Since 1991, Gift of Life Marrow Registry has been organizing donor recruitment events. With tens of thousands of recruitment events and nearly half-a-million registered donors under our belt, we stand ready to help you make your drive a success. We want every drive to be personally rewarding for our volunteers and, of course, to help find the lifesaving donors who are urgently needed by those battling blood cancer, sickle cell, inherited immune disorders, and 70 other diseases Gift of Life will supply all the materials you need for a successful event, including our famous cheek swab kits. Adding new donors to the registry is incredibly rewarding, especially when you receive the notification that someone you swabbed is a match for a patient.
We work with patients, their friends, and families to organize community-wide campaigns; student groups on college campuses; employee drives at corporations; and other creative events including fairs, weddings, and more! By organizing a drive, you can give tremendous hope to thousands of patients searching for a match.
Interested? Why wait? Contact a member of our recruitment team today, and they will discuss options with you. Gift of Life staff is equipped to train and guide you through the process to make your event a success! Our e-mail address is recruitment@giftoflife.org.
Steps for running an event:
Gift of Life will support you by:
College students are extremely important to patients in need of lifesaving bone marrow transplants. Why? More than 65 percent of donors called as a match are between the ages of 18 to 29. Transplant physicians have determined that patients who receive bone marrow or blood stem cells from younger donors tend to have better outcomes.
Gift of Life has teamed up with groups on college campuses to organize donor recruitment drives for over two decades. Together with service organizations, fraternities, sororities, and other campus groups, Gift of Life donor drives provide students with the opportunity to save lives. Students take on leadership roles organizing and executing the drives, while Gift of Life provides behind-the-scenes support, training, and supplies. Hundreds of students partner with Gift of Life each year and their efforts have saved countless lives.
In addition to conventional drives featuring swab stations set up throughout campus, student groups often develop creative recruitment drives and campaigns, or piggyback with other campus events where a critical mass of potential donors will be present to achieve maximum exposure and turnout.
Gift of Life can leverage longstanding national partnerships with Hillel, AEPi Fraternity, and other on-campus organizations. Students take ownership of the drives, using individual creativity and ingenuity to make them a success.
Gift of Life donor drives represent the ideal community service project. They also provide students with the opportunity to explore and hone their communications and volunteer management skills. Gift of Life is pleased to provide drive organizers with letters of recommendation, verification of community service hours, and certificates of achievement on request! There are few better ways for students to demonstrate and grow their social justice values than to organize Gift of Life donor drives.
Gift of Life also offers on-campus internships through our Campus Ambassador Program.
When a loved one is diagnosed with a disease only treatable with a bone marrow transplant, family, and friends want to do something to help. For those patients who cannot find a matching donor in the registry, one way for people to provide support is by organizing a drive to recruit new donors into the registry.
With over three decades of experience, Gift of Life stands ready to provide the assistance necessary to make a drive or a full blown recruitment campaign happen. Gift of Life organizes drives throughout the country at many different venues, from religious institutions and college campuses to community centers and business offices. We provide subject-matter expertise, supplies, and testing resources. The recruiters provide the volunteers, location, and information for public relations purposes.
Many people are unaware that there is a $60 expense associated with the laboratory testing of each donor sample. We work tirelessly to raise the funds for this testing in order to help families out, but we require drive organizers to commit to fundraising as part of their drive with Gift of Life. Often, people are surprised by the willingness of their friends, family, business associates, and community to step up to the plate and help by making donations—no matter how large or small. People truly do want to help! Gift of Life staff can assist with recommendations on fundraising techniques.
Our priority is to provide high quality service with compassion and genuine concern. Together, we join forces to grow the registry and help improve the chances of finding that miracle match!
To learn more about starting a patient campaign, please contact Donor Recruitment Director Chris Camacho, ccamacho@giftoflife.org.
Celebrate a milestone or commemorate a special occasion by organizing a Gift of Life donor drive! Special events are all about our human connection with family, friends, colleagues and community. Your event is the perfect occasion to offer support for Gift of Life’s mission to find a marrow donor for every patient who needs one. Saving a life is the most special connection of all, and we make it easy for you to help.
When you host a swabbing table at your wedding, bar/bat mitzvah, notable birthday celebration, anniversary, or corporate milestone, your help spread the important message that every person who joins the registry has the potential to save someone’s life.
Special occasions could include:
We make it easy for you
Gift of Life provides all the supplies needed for a swabbing drive, training in how to run a drive, and prepaid return shipping to send your completed kits to our headquarters.
To learn more about how to create your Donor Circle or support Gift of Life at your event or celebration, call 561-982-2900 or 800-MARROW9 (627-7669).
Gift of Life’s Chairman of the Board Bill Begal and his wife Kira Epstein Begal told their wedding guests that in lieu of gifts to please make a contribution to their Gift of Life Donor Circle. They raised more than $39,000, adding 659 new donors to the registry! Their Donor Circle page notifies them (and everyone who subscribes to their circle) in real time when a new contribution is made, how many donors they have sponsored into the registry, and every time a match is found for a patient or a lifesaving transplant is completed. The Donor Circle also offers social media tools to help the Begals continue their fundraising efforts.
Including a donor recruitment swabbing table at your event is easy. Only two minutes are needed to swab the inside of your cheek and join the registry, and your guests will complete their registration via email after your event. Gift of Life will give you all the supplies needed, and can train you or someone in your group how to guide people in using their swab kit. If you are in a location where we have staff members or Campus Ambassadors, we can even arrange for someone to be on site.
Click here to learn how to start a Donor Circle.
Set up a recruitment drive at your synagogue or community center to add new marrow and stem cell donors to Gift of Life’s registry, and you could be the one to help cure a patient’s blood cancer! Gift of Life offers personalized volunteer training and individual guidance every step of the way.
Raise funds to sponsor new donor kits for those who are joining the registry. Lab testing of each swab kit costs Gift of Life $60 to process, and every new donor we add to the registry has the potential to save a life!
To support your efforts, we will create a unique Donor Circle just for you – it’s your own personal Gift of Life web page. On your Donor Circle page you can share your message on social media, fundraise, and track the number of swabs you have collected and sponsored. Over time you will see how many people from your donor circle become matches for patients, and go on to donate stem cells or bone marrow and save someone’s life. Years from now, your Donor Circle will remain active and you’ll be able to see your lifesaving impact in real time.
Contact our Recruitment Department, recruitment@giftoflife.org, to get started!
By signing up for the Student Ambassador Program, high school students are committing to simply run a cheek swab donor recruitment event. That’s it. It is not only a great way for students to learn the importance of helping others in need, but also an opportunity for them to earn community service hours. Apply today and become part of a nationwide movement to save lives and fight cancer.
Gift of Life wants all of its donors (and their families) to be comfortable with joining the donor registry. We feel strongly that an informed decision is the first step in saving a life - whether through registering as a donor or signing others up.
Without support from teachers and administrators, programs like this couldn’t happen. By planning an event at your high school, students are learning not just how to organize and motivate their peers, but how to be the catalyst for real, positive change. We are sensitive to the questions many teachers and administrators may have and welcome them.
Contact us today to learn more about hosting a donor recruitment event at your high school. Email recruitment@giftoflife.org.