In the current economic climate, charities and non-profits are adversely affected as strapped budgets and donors cut back on everything from dinners out to charitable giving. Not surprisingly, volunteerism often climbs during this kind of economy as people hope to give back in some way, even if they can’t financially. In the spirit of finding ways to give back, Morpheus Media wanted to find something that we could help with that would make a real impact on people’s lives in the immediate future. With summer vacations and sunshine re-focusing priorities for many people in the summer, blood donations sink to extremely low levels – especially this year with swine flu and the recession as many planned blood drives were canceled. So on September 8th some Morpheus Media employees literally “rolled up their sleeves” to help!

With some support from other offices in the building (much thanks to the 10th floor) and a few publishers – shout out to X+1, Context Web, and Adconian! – we successfully gave 20 pints of blood to the New York Blood Center in their blood donation van parked across from the office. After re-cooperating with some pizza, cookies and juice, all was well. And now that everyone knows whether or not they are eligible (and that those British among us are not), we hope to have an even more successful drive on November 30th! Glad we have an extra excuse to load up on Thanksgiving turkey to keep our iron levels high!