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National Minority Donor Awareness Month

National Minority Donor Awareness Month raises awareness and celebrates organ donation and transplantation in communities of color. It encourages donor registration and promotes healthy living to decrease the need for transplantation.

Each August, National Minority Donor Awareness Month:

  • Focuses on outreach and education.
  • Encourages donor registration and family conversations.
  • Promotes healthy living and disease prevention.
  • See below for materials to help spread the word!

NMDAM helps address concerns and raise awareness of the importance of organ donation among communities of color, which make up 60 percent of the more than 100,000 people on the national transplant waitlist. NMDAM is also a time to honor the multicultural heroes who made up more than 30 percent of living and deceased organ donors last year.

Education is so important, especially among communities of color, where myths and misconceptions are more prevalent.

There are about 5,000 men, women and children on the waitlist in Gift of Life Donor Program’s region, which includes the eastern half of Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware.

Resources:

To arrange programs or speakers and get involved with National Minority Donor Awareness Month, contact Naja Killebrew at nkillebrew@donors1.org.

Multicultural Communities in Donation and Transplantation
  • Make up 60% of people currently on the U.S. transplant waiting list.
  • Make up 50% of people who received organ transplants in 2023.
  • Make up 33% of deceased and living organ donors in 2023.
Organ Donation among African Americans
  • 27% of people waiting for life-saving organ transplants nationally are African American.
  • In 2023, 18% of the organ donors in Gift of Life’s region were African American.
  • In 2022, 25% of organ transplant recipients in Gift of Life’s region were African American.
  • African Americans are nearly four times more likely to develop end-stage kidney disease than Caucasians.
Organ Donation among Hispanics/Latinos
  • 23% of people waiting for life-saving organ transplants nationally are Hispanic/Latino.
  • In 2023, 13% of the organ donors in Gift of Life’s region were Hispanic/Latino.
  • In 2023, 18% of organ transplant recipients nationally were Hispanic/Latino.
  • Hispanics/Latinos are more than twice as likely to develop end-stage kidney disease than Caucasians.
Organ Donation among Asian/Pacific Islander population
  • 8% of people waiting for life-saving organ transplants in the nation are Asian/Pacific Islander.
  • In 2023, 6% of organ transplant recipients in Gift of Life’s region were Asian/Pacific Islander.
  • Asians are 1.4 times more likely to to develop end-stage kidney disease than Caucasians.

*All data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network or National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases