Living donation saves lives. Learn how to help.

Donating a kidney is a life-changing act for both the donor and the recipient. It involves major surgery and is a decision that should not be made lightly, but most people who choose donation say it is the best thing they’ve ever done.

Why Become a Living Donor?

Donating a kidney could give someone a chance for a longer, healthier life, while letting you live yours to the fullest.
The Family Voucher Program lets you donate to a stranger and provide a voucher for up to five family members in case they ever need a kidney transplant.
You’ll receive a comprehensive health evaluation at no cost. While this is to ensure donation is safe for you, it can also uncover health conditions you weren’t aware of.
Donor Shield offers lost wage reimbursement, donor expense reimbursement, complication coverage, and other protections.
Kidney donation is generally a very low-risk procedure, with few complications and a mortality rate significantly lower than other common types of surgery.
Many donors report better physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being after donating, including a renewed sense of purpose and a deep sense of fulfillment.

After I was approved as a donor, I was set up with a donor mentor named Mimi (Mahon). She was great! She had also donated a kidney and answered any questions I had. It was great to talk to someone outside of the transplant team who had already been through the process and experienced all the things I was about to experience.

— Angel Hinson, Living Kidney Donor, May 2026

Living donation is deeply personal, and everyone has their own reasons. Mine came down to seeing the reality of kidney disease and loving someone who lives with it. What my husband has gone through—unless you have lived it, you don’t realize what someone with kidney disease has to go through day in and day out. I wanted to turn that experience into hope for another person.

— Victoria Piecara, Living Kidney Donor, April 2026

I knew the next step would be a nephrectomy. I was very apprehensive at first, but after my third stent and my fourth implant, I thought I needed a radical change. I found LJ (Dong)’s story online. I really wanted to try to donate my kidney. Discarding it would be a waste of a perfectly good organ—my kidney was perfectly healthy. I started the donation process through the National Kidney Registry, and LJ was assigned as my donor mentor. It made me so happy to talk to someone who knew what I was going through!

— Sophia Lemon, Nutcracker Syndrome Kidney Donor, March 2026

To anyone considering kidney donation, I would tell them that it’s not only a good deed, it’s such an easy process. The whole preparation is easy, and everyone is wonderful to you. All the labs and testing are very easy, and the surgery was not a difficult experience at all. It was honestly a really easy and enjoyable experience.

— Matt Aaronson, Living Kidney Donor, March 2026

Thankfully, the National Kidney Registry, an organization that facilitates living donations, has a program called the Standard Voucher Program. I was able to donate my kidney to someone on the waitlist for a kidney.

— Fallon Scott, Nutcracker Syndrome Kidney Donor, December 2025

I understood that any surgery involves risk. But I learned that according to data gathered over thousands of transplants, there has been no correlation between a donor’s age and the degree of surgery risk, relative life expectancy, or subsequent quality of life.

— Billy Duke, Living Kidney Donor, December 2025

Thankfully, the NKR has this great program called the Voucher Program, which allowed me to donate to someone else on the transplant list while generating a voucher for my intended recipient. This is a beautiful option because it helps more people in the end.

— Claudia Weiskittel, Living Kidney Donor, June 2025

Becoming a living donor changed my life and gave me the incredible gift of saving others. Thanks to essential financial support covering lost wages, travel, and recovery, donors are truly cared for every step of the way. But the true solution to closing the healthcare divide lies in educating and empowering every community about the safety and impact of living donation. When we come together to spread this knowledge, living donation becomes the greatest hope to end the kidney transplant crisis. I urge everyone to.

— Lindsay Gutierrez, Living Liver Donor, April 2024, Living Kidney Donor, May 2022

The National Kidney Registry made the donation process feel seamless and supported from start to finish. One of the biggest benefits for me was the ease of testing before surgery, at-home blood draws, clear instructions, and a simple timeline made it incredibly manageable. Through Donor Shield, I didn’t have to stress about logistics like travel or lodging for my caretaker. Knowing that NKR had my back every step of the way, especially with prompt reimbursement and follow-up, allowed me to focus fully on recovery. It truly made a difference.

— DJ Hardwick, donated a kidney in March 2023

Becoming a double donor has had such a profound impact on my life. It has completely changed the trajectory of my life path for the better. It’s possible becoming a living donor has blessed me more than my organs blessed those who received them.

— Taira Foster, Living Liver Donor, September 2019, Living Kidney Donor, September 2017