Living Donation Resources

Find resources for living donation: organizations for paired donation, financial aid, and community support, including the National Kidney Registry, NLDAC, and Living Donors Online.

Alliance for Paired Donation helps save lives by significantly reducing the wait time for a kidney transplant through kidney paired donation.

American Liver Foundation is a national voluntary health organization that has established a Transplant Fund to assist patients and families in fundraising efforts for liver transplantation. The Foundation acts as a trustee of funds raised on behalf of patients to help pay for medical care and associated transplantation expenses, which may include expenses related to a living liver donation. (800) GO-LIVER / (800) 465-4837, webmail@liverfoundation.org

Blood and bone marrow donations save lives every day. For more information about blood donation, contact the American Red Cross (800) GIVE-LIFE. For information about bone marrow or blood stem cell donation, contact the National Marrow Donor Program (800) MARROW2.

Learn more about deceased donation and being an organ and/or tissue donor after death.

The Living Organ Donor Network (LODN), operated by the American Foundation for Donation & Transplantation (AFDT), maintains a registry of data collected from living donors and is shared with the transplant center to allow for better communication with the team members. LODN also provides an option of life, disability and medical insurance for complications which might arise from being a kidney donor. Contact Arlene Skinner for more information: (800) 543-6399, skinner@seopf.org.

Living Donors Online is an online community for living donors, potential donors, their families, and the medical community.

Lotsa Helping Hands is a simple, immediate way for friends, family, colleagues and neighbors to assist loved ones in need. It is an easy-to-use, private group online calendar, specifically designed for organizing helpers, where everyone can pitch in with meals delivery, rides, and other necessary tasks. There is no cost to your family to use this system.

National Foundation for Transplants offers fundraising assistance for living donors to help with lost wages, travel, food, lodging medications, childcare and other expenses related to donation. (800) 489-3863 or (901) 684-1697, info@transplants.org.

National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NKUDIC) has information on the long-term risks of kidney donation.

The National Kidney Registry helps save and improve the lives of people facing kidney failure by increasing the quality, speed, and number of living donor transplants in the world.

National Living Donor Assistance Center (NLDAC) provides financial assistance to those who want to donate an organ; priority is given to individuals not otherwise able to afford the travel and subsistence expenses associated with living organ donation. NLDAC may be able to pay for up to $6,000 of the living donor's (and his or her companion's) travel and lodging expenses. The transplant center where the recipient is waiting will apply on the living donor's behalf. (888) 870-5002, NLDAC@livingdonorassistance.org

The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) maintains a secure transplant information database containing all national data on the candidate waiting list, organ donation and matching, and transplantation. Find a transplant center.

The Paired Donation Network is dedicated to making living donor kidney transplantation possible for all patients with kidney failure. It includes over 80 kidney transplant programs in 23 states.

The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) manages the waiting list for a transplant in the U.S. and matches donors to recipients. Their patient-centered Transplant Living site has additional information about organ donation and transplantation.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) U.S. Government information on Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation.

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© 2024 National Kidney Foundation, Inc. This material does not constitute medical advice. It is intended for informational purposes only. Please consult a physician for specific treatment recommendations.