Almost 200,000 names get added to organ donation registry thanks to one campaign

On average, 18 people in the U.S. die each day waiting for organ transplants.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) wanted to change that. To do so, it started the HRSA’s Workplace Partnership for Life (WPFL) to increase organ, eye, and tissue donation rates.

The WPFL’s communications contractor is a Pittsburgh-based agency, Akoya. To get the word out about the importance of organ donation, Akoya helped the HRSA launch annual campaigns for different market sectors. PR Daily’s 2014 Nonprofit PR Award for Best Membership/Recruiting Campaign goes to the WPFL Hospital Organ Donation Campaign.

According to the entry, Akoya developed communication materials (graphics, posters, news release templates, participation certificates, table tents, email templates, recruitment video) targeting the hospital sector. Then, the HRSA challenged hospitals to use those materials to talk with their staff members, patients, and visitors about the importance of donating.

To get hospitals excited about the campaign, Akoya developed the “Challenge Scorecard,” which listed how hospitals could earn points to count toward gold, silver, or bronze recognition when the campaign was over.

Of the 1,003 hospitals and transplant centers that participated, 323 earned gold, silver, or bronze recognition through the challenge. Because enthusiasm for the campaign was so great, the HRSA plans to do another challenge.

But what’s the best news? Outreach and registration activities of the hospitals directly involved resulted in 199,947 new donors added to state registries in the U.S.

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