The Kidney Crisis is Real

These numbers are alarming! We need to act now to save lives and increase living kidney donors and transplants.

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Daily Deaths

96000

Kidney Transplant Waitlist

Voices For Change

Donors, Recipients & Medical Caregivers Speak Out

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A Case for Building a National Living Organ Donor Support System in the U.S.

Nearly 808,000 people in the U.S. are living with kidney disease.
Kidney failure is one of the Top 10 causes of death in the U.S.
The best and most successful treatment for kidney disease is kidney transplantation.
A kidney transplant improves patient survival, quality of life, and reduces hospital care
Living kidney donors are needed to treat patients waiting for a transplant and to save lives.
Only 30% of currently eligible patients will receive a kidney transplant unless living kidney donation is expanded.
With 135,000 new cases of kidney disease diagnosed each year, the U.S. has reached the limit of available organs from deceased donors.
Substantial disparities in deceased and living kidney donation occur in structurally disadvantaged populations.
Black and Hispanic Americans experience kidney failure more frequently than others but are less likely to donate and to receive a transplant.
People without a high school diploma are 3 times more likely to get kidney disease.
Rural Americans are less likely to receive a living donor kidney transplant than those in larger communities.
More living kidney donors would save countless lives and save billions of US taxpayer dollars

Living Kidney Donation vs. Deceased Donation

Living Donor Rates Have Not Moved in 20 Years – The Current Living Donor Policy Has Failed

Grants

KTC will award grants to fund innovative new programs and best practices that demonstrate a direct increase in kidney transplants or decrease financial obstacles and other barriers recipients, donors, and their families face in today’s kidney transplant system.

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KTC Grants

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Cambridge85’s Bold New Model Increased Kidney Transplants

Cambridge85 received a grant to launch the DDIC program, creating transplant chains from deceased donors and expanding access through a scalable, innovative model.

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Network for Hope Changed Kidney Transplants—And the Numbers Proved It

Network for Hope received a grant to pioneer in-flight pulsatile perfusion for kidney transport, significantly reducing discard rates and increasing transplants while setting a new national standard in organ preservation and equity.

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How AI Rescued Kidneys Before They Were Wasted—And Why That Mattered

A research team funded by the Kidney Transplant Collaborative developed a machine learning toolkit that predicted hard-to-place kidneys in real time, reducing discards and improving transplant decision-making across 12 Organ Procurement Organizations.

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HonorBridge’s Bold uDCD Protocol Expanded the Frontiers of Kidney Transplantation

HonorBridge received a grant to develop a rapid organ recovery protocol for uncontrolled circulatory death donors, resulting in successful kidney transplants and setting a new standard for innovation in emergency organ donation.

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Transparency is Power: How a KTC-Funded Study Revolutionized Patient Education in Kidney Transplantation

Columbia University and Cleveland Clinic received a grant to study personalized transplant education, demonstrating that clear, timely communication significantly improved patient understanding and increased transplant rates.