Second Chances utilized a never-before-used medium to convey the importance of organ donation: The traffic ticket. What would have otherwise been the worst part of one’s day — if not longer — was transformed into a message of hope and gratitude with a way to share the call to action to register as organ donors via social media. Additionally, the website SecondChancesDonor.org offered a media and police toolkit that would allow others elsewhere to adopt Second Chances and support this great cause, and many are taking the steps needed to do just that.

In spite of having the greatest number of licensed drivers in the country, California also has the lowest percentage of registered organ donors. This is particularly strange since 95% of Americans support the idea of organ donation, but less than half actually register to receive the “pink dot” on their driver’s license to indicate that they’re a donor. To get more people to become registered organ donors, we had to find a way to make the selfless act of registering felt on a personal level since most donors never receive a thank- you from their transplant recipients.

People proudly display differently colored buttons, ribbons, and pins to show their support for various causes, but organ donation is different since the only identifiable sign of support is a tiny pink dot on the front of one’s driver’s license. This doesn’t seem sufficient since that one pink dot has the capacity to save up to eight separate lives for every willing donor, and — with over 114,000 people waiting for an organ transplant — the need for donors is critical. Through Second Chances, we saw an opportunity to bring that tiny pink dot out of hiding as a thank-you to those who have registered to donate while simultaneously encouraging others to do the same.

To motivate more people to become organ donors, we chose drivers licenses and speeding tickets as our key engagement vehicles since 95% of organ donor registrations are made while applying for or renewing one. Our strategy was to take a universal moment of anxiety: Getting pulled over for a traffic infraction, and transform it into a moment of acknowledgment and gratitude. By utilizing our police partners as both the facilitators and promoters of the Second Chances program, we earned media attention among the general population that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. Additionally, we developed a Second Chances toolkit so other police forces could adopt the program and spread our message through the best practices.

The last thing any driver wants to hear is “License and registration, please,” and — using the Second Chances program to kick off National Organ Donation Awareness Month — we used this otherwise stressful moment as an opportunity to give drivers a second chance as a thank-you for their willingness to give others a second chance at life. Working with three California police departments, drivers were pulled over for minor traffic violations, but — instead of receiving an infraction — registered donors were handed a “Second Chance Ticket” and praised for their willingness to give others a second chance at life. A toolkit was made available on secondchancesdonor.org to make it easy for other police departments to implement the Second Chances program and support this great cause.

- In the month the campaign launched, California registered 110,609 new donors— a 38% increase from the year prior.

- More than 3,000,000 free impressions.

- Other police departments adopted the program for their own use. As of today, Beverly Hills, Anaheim, and New York State are taking steps to join the original pilot cities and make this an annually reoccurring program.