In an effort to encourage more college students to support local blood banks, some Chinese universities are offering a tiered selection of prizes to donors, including adding funds to campus card accounts.
As reported by Beijing Today, students at Beijing Forestry University who donate 200mL or 400mL of blood will receive a 400 yuan ($62) or 800 yuan ($123) meal allowance respectively.
Elsewhere, students at Beihang University that donate any amount receive a 100 yuan ($15) deposit on their student ID card.
Rewards for donating blood vary from campus card funds to counting volunteer work credits. A number of institutions also offer between 100 yuan and 800 yuan in supermarket shopping cards, phone cards, meal cards and other subsidies.
The Beijing Red Cross Blood Center reports that the rewards are arranged and offered by each individual institution, not the blood center.
Some rewards are tiered based on the type of donation being performed, with some universities offering greater rewards for donated platelets or plasma.