Resources
Trusted information, organizations, and support for living donors and the people who stand beside them. No single organization serves every need — this guide explains what each one does, whom it may help, and when to turn to it.
Start here: if you are a donor with a money problem, open Financial and practical assistance; for a health question, your transplant center comes first; if you just want company, Community.
01 · Learn
Authoritative information about living donation, non-directed donation, evaluation, and follow-up — from the sources that set the standards.
The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, overseen by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, sets national transplant policy. Its living-donation pages carry the official definitions, data, and policy framework — including the terminology Life4Donors follows for non-directed donation.
Who it may help: Anyone who wants the authoritative source on how living donation works in the United States.
The federal government's public education site on organ donation, with a plain-language overview of living donation: who can donate, how evaluation works, what recovery involves, and what follow-up to expect.
Who it may help: Donors, prospective donors, and families looking for a clear, neutral starting point.
The patient-education site of the United Network for Organ Sharing walks through living donation step by step — evaluation, surgery, costs, and life afterward — written for patients and donors rather than professionals.
Who it may help: Donors and candidates who want the process explained stage by stage.
Created by the American Society of Transplantation, this toolkit gathers practical guidance for living donors in one place, with a strong financial-toolkit section covering costs, protections, and programs that can help.
Who it may help: Donors and candidates working through the practical and financial side of donating.
02 · Financial and practical assistance
Donation should not cost the donor. These programs address travel, lost wages, dependent care, and other donation-related expenses — most operate around the time of donation, which is why our own program picks up where they leave off.
A federally funded program that reimburses eligible living donors for travel, lodging, meals, lost wages, and dependent care connected to donation. Applications generally need to be submitted before the donation takes place, through your transplant center.
Who it may help: Donors in evaluation or scheduled for surgery who need donation-related costs covered.
A set of protections for kidney donors who donate through the National Kidney Registry or at participating centers — including lost-wage and travel reimbursement, coverage for donation-related complications, and legal support if a donor faces job or insurance problems because of donating.
Who it may help: Kidney donors donating through NKR programs, before and in the years shortly after donation.
A national nonprofit providing financial assistance and education for people affected by kidney disease, including resources that explain the costs and protections involved in living donation.
Who it may help: Kidney patients and their donors navigating treatment and donation-related finances.
Our own program: need-based grants for verified non-directed living donors facing a documented, urgent hardship — the kind of help that matters when life becomes difficult long after donation, when most donation-window programs have closed.
Who it may help: Verified non-directed living donors facing urgent hardship, at any point after donation.
See how hardship support works
A Life4Donors program.
03 · Community and peer support
Donor communities, mentoring programs, and peer support — including our own. Different rooms suit different people; several of these complement each other.
Our community lives on Reddit and Discord, with Discord channels reserved specifically for people who have already donated — a room where living donors can talk without translating the experience first.
Who it may help: Living donors of every path, plus family, supporters, and people considering donation.
Join the Life4Donors community
A Life4Donors program.
A donor-led nonprofit that trains living kidney donors as mentors and connects them with people considering donation, alongside advocacy for donor protections.
Who it may help: People considering kidney donation who want to talk with someone who has done it.
A community of living kidney donors who run, climb, cycle, and compete — sharing recovery stories and proof of active life after donation, with mentoring for athletes considering donating.
Who it may help: Active and athletic donors, and anyone worried donation means giving up an active life.
A free, phone-based peer-mentoring program from the National Kidney Foundation that matches people — including living donors and those considering donation — with trained mentors who have lived it.
Who it may help: Anyone touched by kidney disease or donation who prefers one-to-one conversation.
04 · Health and long-term follow-up
Life4Donors does not give medical advice. For any health concern, start with your transplant center or your own clinician — these resources help you know what to ask and where donors' long-term health is being studied.
For anything medical, your transplant center's living-donor program is the first call — it holds your records, knows your case, and is responsible for your two-year post-donation follow-up under national transplant policy. If you have moved or lost touch, the center that performed the donation can still help or refer you.
Who it may help: Any donor with a medical question or concern, at any time after donation.
A national registry study, sponsored by the federal government and run with the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, following living donors and donor candidates over the long term so future donors have better answers about long-term health.
Who it may help: Donors and candidates who want their experience counted in long-term research.
Plain-language information on life after kidney donation: what follow-up matters, how donation relates to long-term health, and questions worth bringing to a clinician.
Who it may help: Kidney donors looking for trustworthy background before a medical conversation.
05 · Considering living donation
Living donation is a serious, personal, and voluntary decision. Life4Donors does not recruit donors — our work begins after the gift. These resources support an informed choice, whatever that choice turns out to be.
The federal education site and the UNOS patient site together give a neutral picture of what living donation asks and gives: evaluation, risks, recovery, costs, and the protections that exist. Good first reading before any conversation with a transplant center.
Who it may help: Anyone weighing living donation who wants facts without persuasion.
Nothing replaces a conversation with a person who has been through it. NKDO's trained mentors and the donors in our own community answer questions honestly — including the hard ones — with no stake in your decision.
Who it may help: Prospective donors who want an unvarnished account before deciding.
Ask your questions in the Life4Donors community
A Life4Donors program.
06 · For families, recipients, and supporters
Donation happens to a whole household. These organizations — and our own community — make room for the people around the donor.
A long-standing network of local chapters supporting transplant recipients, candidates, families, and donors — helpful when the whole household is living through transplantation, not just the donor.
Who it may help: Recipients, families, and caregivers looking for local, in-person support.
The national nonprofit behind the donor registries and much of the public education around donation, with straightforward material for explaining donation to family, employers, and friends.
Who it may help: Family and supporters who want to understand donation or spread the word.
Our Discord includes a space for the people who drove a donor to surgery and sat in the waiting room — because that experience is real too, and it deserves its own room.
Who it may help: Partners, family members, and close friends of living donors.
A Life4Donors program.
Life4Donors may collaborate and coordinate with the organizations listed here, but they are independent and are not strictly affiliated with Life4Donors. A listing is informational rather than an endorsement — programs, eligibility, and contact details can change, so please confirm specifics with each organization directly. Nothing on this page is medical, legal, or financial advice; for health concerns, contact your transplant center or your own clinician. If you run a living-donor resource we should know about, tell us.
Living donors belong here, too.
Hardship support, community, and a lifelong home for living donors.
