Canton-based MatchingDonors.com honored as ‘Nonprofit of Choice’

(L-R) Wayne Morris, MTV producer; Rob Micai, Disney & Nickelodeon producer; Joel Pratt, MatchingDonors. com director of business relations; Jen Micai; Alan Donnes, president/CEO of National Lampoon; Jay Leno; Paul Dooley, MatchingDonors CEO/founder; Wally Towner, MatchingDonors director of patient relations

Canton-based MatchingDonors.com was recently honored again as the “Nonprofit of Choice” by the Hollywood Film Awards in Beverly Hills at the 16th annual Hollywood Awards Gala. MatchingDonors was chosen from over 1.5 million nonprofit organizations in the United States.

“We were thrilled to be chosen this second consecutive year for this honor,” said Paul Dooley, CEO and founder of MatchingDonors.com.

MatchingDonors.com has become the largest and most successful nonprofit organization in the world that is finding living altruistic organ donors for patients needing transplants.

The Hollywood Film Awards Gala ceremony took place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on October 22. The event honors cherished stars and up-and-coming talent, and traditionally kicks off the film awards season with the biggest A-list stars and top industry executives in attendance.

While in Hollywood, Jay Leno, a great supporter of MatchingDonors.com, invited the MatchingDonors team to the NBC Tonight Show and met with them after the show to thank them for the great work they are doing.

Tuxedos worn by the MatchingDonors team at the Hollywood Awards Gala were provided by Richard Lewis Formal Wear in Canton.

Nineteen people die every day in the United States waiting for a kidney transplant, most waiting seven to nine years. The team at MatchingDonors.com is working hard to make sure that doesn’t happen by finding altruistic living organ donors for people needing kidney transplants. Many patients get their transplant through MatchingDonors within six months of signing up on the website.

The nonprofit was launched in January 2004 as an Internet service based in Canton. Patients on transplant lists put their profiles on the website, and potential donors browse the site for a life they want to help save. Donors are not compensated, since it is against the law to have any financial benefit from organ donation.

“We believe that if more people were better educated on the ability to be a live organ donor, and we add in the personal communication between potential organ donors and patients needing an organ, the number of donors will increase and so will the probability of a patient receiving their much-needed organ,” said Dr. Jeremiah Lowney, MatchingDonors.com medical director. “We already have over 8,676 potential donors on our site waiting to find patients needing organs.

“MatchingDonors.com is the most comprehensive searching system available. Other organizations concentrate mainly on the passive anonymous portion of finding organ donors — leaving little or no communication between patients and potential donors.”

Over the past eight years, MatchingDonors.com has made historic strides in saving the lives of people needing organ transplants, and increasing living organ donation in the United States. The organization has won many awards and commendations from Congress and the president of the United States, but does not currently receive any funds from the government.

MatchingDonors.com is not an organ donor waiting list and is not associated with any organ donor organization. It is a nonprofit venue where patients and potential donors can communicate and hopefully expedite a live donor agreeing to give a much-needed organ. MatchingDonors.com gives patients and potential donors the important communication tools to correspond with each other, but once the contact between the parties has been made, the road to transplant surgery is their own.

Anyone interested in donating to support MatchingDonors.com services can do so by calling MatchingDonors.com at 781-821-2204.

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