avatar Sarah 12:02, 01 May 2012 J49 Team P.S. Just checked out your Twitter profile. If you want to tweet directly to people you need to use the @ symbol. For instance to contact Junction49 via Twitter if you type Hello @junction49 then I would be able to see the message, if you don't do this people won't realise that you're talking to them.

    If you want to contact Donna's Dream via Twitter you would need to find out what they Twitter name is. I think it's @Donnasdream I hope that helps.

    Sarah     Report Abuse
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