the impact of philanthropy
Financial contributions play a crucial role in funding blood collection needs that ensure blood is readily available 24/7/365. Financial donors are an integral part of our mission. Every gift, no matter the size, can make a difference in the lives of those in need, making a positive impact on our community's health.
how your support helped our community last year
Philanthropy impacts every aspect of the mission of San Diego Blood Bank. Our generous financial and blood donors support lifesaving blood services and medical research to advance health and wellness.
Click to view 2022/2023 Impact Report
Blood recipient stories
Every two seconds someone in the U.S. requires a blood transfusion. Blood and financial donors help SDBB give patients the gift of life.
Keely
Keely suffered life-threatening injuries after falling 30 feet off a ski lift. She had seven surgeries to repair her shattered spleen and liver and to remove a kidney. Keely was on life support in a medically induced coma for 10 days and was in the hospital for a month, where she required 30 units of lifesaving blood products.
Today, she still skis and is pursuing a medical career. She organizes blood drives and speaks to groups advocating for blood donation. She thanks blood donors for her second chance at life and is now a blood donor herself.
Waylon
Waylon was born in April 2012, and shortly after birth was diagnosed with severe respiratory distress. The following 13 weeks he had two surgeries and a total of 50 blood transfusions. Waylon was on oxygen for a year and a half and started walking at 2 ½ years old. He is doing great now, he loves music, arts and crafts, riding his bike and playing with his cars/trains. Most of all he loves hanging out with his big brother!
BRYAN
Bryan was hit by a truck while riding his bike to work in May 2011. His life was saved by emergency surgery that required multiple blood transfusions. Bryan is a financial supporter, SDBB volunteer, and a grateful patient who experienced first-hand the impact of eight anonymous blood donors who saved his life.
ella
Ella was born with a genetic blood disorder called beta thalassemia major, also known as Cooley’s anemia. Ella received her first blood transfusion at 9 months old, and has needed transfusions every 2 weeks since. She will continue to depend on them for the rest of her life. Because of the blood transfusions, (that keeps her healthy and growing,) Ella is able to have enough energy to go to school, keep up with her twin brother and enjoy swimming with leopard sharks in La Jolla, hiking in June Lake and visits to Disneyland!
ANGEL
Angel was diagnosed with leukemia at age two. Because of SDBB’s generous financial and blood donors, Angel received many blood and platelet transfusions during his treatment. Today, he is an active and vibrant boy who is able to spend time with his siblings and plans to pursue a career in Pediatrics one day.
PRECISION BLOOD™
San Diego Blood Bank partners with local hospitals to implement a targeted DNA sequencing-based genotyping method to extensively characterize a patient’s blood type antigens. Typing both donors and patients with the Precision Blood assay will enable physicians and researchers to predict the best transfusion products for patients, resulting in fewer complications and, ultimately, better patient outcomes.
The Conrad Prebys Foundation’s grant of $725,825 in support of our Precision Blood program has been instrumental in our ability to increase testing efficiency, thereby improving SDBB's ability to meet the needs of blood recipients who require multiple blood transfusions, and to expedite rare blood unit deliveries to our hospital partners.
With The Conrad Prebys Foundation’s partnership and the support of blood and financial donors, San Diego Blood Bank saves and advances the health of thousands of patients every year.
San Diego Blood Bank is the primary blood provider for Rady Children’s Hospital
“San Diego Blood Bank is an integral part of the lifesaving work of Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego. Recently, we had a patient with a critical hemolytic anemia situation. The patient developed a clinically significant antibody to a common red cell antigen, and less than one percent of all blood donors have compatible blood. With the dedicated help of SDBB, rare units were identified and delivered to save our young patient from potentially severe organ complications. It was a stressful, tenuous situation, and as reliably as ever, San Diego Blood Bank came through.”
operates 24/7
More than 30 Hospitals Served in Southern California including:
Rady Children’s Hospital
Sharp HealthCare
Kaiser Permanente
City of Hope
Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
LAC+USC Medical Center
Children’s Hospital of Orange County And more...
300+
Volunteers
Assisted during 2023 at mobile drives,
SDBB donor centers & health fairs.
6,389
STAT Deliveries
STAT orders are often delivered directly to an operating room or trauma bay and immediately save patients’ lives upon transfusion.
1,825
mobile blood drives
Were held in 2023 throughout Southern California and contributed almost 50% of SDBB’s annual blood collections.
10-15,000
Ounces of Milk Collected Each Month
In 2020, UC San Diego Health and SDBB collaborated to build a milk bank at the 3636 Gateway Center Ave site, allowing the milk bank to tap into the SDBB blood screening process, courier collection of milk at the community donor sites, and deliver to regional hospital Neonatal ICUs. The UC Health Milk Bank has over 130 donors.
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SIGNATURE EVENTS
annual Robert A. Heinlein Comic-Con Blood Drive
Since 1976, The Robert A. Heinlein Blood Drive has hosted this drive in partnership with the COMIC-CON® convention. Over the past 48 years, donors at Comic-Con have donated over 80,000 pints of blood, potentially impacting more than 240,000 lives.
7th annual PADRES SUMMER BLOOD DRIVE
San Diego Padres have partnered with San Diego Blood Bank in support of community health by hosting seven consecutive years of summer blood drives. Since 2017, the San Diego Padres have helped collect more than 3,000 pints of blood that supported thousands of patients in Southern California hospitals.
**IMPACT REPORT INCLUDES STATISTICS FROM 2021-2022**