Thinking about making a charitable donation to a worthy cause this holiday season?

Consider supporting an organization that increases awareness about cord blood, provides funding for cord blood research, or assists for families in need of a stem cell transplant.

Cord blood is already helping children today who suffer from a variety of debilitating conditions and life-threatening illnesses . And a recent scientific discovery made by the Salk Institute underlines how vastly more valuable cord blood stem cells might be in the future of medicine and in developing therapeutic treatments for a wide range of illnesses and disease.

Supporting a charitable organization related to cord blood (like those listed below) may not just be charitable—your dollars could provide more funding for research into countless new therapies and more awareness of the importance to store cord blood —all things that can save lives and transform the future of medicine.

Here are just a few causes to consider:

1.  Parents Guide to Cord Blood
Since 1998, the primary mission of the Parent’s Guide to Cord Blood is to educate parents with accurate and current information about cord blood medical research and cord blood storage options.

Dr. Frances Verter founded the organization as a result of her own research and ultimate decision to bank her second child’s cord blood after losing her first child to Leukemia

2.  Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA)
COTA is a national charity dedicated to helping children and young adults who need a life-saving organ, bone marrow, cord blood or stem cell transplant by providing fundraising assistance and family support.

3.  Dallas Hextell Foundation
The mission of the Dallas Hextell Foundation is to provide support to families and researchers who are advancing the use of cord blood stem cells to treat cerebral palsy and other forms of brain injury.

Dallas Hextell was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 8 months old and is one of a number of children who have been treated with their own stem cells in an effort to induce healing in the brain. While the results to date have been very promising, more research is needed to realize the full benefits of stem cell therapy in the treatment of cerebral palsy and other neurological disorders.

4.  Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF)
Cord blood research is currently underway to reveal the benefits of stem cell transplant therapy in the fight against type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is a disease which strikes children suddenly and requires multiple injections of insulin daily or a continuous infusion of insulin through a pump. By supporting JDRF’s mission to find a cure you won’t only be saving children, you will be saving childhoods.

5.  Mia Hamm Foundation
The Mia Hamm Foundation is a national organization dedicated to raising funds and awareness for families in need of a marrow or cord blood transplant and the development of more opportunities for young women to participate in sport.

Mia Hamm, widely recognized as the world’s best all-around women’s soccer player, created this foundation after losing her brother to complications related to aplastic anemia, a disease of the bone marrow which can be treated successfully with cord blood stem cells.

6. Boozers Buddies
NBA star of the Utah Jazz, Carlos Boozer and his wife CeCe established Boozer’s Buddies to provide valuable information and resources to families affected by Sickle Cell Disease. Carlos and CeCe were inspired to establish the foundation after their son Carmani’s successful stem cell transplant with cord blood stem cells donated by his younger brother.

7.  Save the Cord Foundation 
Save the Cord Foundation believes that one of the most important, life-altering decisions a new parent can make is whether or not to bank their baby’s cord blood, or donate it to help others.

Save the Cord Foundation is dedicated to making this important decision as simple as possible for parents by providing unbiased educational information regarding cord blood preservation and its life-saving qualities.

Tell us. Do you know of another charitable organization dedicated to cord blood stem cell awareness, transplantation or research that you’d like to share with the ViaCord community? Please share them.

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