About | Talk Donation - Donation Begins with a Conversation

Why donate?

Nationwide, there are hundreds of Native people waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant.

The gift of organ donation is a gift of life – a generous and selfless act of kindness that has the power to save and heal lives.

About the Talk Donation initiative

Talk Donation is a joint effort of LifeSource, tribal communities, government agencies, research partners and other nonprofit organizations to raise awareness, create space for meaningful conversations, and provide access to resources and credible information on the topic of organ donation and transplantation.

In 2017, a grant from the Minnesota Department of Health in partnership with Hennepin Healthcare resulted in a robust advocacy campaign to increase support for donation in the Native American community in Minnesota. Through community listening sessions, focus groups and community participation, this first of its kind campaign laid the groundwork for deeper, ongoing collaboration with the Native communities we serve.

View our public engagement campaign

Know the facts

Talking about organ donation may not be common or part of your culture. Many people have questions related to the process and what would be required by everyone involved.

Explore some of the most frequently asked questions.

Is saving my life a priority even if I’m a registered donor?

Yes. If you are taken to the hospital after an accident or injury, it is the hospital’s number one priority to save YOUR life. Your decision to become an organ donor will be activated only after all efforts to save your life have been exhausted. To be considered for donation, a patient must meet strict medical criteria, including being in a hospital on a ventilator with a life-ending injury. Only OPO organizations like LifeSource can access the national donor registry to determine your donor status. Importantly, donation is only possible after death has been declared.

What are the criteria for becoming an organ and tissue donor?

Organs and tissues can only be donated after death, following strict medical criteria to ensure the health and viability of each organ. The donor’s age is not a factor and health criteria is evaluated on an individual basis at the time of death. Only about 1% of people are actually able to be an organ donor, which is why it is important for more people to support donation and not rule themselves out from sharing this rare and important gift.

How does the donation process work and who is responsible for it?

Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs) are federally designated medical nonprofit organizations responsible for the identification of donors, clinical management of organ recovery, allocation and transportation, and the critical support provided to families at the time of their loved one’s donation. LifeSource is the OPO organization in the Upper Midwest responsible for managing the donation process. Watch this quick explainer video to learn about the process and the role of every party involved.

What can be donated?

The following gifts can be shared through donation after death:

Organs: Heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas, and intestines.
Tissue: Skin, veins, tendons, bone, heart valves and connective tissue.
Eyes: Whole eye or cornea.

Learn more about the different types of donation.

How does the waiting list work?

When it comes to waiting for an organ transplant, we are all created equal. Wealthy or famous individuals cannot and do not get bumped up higher on the national transplant waiting list. These factors are used to determine the best candidate for an available organ:

Blood type
Body size
Severity of patient’s medical condition
Distance between the donor’s hospital and the patient’s hospital
The patient’s waiting time
Whether the patient is healthy enough for surgery

Learn more here.

Would my cultural beliefs and burial traditions be respected?

Yes. Organ donation is a generous, selfless gift of life and the teams who help make donation possible work with the families of donors to ensure that their cultural beliefs and traditions are supported and followed as closely as possible.

What religions support organ donation?

It’s a common misconception that certain religions do not support donation when, in fact, every major religion supports donation and consider it a generous act of caring. Religious and spiritual beliefs will be respected, and your decision will be honored. Find more information here.

Is there any cost to me or my family for organ donation?

It doesn’t cost anything to be a donor and the donor or their family are never charged for the procedure. LifeSource is responsible for all medical costs associated with organ donation. Those costs are then passed on to the recipient’s transplant center as part of the cost of their transplant.

Where can I register as an organ donor?

There are several ways to register as an organ donor: you can join the online donor registry or check the box on your driver’s license or state ID card application. The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa allow their members to register on their tribal ID. No matter how you register, your decision to become an organ donor will be activated only after all efforts to save your life have been exhausted. Remember to share your decision with your family and loved ones.

Directed donation can help your community

Supporting donation and transplantation in the Native American communities is not just an act of selfless generosity, but a matter of collective survival.

While donating to anyone helps everyone on the waiting list, there is also an opportunity to give a loved one’s organs to a specific person in a family or community through a process called directed donation.

For this to happen, the potential donor’s family would need to tell the donation agency they are working with (in the Upper Midwest, that’s LifeSource) that they have a recipient in mind for their loved one’s organ. The potential recipient must be on the waiting list at a transplant center and be specifically named; it’s not possible to direct organs to a group of people, only a specific person. If that person is a match, the transplant can move forward. If not, the family would be asked if they’d like to gift the organs to another person on the waiting list following the typical allocation process.

How it works

Respecting the family’s cultural and burial traditions is of highest priority and LifeSource will work with the medical team and the family to help meet those needs
Person passes away and the family is informed that their loved one has the opportunity to be an organ donor
The family will work with an Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) like LifeSource to navigate the donation process
The donor’s family tells LifeSource that they know a person on the transplant list and would like to give their loved ones organs directly to that person
LifeSource reaches out to the transplant center to see if the named person is a match
If it’s a match, the organ is allocated to that person for transplant
If they are not a match, LifeSource asks the family if they’d be willing to donate to another person on the list following the standard process

Learn More

Using research, engagement and co-creation to build solutions

LifeSource is working with Native community partners to hold listening sessions, workshops and interviews with community members, healthcare teams, and the organizations coordinating donation and transplantation to identify gaps in the current systems of care for donation and transplant. Our goal is to combine the expertise of engaged researchers and community members to design better, culturally responsive systems of care, co-created with Native communities, that will help inform engagement practices and save more lives through education, community engagement, and healthcare interventions nationwide.

This new research project is funded by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant implemented in partnership with LifeSource and researchers from The Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) and Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute (HHRI).

For more information, contact Paula St. John at pstjohn@life-source.org or 612.800.6322.

When You Register

Becoming a Registered Donor Means…

Potentially helping save and heal more than 75 lives.
Agreeing to continue the circle of life by potentially having your organs go on to help others in your community and beyond at the time of your death.
Your family will be informed of your registration and donation decision at the time of your death.
As part of the donation process, your family will receive support from LifeSource at the time of donation and in the following months and years.
It is important that you share your wishes with your family and loved ones when you register to make sure they’re aware of your choice.
You can join the donor registry by checking the donor box on your driver’s license application, online or via the Health App on your iPhone. If you have a tribal ID from Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, you can also register on your tribal ID.

Register Now

LifeSource is a non-profit medical organization and a team of passionate first responders responsible for managing the organ donation process in the Upper Midwest, serving seven million people and supporting donor families in communities across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Western Wisconsin.

The organization is one of 55 federally mandated Organ Procurement Organizations (OPO) – a system created by the United States Congress through the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) of 1984. This legislation was enacted to address two important issues in organ transplantation: the nation’s critical organ donor shortage and the need to improve the organ matching and placement process by creating a national network for organ allocation.

Every day, LifeSource is relentlessly pursuing a day where everyone in need of a life-saving transplant gets one.

“Anybody can be an organ donor.”