Step One: Organization

• Enlist and Receive the Support of Your Clergy and/or Regional Religious Organization:

  (For links to statements from religious organizations and leaders, visit the "Your Religion" page.) Gaining endorsements for your efforts from clergy as well as parent, local or regional religious organizations will greatly enhance the success of your project. Because most organizations will need to send your request through a decision-making process, the sooner you initiate this step the better. Support your request with your mission statement, project timeline, and sample statements from your religion's leadership about transplants. The clergy on your project team will play an important role in helping you establishing contact with these organizations.

• Identify Your Core Leadership and Agree on Scope of Campaign:
  Depending on the scope of your campaign, your key volunteers will probably spend between 1-3 hours a week for four weeks. However, your core group must be willing to follow through on assigned tasks and be committed to the project. In our first campaign, TFL needed only eight volunteers to cover all of Southern California's Jewish religious community. Therefore, before initiating your program, your group should agree on the scope of your project (individual house of worship, citywide, region, etc.)
  
  
• Create Mission Statement and Project Outline
  Once your group has a sense of what you want to accomplish, you should create a mission statement and a timeline for the project. TFL will be happy to work with your group to assess how much volunteer time you may need. See the TFL mission statement and project outline.
  

Click here to view Transplant for Life's Mission Statement

• Work with Transplant Organizations in Your Area
  

  Once you have completed these initial steps, contact your local transplant educational organization to receive help with distributing material and/or providing speakers for congregations interested in participating. A good place to start is Transplant Recipient International Organization (TRIO) (web site currently inoperable), which has local chapters around the world, or the regional Organ Procurement Organization (OPO), which is certified by the U.S. government. Show them your mission statement and project outline and find out how they can coordinate their services with your campaign.

• Compile the Clergy Data for Communication
  Create a database of clergy within the geographical unit in which you will be working. Computer database programs are easy to learn and can be very helpful, but a simple list will work too. This database/list should contain the names of their congregation and the postal address, email address, and phone and fax numbers of their house of worship. Your regional religious organization can be a helpful source for this information if your clergy does not have access to it. Please contact us if you need assistance in this critical area.