Pictured is Linda Martinez Haley accepting her Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award from President Joseph Biden.
Each day in the U.S., 20+ people die waiting for transplants, and many never make the list. Linda Martinez Haley and MatchingDonors.com are working to change that.
Many patients using MatchingDonors.com receive transplants in as little as six months—compared to the 7-12 on the government's national transplant waiting list.
April is National Donate Life Month, a month-long national initiative of local, regional, and national activities to encourage Americans to register as organ donors and to celebrate those who have saved lives through the gift of organ donation. This April, one woman is stepping into the spotlight for all the right reasons: Linda Martinez Haley, recipient of the President's Volunteer Service Award (PVSA) Lifetime Achievement Award, bestowed by President Biden for her extraordinary volunteer contributions with the Tom Martinez Goal Line Fund at MatchingDonors.com.
Pictured is Tom Martinez in front of football shirts from a few of his star pupils Quarterback John Elway & Quarterback Tom Brady.
Inspired by the memory of her father, Tom Martinez — one of the most accomplished football coaches in American history — Linda has dedicated herself to helping patients in desperate need of lifesaving organ transplants find living donors through MatchingDonors.com, the nation’s most successful nonprofit connecting organ donors directly with patients. Tom Martinez compiled more than 1,400 career victories, making him the most successful community college coach in the history of California and perhaps the nation. He was the 1995 California Community College Coach of the Year, a member of the College of San Mateo Sports Hall of Fame, and a member of the State Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame. He coached at the College of San Mateo following legends Bill Walsh and John Madden — both of whom also launched their careers there. Among the elite quarterbacks Tom personally coached were Tom Brady, whom he mentored every off-season for years and who considered Martinez his quarterback guru, and NFL Hall of Famer John Elway.
“Linda Martinez Haley represents the very best of what this mission is about—turning personal loss into lifesaving action. Because of her leadership, more patients will get a second chance at life.” — Paul Dooley, CEO & Founder, MatchingDonors.com
LINDA MARTINEZ HALEY AND THE TOM MARTINEZ GOAL LINE FUND
Tom Martinez wasn’t just a champion on the football field — he became a champion for organ donation patients when it mattered most. After being diagnosed with kidney failure, Tom registered on MatchingDonors.com seeking a living donor. Tom Brady — whose mechanics Tom had shaped across more than a decade of off-season work together — personally stepped in to help, and his efforts on MatchingDonors.com resulted in over 300 potential donors coming forward to be tested. In total, over 600 people signed up to be evaluated. Many were tested, and a match was found. A transplant date was set. Then, just a few days before his lifesaving kidney transplant, in February 2012, Tom Martinez unexpectedly passed away from a massive heart attack during a routine dialysis treatment — on his 66th birthday.
In a remarkable act of foresight and generosity, just three weeks before his passing, Tom Martinez created the Tom Martinez Goal Line Fund at MatchingDonors.com to help underprivileged people needing transplants find living altruistic donors. The fund has since helped save hundreds of lives. In Tom’s own words:
“I am thrilled that even if I cannot be saved, at least the donors and awareness we brought to MatchingDonors.com will save many other lives.” — Tom Martinez, February 2012
His daughter Linda has honored that promise ever since. As she has said about her father’s mission: “My father’s fund has already helped save hundreds of people in need of a kidney or organ transplant, but more can be done. This is creating awareness for the issues that people have when they are looking for donors and cannot find them, and the stigma attached to people that actually give organs — a lot of people just do not really have the right information.” — Linda Martinez Haley, Champion of the Tom Martinez Goal Line Fund
Linda Martinez Haley has carried that mission forward with extraordinary personal commitment. Her decades of volunteer work earned her the President’s Volunteer Service Award (PVSA) Lifetime Achievement Award, bestowed by President Biden — one of the most prestigious honors given to American volunteers — recognizing a lifetime of contributions to saving lives through The Tom Martinez Goal Line Fund and MatchingDonors.com.
THE ORGAN DONATION CRISIS: A NATIONAL EMERGENCY
According to national transplant data by United Network of Organ Sharing the numbers demand urgent attention: As of April 7, 2026
- 109,013+ Americans are currently on the national organ transplant waiting list.
- 20 people die every single day in the United States waiting for an organ transplant.
- 250+ additional people die every day who were never even allowed onto the government's list — turned away for being too poor, too old, or too sick to be considered a "good candidate."
- Every 8 minutes another person is added to the national transplant waiting list.
- 86–87% of all patients waiting are in need of a kidney transplant.
- 7–12 years is the typical wait for a deceased donor organ on the government's invitation-only national waiting list.
- 49,064 organ transplants were performed in the U.S. in 2025 — a record for the fifth consecutive year — yet the waiting list continues to grow.
- 90% of American adults support organ donation, yet only about 60% are registered as donors.
- 7,237 living organ donors gave the gift of life in 2025 — a 3% increase over the prior year, underscoring the growing impact of living donation programs like MatchingDonors.com.
- 27% of transplant waiting list patients are Black or African American — yet that community represents only about 13% of all organ donors, highlighting a critical racial equity gap that open-access platforms like MatchingDonors.com are uniquely positioned to help address.
Unlike the government's invitation-only transplant waiting list — which excludes patients deemed "not good candidates" due to age, income, or health status — MatchingDonors.com welcomes everyone. As long as a patient is registered at a U.S. transplant hospital willing to perform the surgery, they are considered a good candidate at MatchingDonors.com.
MatchingDonors.com is more needed than ever in ensuring this shift leads to more lives saved, not more confusion.
MATCHINGDONORS.COM: PIONEERING A FASTER PATH TO LIFE
In 2004, MatchingDonors.com a 501c3 nonprofit organization, made history by facilitating the first organ transplant ever arranged through the Internet. Today it is the nation’s largest living organ donor database and the most successful nonprofit dedicated to living organ donation — proof that one question asked in grief can change the world.
Key Facts About MatchingDonors.com:
- 10,000+ patients have been helped through MatchingDonors.com since its founding.
- 15,000+ registered living altruistic organ donors in the database — the largest such registry in the world.
- 4,000+ additional vetted donors registered specifically for incompatible paired exchanges and donation chains.
- 1,000+ direct one-to-one living organ donations facilitated through the platform.
- 6 months or less is how long many patients wait for a transplant through MatchingDonors.com, versus 7–12 years on the government waiting list.
- A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.
MatchingDonors.com is based in Canton, MA, just outside Boston. It has been featured on NBC's TODAY Show, in the New England Journal of Medicine, and in thousands of news articles and television segments worldwide. Supporters and collaborators have included celebrities such as Jay Leno, Tom Brady, Jon Bon Jovi, and others who have helped raise national awareness about living organ donation.
MatchingDonors.com holds an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.
The organization is also one of only two nonprofits selected as an official organization of choice by the Hollywood Film Awards® at the Annual Hollywood Awards Gala in Beverly Hills — chosen from among 1.5 million nonprofits across the United States.
The platform facilitates living kidney, liver, lung, pancreas, and bone marrow donations. When a donor is not a direct match for their intended recipient, paired exchange programs create chains of multiple transplants — maximizing every act of generosity.
HOW MATCHINGDONORS.COM WAS BORN
MatchingDonors.com was co-founded by Paul Dooley, a tech entrepreneur from Canton, MA, and his friend Dr. Jeremiah Lowney, a Boston-based internist. The idea was born from a deeply personal crisis: Paul’s father was gravely ill with cancer and in need of a kidney transplant but was denied placement on the national waiting list due to the length of the wait and the critical nature of his condition. His father later died from cancer.
Frustrated and determined to help others facing the same impossible barriers, Paul — who had previously created the award-winning CollegeJobBoard.com — asked Dr. Lowney a life-changing question: could an online platform connecting potential living donors with patients in need reshape the future of transplant care?
Research provided a powerful answer. The National Kidney Foundation had found that 25% of people surveyed said they would consider donating an organ to a stranger. That single insight — that the willing donors existed, they just had no way to find the patients who needed them — was all the confirmation they needed.
MatchingDonors.com launched in 2003 — and marked the beginning of a new era in transplantation.
MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE:
- Linda Martinez Haley and Paul Dooley are both available for media interviews.
- Linda is from San Mateo County California and currently lives in Boise Idaho with her husband and children.
- We can provide behind-the-scenes access to active transplant cases.
- We can provide Data and Expert Commentary on National Organ Donation Trends.
- Many MatchingDonors.com patients and donors are also willing to share their stories with the press.
MEDIA CONTACT
Paul Dooley
CEO & Founder, MatchingDonors.com
781-821-2204 ext. 1 | CEO@MatchingDonors.com
Media Contact
Company Name: MatchingDonors.com
Contact Person: Paul Dooley, CEO & Founder
Email: Send Email
Phone: 781-821-2204 ext. 1
Country: United States
Website: www.MatchingDonors.com
