The Organ and Tissue Authority’s (OTA) Community Awareness Grants program supports organisations across Australia to raise awareness about organ and tissue donation, so that more people can receive a life-saving transplant. This year, 11 organisations have become DonateLife Community Partners and share over $389,000 in Community Awareness Grants.
The DonateLife Community Partner projects will create digital resources and content, and host DonateLife Week events that engage Australia’s culturally and linguistically diverse communities, multicultural and faith groups in 2024. Raising awareness within Australia’s diverse communities in a meaningful way is critical for increasing donation rates. We also must ensure we have donors from a range of communities and ethnicities.
Did you know that 1 in 3 Australians were born overseas and 1 in 5 Australians also speak a language other than English at home? So, raising awareness and educating Australia’s diverse communities in a meaningful way is critical for increasing donation rates, and ensuring we have donors from a range of communities and ethnicities. We want all Aussies talking about organ and tissue donation, telling their family they want to be a donor and most importantly, registering on the Australian Donor Register.
Most religions support organ and tissue donation as an act of compassion and generosity. Religious leaders from the Islamic, Hindu, Catholic, Jewish Buddhist and Greek Orthodox faiths have previously acknowledged their support for organ donation.
Find out more about the projects below.
2024 Community Awareness Grant recipients
Applicant | Project Focus | Funding (2024) |
Loft Social Pty Ltd | Video mini-series promoted by CALD influencers. | $80,000 |
Community Broadcasting Association of Australia | Radio campaign to support conversations about donation in CALD communities. | $33,900 |
Enliven Victoria | Upskill and consult community champions to share organ donation messages and co-design resources. | $31,000 |
Why Documentaries
| Develop a documentary series that dispels religious myths about organ donation in CALD communities. | $38,000 |
Canberra Multicultural Service FM91.1 | Multilingual and multimedia communications campaign targeting multiple languages and ethnocultural communities in the ACT. | $13,010 |
SRMD Australia Ltd | Social media and video campaign that targets the South-East Asian community. | $40,000 |
The Migrant Centre | Workshops, videos, advertising and pop-ups to raise awareness amongst multicultural communities in the Gold Coast. | $72,350 |
Greek Welfare Centre of SA | Various activities and resource development to educate the local Greek community about organ and tissue donation. | $13,832 |
African Women’s and Families Network | An event that uses storytelling and music as a way of delivering messages about organ and tissue donation to African communities. | $11,170 |
Auspicious Art Project Inc | Free public concert featuring performances by young CALD artists, a recipient/donor duo, and a band led by organ recipients. | $16,961 |
Rejoice Chinese Christian Communications Centre | Host lunches for Chinese community leaders to inform and educate them about organ and tissue donation; and develop articles and resources that explore different aspects of organ and tissue donation with the Chinese community. | $39,000 |
