The Giving Tree

Students for Organ Donation 

In 2003, Richard Ludlow and his brother John formed Students for Organ Donation when they learned a family member was on a waiting list for a kidney transplant. They found out that the lack of awareness about organ donation was the reason that few donor organs were available.

Through this organization, the brothers taught high school and college students about the importance of organ donation and helped the students register as donors. Students for Organ Donation quickly increased to more than 120 high school and college chapters with more than 3,000 student volunteers across the United States and Canada. Each chapter holds regular events to teach students and staff, as well as members of the surrounding community, about the need for organ donors, to confront the mistaken ideas about organ donation, and to help people register as an organ donor.

One major accomplishment of the organization was registering 1,000 new organ donors at Yale University in one week! Accomplishments such as this have helped Students for Organ Donation receive $100,000 in funding from the Goldman Sachs Foundation, Do Something, and the US Department of Health and Human Services. In 2005, Students for Organ Donation received the Youth Education Award from Donate Life America.

Students for Organ Donation has helped to bridge the gap between the supply and demand for organs and tissue. According to Richard Ludlow, "No college student should go through college without learning the importance of organ donation. For me, the decision is easy. I don't need my organs when I am dead."

For more information about organ donation and how to get involved, visit www.organdonor.gov.

Know someone under the age of 18 who has started their own charity? If so, let us know!