What is a Donate Life Community?

Introduction to a Donate Life Community

To save and heal lives and create a culture where donation is embraced, the national nonprofit Donate Life America created the Donate Life Community (DLC) program to utilize grassroots efforts in select localities and among organizations to raise awareness about the importance of registering as an organ, eye and tissue donor. In Colorado and Wyoming, the program is administered through Donor Alliance, the local nonprofit organization that facilitates organ and tissue donation for transplantation in the Rocky Mountain Region. 

As of 2024, more than 100,000 people nationwide are waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant. 

Examples of Successful Donate Life Communities

Locally, nearly 1,300 people in our community are on the waiting list for a lifesaving organ transplant (as of 2024). Given the need, in 2023, Donor Alliance set out to designate the first Donate Life Community in Colorado to raise awareness. As the third largest city in Colorado and the most diverse, Donor Alliance selected the City of Aurora. Through the Donate Life Community program, Donor Alliance joined the City of Aurora at nearly 20 of their community events, inspiring tens of thousands of residents to register as an organ, eye and tissue donor. This partnership with the City of Aurora also created a roadmap for Donor Alliance to partner with other municipalities on the Donate Life Community program.

Both the State of Colorado, and most recently, the State of Wyoming have also been proclaimed Donate Life Community states. As part of their commitment, businesses, governments, and residents across Colorado and Wyoming will recognize National Donate Life Month during the month of April to show support for organ, eye, and tissue donation. Activities will include light displays illuminated in blue and green throughout the month, proclamations, and flag raising ceremonies to honor the generous gifts from donors and their families, celebrate alongside recipients who received a second chance at life, and recognize the people in the community currently waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant.

What are the Goals?

The Donate Life Community program aims to promote the importance of registering as an organ, eye, and tissue donor so residents are well-informed and inspired before they’re asked to sign up at their local DMV. Donation and transplantation saves and heals lives, and more residents need to say YES to registering as an organ, eye and tissue donor. The Donate Life Community program aims to inspire localities across the country to work with their local Donate Life agencies to promote donation to its residents through education and donor registration opportunities. These tactics align with engagement efforts already happening in communities. “When our communities thrive, we all thrive.” 

Colorado and Wyoming are two of the most generous states in the U.S. when it comes to donation and are above the national average. Nationally, about 48.9% of people are registered to be an organ, eye and tissue donor. In Colorado, about 66% of residents have said Yes to donation and in Wyoming, the donor designation rate is 58%. People can register to be an organ, eye and tissue donor the next time they go to the DMV to obtain their driver license/state ID or anytime at DonateLifeColorado.org or DonateLifeWyoming.org. It’s also important people share their decision with their family.

For the ninth consecutive year, Donor Alliance achieved a record-setting milestone by saving and healing more lives than ever before in 2023. The generosity of 307 heroic organ donors from across Colorado and Wyoming resulted in 918 organ transplants, a 10.6% increase over 2022. Also in 2023, Donor Alliance honored the lives of nearly 1,700 tissue donors and their families to recover lifesaving and healing tissues, which provided more than 100,000 tissue grafts to those in need. Each year, tissue transplants provide hope to tens of thousands of people suffering from injury, disease, trauma, or blindness.