Donor Alliance believes in people first, a core value that guides the organization in ensuring its employees are safe and fulfilled. The Donor Alliance team works to honor organ and tissue donors and their families while maximize all donation and transplantation opportunities.
Its people-first mission led to 829 lifesaving organ transplants in 2022, a 29% increase in transplants compared to 2021. Last year’s milestone organ donations and transplant numbers marked year over year increases in saving lives, even while the nonprofit organ procurement organization mitigated the pandemic.
“By maximizing the use of the in-house Donor Alliance Recovery Center, Donor Alliance was better able to pivot during the pandemic and decreased the burden on hospitals as the hospitals began to reach capacity,” said the Denver nonprofit. “Through careful planning and execution, Donor Alliance leadership and staff were able to effectively honor organ and tissue donors and their families by ensuring that the donation process continued throughout the pandemic.”
The organization’s people-first value is also foundational to how it treats its employees, with initiatives that include annual engagement surveys and a company culture demonstrating real-world impact on the community. Donor Alliance, which serves Colorado and most of Wyoming, has an average 85% retention rate, with 49% of the staff having worked there for more than five years and 72% of leadership promoted from within the organization.
Heroic donors create lifesaving milestones
Donor Alliance is a leader in facilitating transplantable organ and tissue donation and recovery. The nonprofit’s focus and effort to meet donor needs never waned in the face of the pandemic.
As such, the organization made several process changes to ensure workforce safety and continue its vital mission.
Last year, 278 heroic organ donors saved 739 lives via transplantation, and 1,911 heroic tissue donors enabled 143,000 tissue grafts to restore mobility, replace cancerous bone and heal burned skin.
The donors’ generosity also helped the U.S. reach a 1 million transplant national milestone, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).
The Donor Alliance remains committed to honoring donors and donor families to help those in need of lifesaving and healing transplants. Today, almost 1,500 people in the region are waiting for an organ transplant to save their lives.
Employees play an essential role in maximizing donor opportunities
To achieve its lifesaving and healing mission, Donor Alliance uses a family approach and recovery programs in more than 100 hospitals. It also creates community partnerships and launches public outreach and education campaigns to raise awareness and inspire people to register as organ and tissue donors.
Donor Alliance knows maximizing donation opportunities means they must attract and retain “a highly skilled and motivated workforce” and continue to adapt to labor shortages.
The nonprofit aims to spark a passion for organ and tissue donation in prospective employees as soon as they apply for a job.
They use the interview process to ensure candidates are a fit and recognize that all who apply are part of their community. Fifteen percent of current employees who weren’t initially hired returned after gathering the additional skills needed to work there.
Donor Alliance recognizes staff’s life-changing impacts
Donor Alliance prides itself on being a “mission-driven organization.” Along with its core values of integrity, leadership, excellence, accountability, and people first are rooted in everything it does.
“Our community depends on us during some of the most vulnerable times in their lives. Those waiting for a transplant rely on us for a second chance at life, while the families of donors depend on us to honor their loved ones’ heroic decision to become donors. Meeting these needs is the foundation of all that we do.” said Jennifer Prinz, Donor Alliance President/CEO.
The news and editorial staffs of The Denver Post had no role in this post’s preparation.
