During a crisis, society calls for individuals to take prosocial actions that promote crisis management. Indeed, individuals show higher willingness to help after a disaster. However, the COVID-19 pandemic presents significant differences as it is an ongoing crisis that affects all individuals and has the potential to pose a direct health threat to anyone. Therefore, we propose that the pandemic may also negatively affect willingness to help, specifically blood donation intentions. It requires a high level of willingness to donate blood beyond the crisis outbreak, as more blood will be needed when postponed surgeries resume. When comparing blood donation intentions from a pre-pandemic study to results from a six-wave (bi-weekly) panel study conducted in Germany during the first pandemic phase (April to June 2020), we find lower medium and long-term blood donation intentions. While active donors show increased awareness of ability and eligibility to donate at the beginning of the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic, they feel significantly less able to donate as the pandemic progresses. Furthermore, inactive donors’ perceived ability to donate significantly decreases in the pandemic phase compared to the pre-pandemic phase. Crucially, both active and inactive donors feel less responsible and less morally obliged to donate, resulting in an overall negative pandemic effect on blood donation intentions. The COVID-19 pandemic compromises blood donations endangering the life-saving blood supply. These alarming results offer evidence-based grounds for practical implications for driving donations in the event of a pandemic.

BACKGROUND Increasing competition by nonprofit organizations provides blood donors with many options to engage themselves prosocially (e.g., by donating money or time). While most previous studies focused only on one form of donation, only a few studies analyzed two or more forms. This research gap is remarkable, as prior research has shown that a substantial portion of donors engage in more than one form of donation. In addition, studies have shown that donors' main reason for lapsing is switching to another donation form. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS This study relies on longitudinal data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel. In total, 5640 (non)blood donors are analyzed over a period of 5 years, alongside their engagement in four forms of prosocial behavior: money donations, taking care of persons in need, volunteer work, and citizens' initiatives. We control for sociodemographic, psychographic, and health‐related factors and rely on propensity score matching to reduce selection effects often observed in the blood donation context. RESULTS There are significant differences between blood donors and nondonors in their engagement in prosocial behaviors. Blood donors (vs. nondonors) are more likely to engage in other prosocial behavior forms, namely, donating money, volunteering, and participating in citizens' initiatives. If people start donating blood, they also are more likely to act in other prosocial ways, namely, donating money and volunteering. If people stop donating blood, they also are more likely to stop other forms of prosocial behavior, namely, volunteering and participating in citizens' initiatives. CONCLUSION This study provides new insights into blood donors' prosocial behavior. While most previous studies neglected blood donors' engagement in other prosocial behaviors, this study highlights the fact that blood banks need to be aware of blood donor switching behavior between all prosocial behavior forms. As most blood banks also are providing other types of donations forms, they can use this knowledge and cross‐recruit blood donors to engage in other forms of prosocial behavior.

Background and Objective Societies require prosocial activities during crises. The COVID-19 pandemic presents individuals with unique challenges that may affect their emotional state leading to reformed personal moral norms. Crucially, personal moral norms are important predictors of moral behaviour. Given the longevity of the pandemic, studying its impact on affect, satisfaction and internal drive of (non-)donors during COVID-19 and if personal moral norms are affected is paramount. Material and MethodsThis study relies on longitudinal data, consisting of six waves carried out biweekly. Our panel is representative for the German population, capturing changes in affect, satisfaction, internal drive and personal moral norms. We compare the emotional state and personal moral norms of (non-)donors in the pandemic to pre-pandemic phase. Moreover, we analyse changes in emotional state and personal moral norms during the pandemic and investigate the role of emotional state on personal moral norms.Results Firstly, our results show that personal moral norms of (non-)donors drop compared to pre-pandemic. Within pandemic, personal moral norms of active donors are not further altered. Secondly, we find significant changes of emotional state in the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic phase, for example individuals feel more optimistic, but less satisfied and less energetic. Thirdly, we find that feeling more grateful increases personal moral norms of non-donors. ConclusionThis study provides insights into how crises shape (non-)donors' emotional state and its impact on relevant donor motivations, that is, personal moral norms. Blood banks can use this knowledge to enhance recruiting and retention efforts during crises.