Gift of life Bone Marrow Foundation

Gift  of life is a medical noprofit organization that finds bone marrow and umbiical cord blood donors in the United States, Canada, and Israel. These donations are used to perform bone marrow transplant for people facing illnesses such as leukemia, lymphoma, aplastic anemia, and other medical issues.

History

Gift of Life was founded in1991 following a successful bone marrow registration drive to save te life of Jay Feinberg, a 23-year-old analyst with the Federal Reserve. Feinberg was diagnosed with leukemia in 1991 to 1995 a massive campaign was organized to register new donors, particularly those of Eastern European Jewish descent. Since May 2004, Gift of Life has had a partnership with the National Marrow Donor Program, through which they share donor databases.

Fundraising

In December 2008, the New York Times revealed that Gift of Life was one of the many institutions harmed b the collapse of Bernard Madoff’s ponzi scheme. Madoff had become involved in the charity after his brother, Roger David Madoff, was diagnosed with leukemia. He later died of complications following a stem cell transplant.

Since this nnouncement, Gift of Life has chosen to diversity its fundraising activities, focusing more on social media such as Twitter and Facebook, and relying less on large donors.