Dear Friend of National MOTTEP®,

We are writing to thank you for your support over the years.

You know that because of National MOTTEP® thousands of minority Americans have signed organ and tissue donor cards.

You also know that because of National MOTTEP® thousands more have become aware of how they can make their lives more healthy by avoiding habits and lifestyles that lead to organ failure.

Still some 17 Americans die every day because there are not enough organs available to meet the need.

And there are approximately 83,000 patients in the United States who are on transplant waiting lists.

The statistics look even more grim when you take a look at how minorities fare. Minorities account for 50 percent and African Americans account for 33 percent of the national kidney transplant waiting list. Moreover, two recent studies in the New England Journal of Medicine indicate that blacks are less likely than whites to be evaluated and referred for transplantation.

Obviously, there is still an urgent need for National MOTTEP® and its grassroots efforts to reach out to people across the country.

The fact is that African Americans are 1½ times more likely to die from diabetes than any other Americans. This difference represents an additional 3,700 African-American deaths every year.

The fact is that African Americans are also more than 1½ times likely to die from kidney disease than other Americans. This difference represents an additional 2,400 African-American deaths.

Who among us doesn't know someone, perhaps a family member or a dear friend, whose life has become a struggle because of diabetes or kidney disease? The stories are countless.

But we also know countless people who have been helped by National MOTTEP® - people who without the intervention of National MOTTEP® would have become mortality statistics highlighting the grave disparity between the health of African Americans and other minorities, and the rest of America.

While National MOTTEP® has had dramatic success in the 12 years since it was founded, we still have a lot of work to do. Too many people are dying needlessly from diabetes, kidney disease and other organ failure due to lack of donors, poor health practices and institutionalized racism in the healthcare system.

When we started out in 1991, we were the first and only organization in the country dedicated to addressing these issues. Many people told us that we were wild dreamers for thinking that we could do something about such a difficult public health problem.

But National MOTTEP®, with the support of people like you, pressed ahead.

The first step or phase in our strategy was to increase organ donation, and within a few years we implemented Phase II, which focused on preventing the need for transplantation in the first place. And we succeeded.

Today, the numbers of African American organ and tissue donors have increased dramatically. And more and more minorities are survivors with the benefit of organ and tissue transplants.

But now National MOTTEP® is poised to launch Phase III of its strategy.

We are going to launch an aggressive attack on institutionalized racism through a national campaign of community education and empowerment.

The campaign will use all the grassroots tactics that have worked so well for us in the past. The local National MOTTEP® sites nationwide will work with credible community groups and organizations. We will attack and eliminate the subtle and overt racial discriminatory factors that cause such tragic and unacceptable disparities in the number of minorities who donate organs, need organ transplants and receive successful organ transplants.

While this campaign is just as ambitious as ever, we recognize also that National MOTTEP® is faced with some significant challenges. And we need your help.

We need to expand our mission with more sites and affiliates across the nation, and we need to expand our funding base. Both of these efforts are critical to the long-term sustenance and growth of National MOTTEP®.

Over the years, National MOTTEP® has grown and succeeded because of the support of friends like you. As we embark on this new phase of our mission, we hope to be able to continue to rely on your support.

The fact is that we need your help now more than ever. And so we write you today to ask you to make a gift to National MOTTEP®.

We hope you will consider writing a check and supporting our efforts.

Our mission is just as valid and just as urgent as it was the day we started. And with your help we can continue to save lives. After all, we are still the only organization in the nation dedicated to addressing the problems that minorities face with organ and tissue transplantation.

If we don't do this job, no one else will.

Please join us in our mission and make a gift today. Click on the links below to start.

Thanks again for your support

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