Written by Erin Kupferman, Board President
When Sara asked me to be her successor as SODA’s second-ever Board President, I was filled with a mix of excitement and nerves. As a general Board Member at the time, I enjoyed working with the SODA team to help students become leaders and advocate for organ, eye, and tissue donation. But I was also eager to help SODA fulfill its strategic goals in a new leadership role, though I knew I had big shoes to fill.
My nerves, and most significantly, my excitement, about following Sara’s impactful tenure heightened as I began preparing for my first Board meeting as Board President. During this inaugural meeting, I was met with encouragement and felt reminded of why I had taken on the role to begin with: to reach 100 chapters and save lives.
With these thoughts grounding me, I stepped into my new role with determination. The support and dedication of the SODA National team was immediately evident, too. Together, we celebrated our accomplishments from the first quarter of the calendar year.
Since we just met for my second board meeting as Board President, I’ve been reflecting on this new role. It’s been just over 100 days since I became SODA’s Board President, and in those 100 days, we’ve accomplished so much!
Here are some of the highlights:
Prioritizing a strong, efficient team: Our staff is managing more than 80 chapters and 32 OPO relationships alongside countless other partnerships while simultaneously managing donor and board relationships, and I’m so grateful that they were able to continue their proactivity and efficiency during this transition. We’ve said goodbye to some of our incredible board members whose service we are endlessly grateful for as they helped launch SODA, and we’ve welcomed new board members, interns, volunteers, and student liaisons as our reach continues to grow.
Getting closer to 100 chapters: Since April 1st alone, we’ve welcomed 11 new chapters to our chapter network. That’s a huge step in bringing us closer to 100 chapters. There are now more than 80 SODA chapters whose members have educated 150,084 people about organ, eye, and tissue donation and registered 9,466 people as donors.
To see if your campus has an existing SODA chapter or to create a SODA chapter on your campus, visit sodanational.org/students.
Launching our alliance with The Alliance: Also since April 1st, we’ve formed a partnership with The Alliance, a nonprofit that helps keep the organ donation and transplantation community connected while providing professional development opportunities, and participated in the UNOS Transplant Management Forum. Nicole Nidea, SODA’s Program Director, and Sophia Renner, SODA’s Engagement Manager, will be at The Alliance National Critical Issues Forum to celebrate this partnership in person.
Attending the AOPO Annual Meeting: We also had the chance to celebrate our partnership with the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO) at their Annual Meeting in June and held a speaking session called “Remember to Like, Follow, and Subscribe!” in which Nicole shared the life-saving impact of SODA’s Campus Challenge.
Strengthening our relationships with OPOs: Most recently, SODA met with Versiti, a Wisconsin-based OPO. They were one of our very first OPO partners and my hometown OPO. I feel lucky that OPOs understand the importance of our work and mission as we support the next generation of changemakers and life-savers. This helps us spread our message and opens up opportunities for new connections and partnerships.
Now that I’ve settled into this new role, I’ve been able to reflect on these exciting wins, and I can confidently say that SODA has entered an exciting new era. A big thank you to our partners, donors, students and supporters who have been by our side as we ushered in and journey through this new era.
If you’re interested in joining us to 100 chapters and getting involved with SODA as a board member or student liaison, please reach out to us. We’d love to hear from you.
Stay tuned and join along as we continue this remarkable journey. Here’s to the next 100 days on the journey toward 100 chapters!
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