Get-Togethers for Advocates and Others

Having a Get-Together, either in person or virtual is a great way to inform others about your situation and to enlist advocates. The primary goal of these get-togethers is to educate those who attend and discuss ideas on how to spread your message.

Send out an invite to family members and friends letting them know that you are having a get-together where you will educate them about your situation. You will educate them about living kidney donation and discuss the importance of having advocates. For this group, it’s best if these individuals already know about your need rather than someone who is unaware of your situation.

Divide your information into two main segments: the first will focus on educating everyone about living kidney donation: and the second will review effective communicating techniques for getting the word out.

1. Here’s a basic outline of what you want to accomplish:
   Start out by thanking everyone for attending and tell your story. Explain what a difference getting a transplant will mean in your life
2. Describe the importance of having advocates and that 90% of people donate to someone they know or heard about them from someone who shared their story
3. Explain what you’ve done thus far with your campaign
4. Take some of the key information you learned from Having Your KIDNEY Donor Find YOU! Play a few of the episodes from the program and review some of the information in the Supporting Resources.

Your goal is to provide knowledge about living kidney transplants and discuss ways that others can help spread the word.

Let everyone know that working together as a group to achieve a common goal will be a motivating factor for everyone.

After discussing communication ideas, open up the conversation for questions and discuss new and creative ideas.

1. You can use this as an opportunity to practice your elevator speech and request suggestions or have others practice giving it. You could develop a list of “Talking Points” that could be used for others to tell your story. For example:
   The wait for a kidney from a deceased donor is 5-10 years.
2. A kidney from a living donor lasts on average twice as long as one from a deceased donor.
3. Avoiding or stopping dialysis is a goal, not only is being on dialysis debilitating, but someone’s life expectancy is much shorter on dialysis versus getting a kidney transplant.
   

Provide everyone with a link to the Having Your KIDNEY Donor Find YOU! website so they can review the information at their own pace.

Before leaving, try to put together a list of what each individual will do to help spread the word about your situation.

Have a plan for following up with everyone. You could even use the Tuesdays with… updates as a way to stay in touch.

Click here for a printable version.