Living donation is one of the most generous things a person can do, and one of the least understood. This guide walks you through every step, shows where willing donors get lost, and ends with a readiness profile built around your answers, so you can start the conversation with clear eyes.
Most people who think about donating never make the first call, and the biggest reasons are fear and not knowing. Tap what is on your mind, or type it in your own words. You get an honest answer now, and nothing leaves your device.
Tap a stage to see what happens, how long it usually takes, who pays, and how to keep from getting stuck. Switch between kidney and liver donation to see what changes.
The Living Donor Collective followed 2,107 consecutive kidney donor candidates at 10 U.S. programs. Here is what happened to them.
Kasiske et al., Transplantation Direct, 2021 [3]
Share of 617 candidates not approved. Amber bars are reasons that better information, planning, or coordination can often change.
People withdraw when the process is slow, confusing, or costly. They are declined when a fixable issue, such as unmeasured blood pressure, weight, smoking, or a missing support plan, surfaces late. Recipients change status, and the donor’s whole evaluation is lost instead of redirected.
This tool exists to move those discoveries to the beginning: to help you understand the process, spot what you can work on now, and arrive at a transplant center prepared.
Build my profileA donor who is declined at one program, whose recipient changes, or who moves, usually starts over somewhere else: new forms, repeated tests, a new wait. Project Donor-Flow proposes a connected system.
Each center runs its own intake and evaluation. Records rarely travel with the donor.
One shared intake, one portable record, one coordinated hand-off to the right program.
This is the Cold Ischemia Foundation’s proposal. Read the full framework on the Project Donor-Flow page.
Questions adapt to the organ you choose and the answers you give. Every answer gets an immediate, honest explanation. Your answers stay in your browser unless you choose to send them.
Make the path from “yes” to the operating table faster, without ever making it less careful. Every week lost in a stalled evaluation is a week a person spends on dialysis, and a kidney that could have been used can go to waste. Efficiency here means fewer dropped calls, clearer next steps and no one lost between steps. It never means skipping medical tests, the psychosocial review, informed consent or your independent living donor advocate. The more efficient and the more thorough the process, the fewer organs are wasted and the more people get a second or third chance at a normal life.
After each call you can check which of these a program actually did. Reports from donors, once enough people report, show which programs treat people well.
Educational self-assessment only. Only a transplant center can evaluate whether you can donate.