National Minority Donor Awareness Day – August 1st

- National Minority Donor Awareness Day (NMDAD), August 1, is an annual event designed to increase awareness about the need and importance of organ, tissue, marrow, and blood donation among all minority communities. Launched in 1996, National Minority Donor Awareness Day also focuses on how to prevent end organ failure through healthy living.

Every 14 minutes a new name is added to the national transplant waiting list. Many can avoid kidney failure as uncontrolled high blood pressure and uncontrolled diabetes are the leading causes of kidney failure. National MOTTEP’s mission is to reduce the rate and number of ethnic minority Americans needing organ and tissue transplants.

Minorities make up 50% of the overall transplant waiting list and more than 50% of the kidney transplant waiting list. The average wait for a kidney transplant is 5-10 years. Washington, DC currently ranks #1 in the nation with the highest incidence of kidney disease.

National Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program