So Easy, Yet SO Worthwhile

I got this email from my sister Laura who works at the National Marrow Donor Program. The NMDP is a non-profit that coordinates marrow donation and transplant matching for patients and donors all over the world.

I'm so impressed with how much the company involves all their employees in the overarching mission of their company. Laura, fantastic number-cruncher and manager that she is, can speak quite eloquently about the technicalities involved in marrow and stem cell transplant processes. When some of my friends were involved in transplant red tape, she was able to provide information to contact real people for help. A friendly voice can go a long way in some of those times.

But, back to the company, I have to say it's invaluable that they keep their employees involved and interested by sharing success stories with them and making them feel a part of those successes. What better motivation and retention methods can there be than helping employees feel responsible for having saved a life?

Below is the email message Laura got. I hope you'll take a moment to read about the NMDP and maybe even consider registering as a donor. What a great, selfless way to start off the New Year.
Good Afternoon,

Thanks to the work you do, little boys like Matthew Welling overcome life-threatening diseases, donors like Steve Karas and Jill Goldsmith save lives, and corporate partners like Aflac encourage more than a thousand employees to join the NMDP Registry.

Today 3-year-old Matthew is thriving because of the generosity of Steve, an NMDP donor, and Jill, a Gift of Life donor.

And, a recent CNN news segment highlighted Matthew’s story with outstanding results. CNN has millions of TV and online viewers, including an average of one million unique online visitors each day. Within the first 24 hours:
· 65 TV stations picked up the story, carrying our message to a viewing audience of more than 1,151,997 viewers
· More than 10,000 visitors came to www.marrow.org from CNN
· 344 individuals took the first step to joining the NMDP Registry by signing up online (on an average day, 21-35 sign up).
· Recruitment and Community Development and the Call Center experienced increased call volumes and responded to more than 70 e-mails submitted by visitors to marrow.org (a normal day brings about 30 such e-mails).

We are pleased to be collaborating with the Welling family and Aflac to help raise awareness of the opportunity to spread the word about our mission. By working together, our messages are stronger, our reach is greater and our results more effective.

If you haven’t had a chance to see this article, you can read Matthew’s story on CNN.com. We’ve also created a link from the News and Events section of insideNMDP. Please continue the momentum by sharing this compelling story with others through e-mail and social media sites and encourage more people to join the donor registry now.