National Minority Donor Awareness Month
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Donation and Transplantation Statistics
Donación y Trasplantes en Comunidades Multiculturales
Tashiana is a grateful kidney/pancreas transplant recipient who is working to educate more people about the importance of registering their donation decision. Read her story.
August is National Minority Donor Awareness Month, which is a collaborative initiative of National Organ, Eye and Tissue Donation Multicultural Action Group to save and improve the quality of life of diverse communities by creating a positive culture for organ, eye and tissue donation.
National Minority Donor Awareness Month stems from National Minority Donor Awareness Week, founded in 1996 by MOTTEP to bring heightened awareness to donation and transplantation in multicultural communities.
NMDAM is focused on outreach and education including virtual events and messaging to:
- Provide education about organ, eye and tissue donation and transplantation
- Encourage donor registration and family conversations about donation
- Promote healthy living and disease prevention to decrease the need for transplantation
The National Multicultural Action Group includes the Association for Multicultural Affairs in Transplantation (AMAT), Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO), Donate Life America (DLA), Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), National Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP) and National Kidney Foundation (NKF).
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Multicultural Communities in Donation and Transplantation |
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60% of people currently on the U.S. transplant waiting list More than 32,000 of those waiting are African American/Black Nearly 23,000 of those waiting are Hispanic/Latino Nearly 10,000 of those waiting are Asian/Pacific Islander Nearly 1,000 of those waiting are American Indian/Alaska Native |
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46% of people who received organ transplants in 2019 8,326 African American/Black organ transplant recipients 6,707 Hispanic/Latino organ transplant recipients 2,356 Asian/Pacific Islander organ transplant recipients 271 American Indian/Alaska Native organ transplant recipients |
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32% of deceased and living organ donors in 2019 1,798 deceased and 617 living African American/Black donors 1,770 deceased and 1,046 living Hispanic/Latino donors 345 deceased and 329 living Asian/Pacific Islander donors 57 deceased and 23 living American Indian/Alaska Native donors |
Data from Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) as of May 12, 2020.
What can I do to increase organ, eye and tissue donation?
- Register your decision to be a donor on your state donor registry at organdonor.gov and tell your family and friends about your decision to donate life.
- Ask others to visit organdonor.gov to learn more and to register as a donor.
- Participate in National Minority Donor Awareness Month in August. Visit DonateLife.net/NMDAM for downloadable tools, resources and implementation ideas.