The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced an $8.7 million American Red Cross donation to fund biomedical equipment, mobile blood donation centers and programs to assist those with cancer or sickle cell disease.
The donation is part of the ongoing collaboration between the Church and the Red Cross, reported at ChurchofJesusChrist.org on April 12.
“We are profoundly grateful for our long-standing and remarkable collaboration to deliver urgently needed relief for people facing life’s emergencies,” said Gail McGovern, president and CEO of the Red Cross. “The Church’s incredible financial support and the steadfast commitment of your members make a difference for people in need every day.”
Presiding Bishop Gérald Caussé added: “We are pleased to contribute to the American Red Cross and support their life-sustaining services and programs in this new year to help care for those in need. We recognize and are grateful for the thousands of Church members who rolled up their sleeves to give blood and donate so much of their time.”
In 2022, the Church made a $5.1 million Red Cross donation that was used for individuals, families and communities with pressing needs across the U.S. Some of the Church-supported efforts included:
- Increased outreach to African American communities to fight sickle cell disease.
- Critical blood services for people battling cancer.
- Improved blood collection operations in the face of blood supply fluctuations and lingering challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Church remained the largest single Red Cross blood drive contributor in 2022, with more than 70,000 volunteer blood donors participating in over 2,000 drives nationwide through the first nine months of the year.
The Church also helped support blood donor recruitment efforts by engaging new donors, including nearly 21,000 African American donors, through September of last year.
The Red Cross estimates that about 100,000 people in the U.S., largely of African descent, have sickle cell disease. Patients with sickle cell disease can require thousands of blood transfusions throughout their lives.
They also report that cancer patients account for about 25% of the total use of blood and blood products in the U.S., more than patients fighting any other disease. The Church’s support helped the Red Cross collect over a million platelet donations in 2022.
Additionally, in 2022, the Church funded the purchase and installation of biomedical equipment for the Red Cross, including 22 amicus separators, 10 platelet incubators, 12 blood centrifuges, three DNA sequencers, two DNA extractors and one flow cytometer.
According to the Church’s 2022 Caring for Those in Need annual report, released March 22 on caring.churchofjesuschrist.org, Latter-day Saints engaged in 3,692 humanitarian projects in 190 countries and territories last year — with 6.3 million hours of volunteer work and $1.02 billion in expenditures.
