Recognising donors
You do an amazing thing when you donate blood, plasma or platelets. Without your kind generosity, many people simply would not be alive today.
We believe that every donation counts. We hope you feel thanked and appreciated every time you donate, and we want you to know just how important you are to us.
Gifts and acknowledgements for our donors
We give our regular donors gifts and acknowledgements which mark important credit milestones. You'll receive a certain number of donation credits for each blood, plasma or platelet donation you make. Learn more about donation credits.
From 1 May 2024, we are trialling a new scheme to recognise plasma donors, called Plasma Perks. This will run alongside the current recognition scheme and will not affect donation credits or credit milestones for plasma donors. Learn more about plasma perks.
Credit milestones for donors
As a frequent and valued blood, plasma or platelet donor, you can expect to receive the following gift or acknowledgement when you reach each of these credit milestones:
1 - Welcome email or letter and digital donor card available in the NHS Give Blood app
5 - Bronze donor card
10 - Badge and certificate
25 - Silver donor card, badge and certificate
50 - Gold donor card, badge and certificate
75 - Emerald donor card, badge and certificate
100 - Ceremony invitation (whole blood donors), ruby donor card, commemorative medal, badge and certificate
150 - Certificate
250 - Ceremony invitation (platelet donors), commemorative medal, badge and certificate
500 - Special framed certificate
750 - Special framed certificate
1000 - Special framed certificate
See your progress
If you have an online account, log in to see how many donations you have made to date.
When you reach an important credit milestone, you will receive a digital badge in recognition of your achievement.
Share these online to inspire your friends and family to donate.
What are donation credits?
Our donor recognition scheme recognises donors for reaching donation credit milestones. These milestones are the same for all types of donation.
Donation credits are awarded when donors donate*. The number of credits awarded depends on the type of donation made. This list covers the most common donation types:
- Whole blood - 1 credit
- Platelet (double donation) - 2 credits
- Platelet (triple donation) - 3 credits
- Plasma - 2 credits
The way in which donation credits are awarded has changed over the years and longer-term donors, especially those who started donating before 2015, may have built-up credits in different ways. These historic donation credits are incorporated into the total shown on their record.
Additionally some donors may have made donations in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland (which have separate systems for recognising donors), or indeed outside the UK. Again, when we are made aware of these previous donations, we incorporate them into the credit total.
Consequently the number of donation credits may not reflect the precise number of donations given at NHS Blood and Transplant donations sessions, especially for long term donors and those with complex donation histories.
If you believe the number of donations credits shown on your record is wrong, please call us on 0300 123 23 23 to discuss it.
*On some occasions we recognise donors who attempt but are unable to donate. For example, if a donor attends but cannot donate due to low haemoglobin, we will still award them a credit.
Thank you
Thank you so much for all of your donations. So few of the population give blood at all, and fewer still reach these incredible milestones, so it really is a great achievement and one worth shouting about!
We hope that you accept these small tokens with pride. Well done!