Campus Challenge

Gift of Life Michigan works closely with colleges and universities to promote organ, tissue and eye donation. Campaigns can occur any time of the year, but our biggest donor drive is the five-week Gift of Life Michigan Campus Challenge each January and February.

Congrats to the 2024 Campus Challenge Winners

The big winners, of course, are the patients waiting for a life-saving organ transplant or a healing gift of tissues or corneas.  Every new name added to the Michigan Organ Donor Registry has the possibility of saving and improving lives in the future. Thank you to EVERYONE who made the Campus Challenge a success in 2024!

2024 CAMPUS CHALLENGE RESULTS
  • Top School By Numbers: Wayne State University (116)
  • Top School By Percentage: WMU Homer Stryker School of Medicine (1.43%)
  • Top School By Activity Points: Ferris State University (375)

The 17 participating schools registered 263 people and earned a total of 1,077 activity points. 

What is the Campus Challenge?

The Gift of Life Michigan Campus Challenge gives school rivalries and competitive spirit a new purpose by saving and healing lives. The program is simple, easy and free. In the past 20 years, college students across the state have inspired more than 40,000 people to join the Michigan Organ Donor Registry.

  • During the five-week Gift of Life Michigan Campus Challenge, colleges and universities compete to see which school can sign up the most people to donate life.
  • Students, faculty and staff participate in the Campus Challenge through social media posts, newsletter articles, radio/TV interviews, etc.
  • Each participating school gets free digital resources.
  • Each school receives a unique link to the donor registry and receives a point every time someone uses that link to sign up as an organ donor. Scores are shown in real time on Gift of Life Michigan’s website.
Trophies are awarded to the top three schools -- the school that recruits the most new donors, the school that signs up the most new donors as a percentage of its student population, and the school that earns the most activity points.
Campus Challenge logo

Get Started

How do I join the Campus Challenge?

  • If you would like to join the Campus Challenge, simply complete this form.
  • Gift of Life Michigan provides posters, social media shareables, a press release, sample talking points, and everything you need for running a campus challenge, virtually or otherwise, at your school.
  • Our staff can even provide short training sessions on the organ donation process to inspire and educate your campus supporters!

The Campus Challenge takes place in January and February, and schools can register to join before or during the event, although registering in the beginning gives you more time to sign up students and work on winning that trophy!

If you missed the Campus Challenge, you can still hold an organ donor registration drive. Contact Taneisha Carswell at [email protected] for more information.

Girls posing behind "Want to be an organ donor?" sign.

Why is organ donation important for young people to consider?

Many young people need organ transplants. But there are not enough organs to go around for everyone who needs them.

Educating and inspiring your peers to join the Michigan Organ Donor Registry gives hope to students like Tristan. Thanks to a generous donor, Tristan is now playing lacrosse in college!

Watch Tristan's story below.

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