Objective To explore the effectiveness of telephone recruitment communication strategies based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) in retaining unpaid blood donors and to analyze the influencing factors for their re-donation. Methods A total of 13,965 unpaid blood donors were selected as study subjects and, after stratification by gender, age, and most recent blood donation volume, were randomly divided into a study group (n=7,061) or a control group (n=6,904) using a random number generator. The study group received SDT-based telephone recruitment communication strategies, while the control group received traditional telephone recruitment communication strategies. The primary outcome was the re-donation rate, which was evaluated using both intention-to-treat (ITT) and per-protocol (PP) analyses to evaluate the effectiveness of the SDT-based telephone recruitment communication strategies in retaining unpaid blood donors. Univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression model were used to identify independent influencing factors for re-donation. Results ITT analysis results showed that the re-donation rate in the study group was higher than that in the control group (P<0.05); PP analysis results indicated that among donors who successfully answered the phone, those who received SDT-based telephone recruitment communication strategies had a re-donation rate 4 percentage points higher than those who received traditional telephone recruitment communication strategies (P<0.05). Univariate analysis results revealed statistically significant differences in re-donation rates among donors who received various telephone recruitment communication strategies and those with different call outcomes, gender, age, and most recent whole blood donation volume (all P<0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis results showed that telephone recruitment communication strategies, call outcomes, age, and most recent whole blood donation volume were independent influencing factors for unpaid blood donors' re-donation (all P<0.05). Conclusions The application of SDT-based telephone recruitment communication strategies can increase the re-donation rate among blood donors, and telephone recruitment communication strategies, call outcomes, age, and most recent whole blood donation volume are independent influencing factors for their re-donation.