Gift of Life Marrow Registry - Most Valuable Non-Profit Response

Company: Gift of Life Marrow Registry, Boca Raton, FL
Company Description: Gift of Life Marrow Registry is a nonprofit that cures patients battling blood cancer and other life-threatening diseases by providing donors for bone marrow and blood stem cell transplants. Established in 1991 and headquartered in Boca Raton, FL, the organization operates a 32,000 square foot facility housing its donor registry, apheresis collection facility and cellular therapy laboratory.
Nomination Category: COVID-19 Response Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Most Valuable Non-Profit Response

Nomination Title: Gift of Life Marrow Registry innovates to save lives during the COVID-19 pandemic

Every day, patients battling blood cancer count on Gift of Life Marrow Registry to ensure they get the bone marrow or blood stem cell transplants they need, when they need them. The COVID-19 pandemic turned the world upside down, and Gift of Life's work was no exception. To ensure the continuity of our lifesaving services, our female-led organization had to quickly adapt our entire operation.

Gift of Life operates a vertically integrated 32,000 square foot facility housing our donor registry, apheresis collection facility and cellular therapy laboratory. Our first order of business was to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our donors and staff by implementing increased health protocols to keep our facility and stem cell collection efforts safe. We also took on added roles and worked with hospitals and other transplant centers to increase the number of stem cell collections we perform at our donation center to help preserve hospital resources.

With in-person gatherings no longer possible, we pivoted our registry recruitment process and most of our key programs—including our annual gala, 5k race and first-time meetings between donors and recipients, campus ambassador symposium, World Marrow Donor Day event—to the virtual world.

As travel restrictions took hold—making it hard for donors to get to donation centers, and for couriers to transport stem cells to patients—our logistics team worked 24/7 to re-route donors and couriers to ensure transplants took place globally.

To directly address the coronavirus, we contributed 10,000 specialized swabs to our regional hospital system to be used for COVID-19 testing. We also focused on healthcare disparities that came to the forefront during the pandemic, even those beyond our mission to find a cure for people battling diseases, by hosting a series of virtual town halls with the NACCP, which reached student, healthcare and community leaders.

In addition, we launched a COVID-19 study in collaboration with researchers at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and the genetic crowd science portal Root. Our efforts to add key data to the fight against the virus can help solve the mystery of why it affects people so differently.

Reference any attachments of supporting materials

30-second ad for urging public to join Gift of Life registry online while at home during pandemic: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6bdx3squtfjxsdu/gol_16x9_B_006a%20%281%29%20-%2030%20SECOND%20SPOT.mp4?dl=0

PSA with actor Chris Sullivan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko1X4EWsc9g

A video featuring key highlights from how our Covid-19 response: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eARPlKdd_A

Cheddar TV segment on Gift of Life’s response to pandemic: https://cheddar.com/media/how-gift-of-life-continues-to-save-lives-in-midst-of-pandemic

WPTV-TV segment on Gift of Life’s response to the pandemic: https://www.dropbox.com/s/uy1kjzz7kf2dhqz/WPTV%203-23-20%20Gift%20Of%20Life%2011pm.mp4?dl=0

An example from one of the six Virtual Town Hall events Gift of Life hosted to address healthcare disparities during Covid-19: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_ww81VB3rc&;t=1092s

Article on Gift of Life’s Covid-19 study: https://blog.goldenhelix.com/case-study-with-the-rutgers-cancer-institute-of-new-jersey-researching-the-impact-of-hla-on-covid-19-patients-with-snp-variation-suite/

Gift of Life stem cell donor Jasmine met her transplant recipient Seth for the first time during our Virtual Gala: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMIdnoVwwGM&;t=35s

Photo of Gift of Life’s participation during esports event that drove awareness for Virtual World Marrow Donor Day: https://www.dropbox.com/s/h3setkkw60wzimb/wmdd%20overlay.PNG?dl=0

Photo of how Gift of Life tapped esports partner to promote online registration: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4l7ju20l69p2xfz/Misfits_callofduty_GOL.png?dl=0