Minneapolis nonprofit aims to boost organ donation among men, who lag behind women

The nonprofit that coordinates organ donation in Minnesota is trying to convert more men into registered donors with a marketing campaign that tackles the top excuses for their reluctance.

The LifeSource organ procurement organization found through surveys last year that although men carry more misconceptions than women about organ donation, they can be motivated to sign up if they learn more about the lives saved. The survey responses resulted in the Big Heart Club campaign, which LifeSource launched Tuesday along with lifesaving stories from transplant recipients such as former Minnesota Vikings defensive end Ben Williams.

“Really, the goal is to empower men that they can be the answer to saving lives,” said Sarah Sonn, a communications director for LifeSource, which also recovers organs from deceased donors in the Dakotas and western Wisconsin. “And we need them to … because the wait list only grows.”

Among men, 51% have registered as organ donors when presented with the opportunity, mostly when applying for driver’s licenses or state ID cards, compared to 58% of women. The gender gap is doubly problematic when considering that men need more transplants than women and suffer more deaths that result in donor opportunities, Sonn said.

If the marketing campaign closes that gap in Minnesota, it could serve as a roadmap for donor agencies nationwide. Persuading men also could reverse an overall decline in the donor pool that has worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic and increased the risk that candidates for transplants will die before matching organs are found, Sonn said.

The share of people registering as organ donors when getting licenses has declined from 63% in 2015 to 53%.

As of Monday, the waiting list for transplants in Minnesota stood at 2,210 people, and more than half have been waiting at least a year, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. More than 160 people have died since the start of 2023 while waiting for a transplant in Minnesota.

Three-fourths of the 1,178 transplants performed in Minnesota last year involved organs from deceased donors, rather than living ones who were able to give one of their kidneys or portions of their livers. Most procedures involved kidneys and livers, though Minnesota hospitals also transplanted hearts, lungs and other organs.

A broad pool of volunteers is critical, because about 99% can’t donate organs in the end. Some die in remote locations, or in ways that deprive their organs of oxygen and make them unusable for transplant. Donor opportunities mostly occur after severe cardiac events or traumatic accidents, when people are declared brain dead but placed on ventilators in hospitals that keep their lungs going.

Male donors are 20% more likely to die in ways that allow for donation. Yet women proved far more likely than men in the LifeSource survey to register as organ donors when they applied for their first driver’s license. Even among men who registered, most declined that initial opportunity but came around later when visiting doctors, being hospitalized or attending health care-related events.

Josh Bauer hadn’t given organ donation much thought until his toddler, Coyle, needed a transplant four years ago to replace a failing kidney. As word spread of the surgery, Bauer discovered that some of his fellow firefighters in Faribault had registered long ago. And he especially noticed that the women in his social circles had volunteered.

Bauer, 42, had declined when getting his first driver’s license as a teenager, and never changed his mind at renewal time.

“I really didn’t have a good excuse why,” he said. Then “a donor saved our son’s life. I could not see myself not being a donor any longer.”

Other men in the LifeSource research were discouraged by misconceptions. Some figured that histories of drinking or smoking ruled them out, Sonn said, when in fact most men can donate unless they have active cancers. Even people with hepatitis or HIV can donate their organs, although only to others with the same infectious diseases.

One in six unregistered men cited faith concerns, even though leaders of the Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Hindu religions have sanctioned organ donation. One in 10 unregistered men said their biggest reservation was that they didn’t want to think about their own mortality.

LifeSource executives debated many campaigns to connect with men, and reviewed different messages with focus groups to see which ones worked. The organization ultimately built the campaign around Bigfoot, and challenged men to “Be Legendary” like the mythical creature wandering unseen in the U.S. wilderness.

“He also knows a lot about myths,” Sonn said.

The campaign started with ads on billboards and buses, and appearances by a Bigfoot character at the Minnesota State Fair. Tuesday marked the next phase of direct marketing in Driver and Vehicle Services offices, where men haven’t been as likely to sign up.

Donors at these sites will receive heart stickers to place on Bigfoot cutouts, and instructions on how to post Bigfoot prints on an online map of newly registered donors across Minnesota.

Survey data shows that most men favor organ donation in principle, even if they haven’t registered. Being noncommittal can create dilemmas, though, leaving relatives to decide whether to donate the organs of a deceased loved one.

Val Amsden of Burnsville had just finished telling her three young children that their uncle Dan had died at 44 of an unexpected cardiac complication in November 2022 when she got a call from LifeSource. Her brother hadn’t registered, and the nature of his death made organ donation impossible, she learned, but he could donate his eyes and tissues to patients who needed them. Overwhelmed, and with only minutes to make a decision, she called other relatives and her brother’s ex-wife to see what they thought. She ultimately consented as the designated decisionmaker for her brother, because she thought of him as a giving person.

“I wasn’t prepared,” said Amsden, who subsequently created a podcast to help people discuss the end of life. “That’s a big decision, and we had not talked about it.”

Bauer said he will always remember getting the call at the fire station that a donor organ had been matched to his son. Firefighters congratulated him as he wept with joy, but also felt some grief that the opportunity came at someone else’s expense.

Bauer’s son is 6 and in kindergarten now. It’s unclear whether he will need future transplants, but he is healthy and happy.

“Right now, if you would look at Coyle, you would have no idea he had anything done,” Bauer said. “He’s a boy that wants to be outside, wants to be in the dirt.”

An earlier version of this story misidentified Ben Williams, a former Minnesota Vikings defensive end who underwent a kidney transplant in 2019.