Donate Life America (DLA) is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 DLA Achievement Awards, honoring outstanding programs, events, and initiatives that exemplify an exceptional commitment to advancing the Donate Life cause.
These awards celebrate innovative efforts that:
Increase organ, eye and tissue donor registrations through impactful campaigns and outreach efforts.
Discover and implement new registration pathways to make donor registration more accessible and convenient.
Elevate the Donate Life cause by fostering education and awareness through creative and engaging initiatives.
Recipients of the DLA Achievement Awards set the standard for excellence in inspiring individuals and communities to save and heal lives through the gift of organ, eye and tissue donation. The award winners were recognized at the DLA Annual Conference, November 10-13, 2025, in Fort Worth, Texas.
2025 DLA Achievement Award Recipients
Platinum Award: Donor Alliance: Transplantation Science
In 2024, to expand the reach and impact of their Transplant Science program for a new era, Donor Alliance’s Public Education Coordinators collaborated with organ and tissue procurement specialists, learning and development professionals, and multicultural outreach experts to revitalize the program. Designing a new digital platform from the ground up, the update introduced modern teaching strategies which engaged diverse learning styles, abilities, languages, and cultural backgrounds.
For the 2024-25 school year, the program successfully reached more than 13,000 students – up 37% from the prior year – ensuring that the Donate Life message continues to educate and inspire young minds across the region.
Excellence in Action: CORE x GoMart: Register and Reward
Faced with a steep 27% decline in new donor registrations from 2021 to 2023, Gift of Life Michigan set out to reverse the trend by thinking beyond the usual channels. The drop was driven by COVID-related changes that extended in-person ID renewals and shifted more interactions online, reducing donor registration opportunities.
In a bold move, the team pursued legislation to include the donor registration question on Michigan’s income tax form, an idea that originated from a lab manager and grew into the Check Your Heart Act. Momentum built quickly with bipartisan legislative support, powerful advocacy from teachers, hospitals, and transplant partners, and strategic outreach that included a dynamic public communications campaign, a Capitol rally and press events.
In July 2023, Michigan made history as the first state in the nation to pass such a law—opening an entirely new pathway for residents to register as donors and proving the power of vision, persistence, and collaboration.
Visionary Award: Gift of Life Michigan: Do Taxes Campaign
Faced with a steep 27% decline in new donor registrations from 2021 to 2023, Gift of Life Michigan set out to reverse the trend by thinking beyond the usual channels. The drop was driven by COVID-related changes that extended in-person ID renewals and shifted more interactions online, reducing donor registration opportunities.
In a bold move, the team pursued legislation to include the donor registration question on Michigan’s income tax form, an idea that originated from a lab manager and grew into the Check Your Heart Act. Momentum built quickly with bipartisan legislative support, powerful advocacy from teachers, hospitals, and transplant partners, and strategic outreach that included a dynamic public communications campaign, a Capitol rally and press events.
In July 2023, Michigan made history as the first state in the nation to pass such a law—opening an entirely new pathway for residents to register as donors and proving the power of vision, persistence, and collaboration.
Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 DLA Achievement Awards and thank you for advancing the Donate Life cause through your leadership, creativity and innovation.
Submissions are now being accepted for the 2026 DLA Achievement Awards, please see below for guidelines. More information and the award submission form are available at DLACommunity.net.
Donate Life America is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with a mission to educate, inspire and activate the public to say yes to registering their decision to be an organ, eye and tissue donor.
DLA owns, manages and promotes Donate Life℠, the national logo and brand for the cause of donation; motivates the public to register as organ, eye and tissue donors; provides education about living donation; manages the National Donate Life Registry at RegisterMe.org; and develops and executes effective multi-media campaigns to promote donation.
DLA Achievement Award Submission Guidelines
- Active members of the Donate Life Community are eligible for DLA Achievement Awards. These include federally designated OPOs, AATB accredited tissue banks, EBAA accredited eye banks, OPTN member histocompatibility labs, Donate Life State Teams, transplant hospitals, donor hospitals, Donate Life Transplant Games Teams and Donate Life WELD Chapters.
- Programs must have been implemented or continued in the last 18 months prior to submission.
- The Donate Life logo must be prominently and properly incorporated, following DLA brand usage guidelines.
- A program may be re-submitted only if substantial changes have been made (brand incorporation, etc.).
- Submissions will only be considered if they are outstanding, effective and original. If a similar program has been done previously, you must highlight what makes your program different from similar programs.
- If the program being submitted was adapted from another organization, include the name of that organization and what elements were changed or updated.
- An organization may submit more than one program.